A Monkey Jumped on my head
Trip Start
Oct 04, 2010
1
21
23
Trip End
Nov 15, 2010
Gibraltar, United Kingdom
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The Barbary Macaques (monkeys) are a protected species and you can be fined 500 euros for feeding them. They are controlled by the government and injected with vaccines. They clean themselves. They come from the North of Africa. The English brought them over. When Winston Churchill; came here he said as long as there are apes on the rock the Rock will be British, so what did the Spanish do? The Spanish started to kill the monkeys. Churchill was superstitious, he ordered 30 more monkeys. Now there are between 200- 250 monkeys. They are fed and tag and treated by the Gibraltar government. Because of the lifestyle they receive on Gibraltar their life expectancy has been upped an additional 10 years from 20 years to 30 years based on the treatment they receive. It's the only place in Europe you can take a picture in Europe you can take a picture with a monkey that is not behind bars.
Gibraltar is a British Territory. Historically it has been a military base. And has been fought over for centuries because of its strategic position they’ve been fighting over it with the Spanish. British have had it for 300 hundred years. They can see every ship the goes in and out of the Mediterranean historically preventing attacks from France and Spain. The British have set up more roads inside "The Rock" then outside. The military can function and live inside The Rock for a year. There is fresh and salt water running through the rock.
I visited St Michael's Cave at the Rock as well. The cave was created by rainwater slowly seeping through the limestone rock, which gradually dissolved the rock. Through this process, tiny cracks in The Rock's geological fault grew into long passages and large caverns over thousands of years. The numerous stalactites and stalagmites in the cave are formed by an accumulation of traces of dissolved rock deposited by water dripping from the ground above.
Oddly, there are plants growing on The Rock But there is no soil on The Rock.
