Gibraltar
August 1999
This was a dolphin watching trip organised through Discover the World. It was very well organised, and the dossier received from DTW was excellent, information about the dolphins we were likely to see and about Gibraltar itself.
We spent 3 nights on Gibraltar in a village named Catalan Bay. We stayed in the Caleta Palace hotel, which was in the process of being refurbished. Consequently, if you upgraded to a superior room, you got a more recently decorated room, with fan and they were generally more pleasant than the standard rooms. However, the standard room was fine considering we didn’t spend that much time in the room. We also had a sea-facing room which was pleasant.
The dolphin watching was arranged through Dolphin Safari, and we were led by Captain Tim Montgomery. We had 3 2.5 hour trips, two were in the morning and was late evening. We found the morning ones to be more fun. We saw two types of dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins (as in Flipper) and Common dolphins (smaller than the Bottlenose, and with a distinctive hour glass pattern on their sides). On our trips there were 12 people plus crew, and this proved to be quite a nice number as there was always plenty of space. Normally, they operate trips for about 2 hours most of the time during the summer, and it costs £15 for an adult, and £9 for a child under 12.
Gibraltar as a whole is quite a strange place, part Spanish, part British. There are some quite interesting caves to be seen on the rock itself, St Michals Caves which can be reached by the cable car and then a walk. We opted for the “Rock Tour” organised by Discover The World and saw most things during the 3 hour trip. We also went up on the cable car on another day. Catalan Bay is very popular due to it’s beach and there were always lots of people around. There were three main eateries. Two were bars serving Tapas, and pub food, and one was a restaurant which did a really good Rice Marinera (a bit like Paella but completely fish/sea food based). The hotel also had a restaurant but we didn’t get around to trying it. In Gibaltar town itself there are lots of British pubs, and fish and chip shops, and also along the marina there are some waterfront restaraunts too.
All in all a very good trip. It has given me a taste for dolphin and whale watching trips, but I don’t think I’ll be returning to Gibraltar as there isn’t really much more to see there. It is however quite a nice place to visit for a weekend.
