21st September

Osprey
John Bowering
Tue 22 Sep 2009 05:49
We started the day with a walk to the Spanish border and the north side of the airport in search of a car hire company. It proved an interesting walk as the airport runway crosses the main road out of Gibraltar and we had a lengthy wait whilst a Monarch flight took off. The airport is an RAF establishment and quite different to a normal commercial operation. We found an Avis representative and organised to pick up a car at 1700 for use the following day. On the way back we had a bit of a treat as two euro fighters were on some sort of exercise and we watched them take off and then do a circuit of the rock and then fly down the runway flat out at about 50 ft. The noise was unbelievable. Earlier this morning before we left the boat there were two others which took off then went vertically up on afterburners. Again the noise level is difficult to describe. They are very pretty looking aircraft once their swing wings are swept back. Anyway we had our own private display which was fascinating. Having collected the car early at 1630 we made use of it to go to the supermarket and stock up on heavy items which would have required a taxi if we had not had the car. Denise, Tims wife cam with us and made use of the car in the same way. It was still a hassle getting the shopping from the car to the boat as there nearest we could get the car to the quay was about 300 yards. The marina is not that well organised (or they have been stolen) and does not have trolleys of its own as we have come to expect in the USA and the Caribbean. We did not complete this exercise and the stowing of the shopping on board until after 2000 so it was then off to the local Indian restaurant for dinner.

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