Kiss me Janice!

Monday 3rd December 2018 - Cabo de Trafalgar.

We had thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Gibraltar but needed to move on again today further west.  Since childhood I have been interested in the Battle of Trafalgar and wanted to get to the point nearest to where the battle took place.

Our route took us past the most southern tip of Spain and we saw a viewpoint on the opposite side of the road. There was a wide opening and no traffic travelling in the opposite direction.  I saw a couple of motorcyclists in the middle of the turning point but I completed the manoeuvre in safety.  However, the motorcyclists were traffic police!!  I was instantly flagged down and told that I should not have turned across a solid white line and I would get a 100 euro (on the spot) fine!  I did the normal things....apologised...pleaded ignorance.....and told him I was a British police officer and it was not against the law in Britain.  

I like to think that he took pity on me and let me off....but....I think he couldn't get his electronic ticket machine connected.  He certainly took a long time waiting for it to start working and when I walked back to him he told me I was not getting a penalty....phew!  

The view from the viewpoint was worth a million or was it actually a hundred!

That is Africa in the distance and the channel was really quite misty. Stunning.

After a failed attempt to find a wild camp location down by the beach we called at a camp site.  It turned out to be a really nice site.  We had lunch and walked down to the beach.

Quite a contrast to the Mediterranean, the Atlantic waves were crashing in, the sand was perfect, golden, soft and deserted.....and no promenade!  The lighthouse is at Cabo de Trafalgar and is looking out to the site of the most significant naval victory in British history.

It took place on 21st October 1805 and the British Fleet, commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated a combined French and Spanish Fleet.  There were 27 British ships and 33 French/Spanish ships...they lost 19 ships, we lost 0.  Not a bad result for an 'away' game!  Sadly, we lost Admiral Nelson whose dying words to Hardy have been borrowed and altered for my blog title.  I don't think of his death as a loss but more of a substitution.  Admiral Collingwood came on the battlefield in the final half hour and performed the role of 'super sub'.  This conclusive victory paved the way for British world naval domination for nearly 100 years and killed any threat of Napoleon invading Britain.

We sat and watched the sea for quite some time but we didn't get any sighting of any men-o-war!  There is no memorial of the battle at all.

Kiss me Janice....she did.  I like a happy ending!