Walking in the dark

 Last night I practiced another one of my passions in life which is being a Tunnel Guide, for those readers who may not know, Gibraltar has 32 ½ (52 km) miles of tunnels inside the Rock. About a year ago I had the opportunity to become a tunnel guide and since I already was a local history buff I jumped at the chance.

So I was asked by a group if they could have a tour and I was more than happy to do it. We arranged a date and a time and all was set. I met the group outside and went over the normal safety checks that I have to do and I told the tour was going to be about 1 ½ miles long.

We set off on the tour and covered the normal course and this particular group was quite good as they seemed to enjoy the tour and information and even laughed at some of the really bad jokes along the way. But sometimes I find it hard not to offend anyone when the group has people from countries from Germany and Italy as in reality the tunnels were built to defend the Rock against them at the time. (Please excuse me if anyone has got offended by this!)

There are also some funny stories like the resident ghost in the tunnel, he is quite friendly ghost but he can be a bit of a prankster when he is turning off the lights of people’s torches or the few lights which work in the tunnel but that’s about it.

Another section of the tunnel which is a bit more impressive is the generating station in an area called Calpe Hole. What is great about it is that it is all still there and nothing was taken away when it was decommissioned. All of the huge engines are still there and it helps the tour a bit as in most areas you have to imagine how it would have looked like but here you can see it and even smell the diesel.

The last bit of the tour is the one I find more creepy - the old hospital. Even though the equipment is all long gone, some of  it is there and it feels creepy because some structures could not be taken off, like the morgue table and the operating room.

All in all I did enjoy this tour as the group seemed to take in the information and also ask questions every so often. If you are in Gibraltar and would like to have a tour of these tunnels please email me.

Thanks to Discovergibraltar.com for the photos