Gibraltar - the end of the world

Gibraltar has a long history and changed hands more than once. Neanderthals, Carthaginians, Phoenicians and Romans all had their time there. According to legend, Hercules, Superman of antiquity, smashed a gap through the Atlas Mountains, then at the end of the world, thereby connecting the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and forming the Pillars of Hercules, of which the Rock of Gibraltar is one. There's a dispute about the other one. Now you'd have to say that both Britain and Spain are behaving as if it's the end of the world that they don't get their way with this tiny sliver of land at the southern tip of Spain. A day after a belligerent Spanish fishing boat armada advanced on the territory, the Royal Navy frigate, HMS Westminster, pulled in. Of course, it was only a routine visit, but then aren't they always in such circumstances? A concrete reef has now been laid alongside the airport runway to deter Spanish fishermen. These days the old pink on the maps of the Empire has shrunk to minute proportions but Britain continues to hold onto little dots like Gibraltar, the Falklands and St Helena/Tristan da Cunha. Suits me, they all count as separate radio countries! We spent a day there a few years back and enjoyed its mix of Brits, Spaniards and many other ethnicities, basking in the temperate climate. We too have our pics of the cute macaque monkeys jumping onto our shoulders with the Rock as backdrop. Britain has held the space since 1713 and despite the current spat looks likely to hold on for some time to come. The QSL is from Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation, heard on AM during a trip to Portugal in 2004: a little island of English-speaking radio in a sea of Spanish and Portuguese.