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THE Gipsy Kings touched down in Gibraltar to play at the top of the Rock as part of their worldwide Renaissance Tour. The group, famous for Bamboleo and Djobi Djoba played an exclusive acoustic set in the iconic Skywalk before their main concert Friday night. The Grammy award winning band was scheduled to perform in the indoor hall of the Europa Sports Complex at Gibraltar’s Europa Point. The legendary French-born co-founder of the group Tonino Baliardo led the performance. Gibraltar’s Minister for Tourism Vijay Daryanani helped facilitate the concert at the top of the Rock and is hoping to use recordings of the show and interview to promote Gibraltar’s unique tourist sites. “It’s great to see a well known band like the Gipsy Kings performing in Gibraltar,” Daryanani said. “I’m sure it will be an enjoyable event for our people and for our visitors alike. “Events like these help put Gibraltar on the entertainment map and we are grateful to Fresh Entertainment for organizing this concert and bringing the Kings to Gibraltar.” The Renaissance Tour, which features various performances in the United States and Canada comes after the Gipsy Kings sold over 14 million albums worldwide.
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STILL SPARKLING
in to design the course. was Trent Jones’ The Real Club Sotogrande and the first course in first European venture location. automated irrigation that shows no a suitable mostly dirt roads back then on a moEurope with a new-fangled OTOGRANDE is a gem Travelling around Andalucia and system. sign of losing its glitter. owned residen- torbike, Melian traipsedhe found a 1,800-hecttop modernist archiNone other than Spain’s del Sol until It’s the largest privately (Callao Theatre and the home to the Costa comprising a cluster of farms at the tect, Luis Gutierrez Soto designed the low-slung tial development in Andalucia, of are estate his nephews, Jaime and close to Gibraltar’s infamous, and a beacon well as McMicking arrived with had overseen work on Fnac building, Madrid), mouth of the Guadiaro, the discreetly rich and Cadiz. avant-garde today, as Enrique Zobel (EnriqueBrunei’s 1788-room pal- clubhouse – still course-side bungalows. ternational airport, El Peñon. luxury on the coast of of owned by a succession the ultra des-res of The The farmland had been– the Duke of Arcos, the his friend the Sultan Sixty years ago it was farmland. on as director of works. poached the director Joseph McMicking had rich and famous ace) and Melian stayed for miles, the Antigua McMicking then That was until American to run the club. Zobel de Ayala of the family and then financier Juan March, As it was the only bar an early HQ. The team Ritz hotel in Madrid return a decade later to a vision. Married to Mercedes would family empire, the Larios served as dealer, founder of the eponyof all, Trent Jones course Valderrama, and president of the wealthy (the Philippines), arms and tobacco arts institution and once the Venta Toledo connections but, best design the world famoussetting for Volvo Masmous science and Ayala Corporation in Manila for grand- had experience, been responsible for a and plans. in Spain. It seemed fated which later became the Open and even the man patience Palm richest like McMicking had already boxes. Forbes Park. by golfing communities ters events, the Spanish er use – and it ticked the luxury property development, without hav- Inspired in the US, McMicking about creating a similarly bought the land at Sotograndesaid McMick- Beach and Pebble Beachthe community around Ryder Cup. Now he was dreaming in the Mediter- “We a poke,” to build Continues on page 14 ing seen it, like a pig in “Paid $750,000 down was determined in 1963, the world’s top golf exclusive residential community ling, speaking in 1967. third in six months and a golf club and, Robert Trent Jones, was flown ranean. ‘Fredy’ Melian used his course designer, When his cousin Alfredoticket for a trip to Spain, and had to pay another Swiss Air frequent flyer keep his eyes peeled for the rest in a year.” McMicking told him to
60 years on, Sotogrande has not forgotten its founding values
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BUNKERING BACKLASH
Green activists decry ‘accident that shouldn’t have happened’ ENVIRONMENTAL groups have slammed the bunkering operation that went wrong leading to an oil spill that engulfed Gibraltar’s southwestern coast in thick black tar. Gibraltar’s Environmental Support Group (ESG) said ‘it was an accident that should not have happened’ and called for a full independent investigation into the accident. Between 1,000 and 2,000 litres of very low sulphur oil overflowed out of the 180m-long Panama-registered LPG tanker Gas Venus and spilled into the sea. The Royal Gibraltar Police has now arrested the captain of the Gas Venus and released him on bail pending an investigation. Westerly winds then pushed the oil onto the rocks and jetties
By John Culatto
around the popular southwestern bathing spots of Rosia Bay, Camp Bay and Little Bay. Rosia Bay was the worst hit area, Gibraltar’s Department of the Environment said. The latest oil spill wreaked havoc in the difficult to access area of Seven Sisters, a marine protected area. Government workers and Nautilus Project volunteers then set about cleaning the affected areas managing to reopen Camp Bay and Little Bay to bathers. Department of the Environment workers removed the jellyfish nets from both bathing areas to clean them too and they gave the allclear a week after the accident. A f t e r cleaning the more popular bathing areas, most of the work centred on Rosia Bay, which got the brunt of the spill. “Contaminated rocks and rubble have been individu-
NOT AGAIN!: Spillages are becoming common
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CLEAN UP: removing the oil from Gibraltar’s shores
environment,” it continued. “Oil leaks can affect endangered dolphins by being inhaled as they come up to breathe. “Longer term these animals suffer repressed immune reactions and reproductive capabililities.” It also described the damage to bird life, fish, shellfish and invertebrates as ‘harrowing’. Sheen Spanish pressure group Verdemar Port launches removed all Ecologistas en Accion blamed the free-floating oil sheen from the spill on the lack of safety measures sea prompting authorities to give for ship bunkering. “Had the oil refuelling ship not cut the all clear by Monday. “There are currently no significant off the supply, the situation would free floating sheen patches at sea,” have been a real disaster,” it said Gibraltar’s government said in a in a statement. The ESG added: “We have been statement. The Nautilus Project said in a vid- calling for our bunkering trade eo statement that it was ‘deeply to diversify away from fossil fuels given the very high carbon emissaddened’ by the accident. “These oil spills will have severe sions attributable to Gibraltar long term effects on our marine from this practice,” it said. “However, it is also the air and noise pollution, as well as environmental impacts from oil spills, which also concerns the group.” The latest oil spill followed a winter of more oil damage to the eastern coast from the OS 35 shipwreck that recently left Gibraltar aboard a Dutch barge. FILTH: Safety measures are needed to prevent more spills ally assessed, with many being removed for cleaning off-site before being returned to their original location,” a government spokesperson said. “Rocks containing marine life are cleaned manually on-site to minimise disruption to the coastal environment.”