Alright so 2 days into that planned 2 month trip to Morocco and then Eastern Europe I ended up in the Picos De Europa in Spain. (Fuck that ferry by the way absolute gut turner). It was a gorgeous area and a fantastic start to the biggest trip yet, two months straight on the trail. Well, when I came out of the mountains I was bombarded both by command and by the other 7 trucks headed to Morocco with me.. Borders were rapidly closing, Morocco had locked up, and anyway for me back to my previous command had also locked tight. As the Captain at my prior assignment put it, proceed if possible to the next duty location, track expenses, and keep us updated if the situation worsens or changes...
basically.. no support - cowboy it haha.
Now for some folks, this is the worst nightmare come true, for me? All I saw was all the money I had spent on my truck being instantly validated as my inner bugout, prepper, Apocolypse madman came out in full force. It was like if a civil war kicked off and you happened to be that crazy asshole with hundreds of guns and thousands of rounds of ammo hahaha grateful to have been in a position to be more inconvenienced than actually in a bad way - more on our opertunist skills later though.
Second Night in Spain on the coast, I was debating between shooting hard for Turkey or going South to Portugal where another buddy with a truck that was going into Morocco was in Lisbon. Spent most of the evening on phone calls to friends with connections and with previous truck leads to make sure no one else was stuck out similar to me.
Eventually, the decision was made to go south to Lisbon absolutely on a whim as I set the GPS for Austria at first light. In the end some connections were warning that Germany was less than 12 hours from shutting borders and Austria would follow what Germany did. Looking back, the intel was good and I'm glad I went South.
I hit the ground in Spain in the morning after a fucking absolute hammering on a ferry across the Bay of Biscay to Santander. This was my first view of the mountains and really set the stage for what was supposed to be an incredible two month trip. I got a great track into the mountains, even if it ended up snowed in and I had to come out the same way
and a stunning sunset that evening. Best of all no service, so all the bullshit that was unfolding around me I was left oblivious to until the following morning on my exit.
Portugal Next...
