Broken Suspension. No 4WD. And Now THIS?!

Broken Suspension. No 4WD. And Now THIS?!

This little maneuver is about to cost me 
thousands. Behind the wheel of the Land Cruiser, I had no idea that what I was about to do would 
indelibly change the course of this expedition. Wow, I’ve got no brakes. My brakes 
Something’s wrong with my brakes.   Where the hell is that from? Oh no. 
Oh no. That’s freaking bad. Yeah, that’s bad. That’s really bad. Has bent 
my suspension probably beyond repair. So, I have contact between the 
shackle and the steering box. Yeah, this is going to cause a lot of problems. I’ve never seen anything like it. 
Yet again, I’ve just ran out of fuel. Oh god, I need to get a freaking fuel gauge, 
man. I have to replace that whole spring pack. The brake line has been crushed between the shock. 
That’s annoying. That’s kind of ruined my day. well into my third month of living on the road 
full-time on my four-wheel drive expedition,   I woke up in my camper in a wild spot deep in 
the middle of nowhere in a low-lying sunny river valley crisscrossed with tumbling streams. 
This is the place. Absolutely no one around. Miles and miles cruiser there. It’s where 
we slept last night and a little river down there. Wow. Confluence of two rivers. The one 
over there. This is deep Galacia. One of the wildest provinces of the Iberian Peninsula. 
Out on a limb in the rugged, wild western reaches of this land mass. Reaching Galacia 
marks a watershed moment for this expedition. This is the most extreme northwestern point of my 
route and the point at which I’ll set my sights   on the south rather than ever westwards as I have 
for the last 70 odd days. Ron, I’d like to think that I be might be able to make the coast today. 
It’d be a tall order on four-wheel drive tracks, but I think it is possible. And once I’m on 
the coast, it’s like a circumnavigation of the whole Gishian coast. And it’s going to be so 
nice to be on the coast. I think having been in   the mountains for basically the entire time I’ve 
been out here, I turned the Land Cruiser over and let it run for a while to generate some hot water 
so I could take a shower off the side of the car. I tell you what, for all the dirt bag way in which 
I live my life, I really still like to start the day with a shower. You know, it’s there’s nothing 
like it, especially when you’re camping, actually.   Just noticed one of my spotlights has become bent 
right back. Perils of the trade. Get some coffee on the go. This is a fantastic campsite. It was 
a bloody cold light last night. Let me tell you,   it was about – 4, I think, said on my phone 
when I woke up in the middle of the night at some point. Early this morning, 
8:00 a.m. when I poked my head out.   Everything was covered in white horross. 
All melted as soon as the sun came up. I packed down the camper and prepared the vehicle 
for the long road ahead towards the coast. This idyllic glade was crisscrossed with small 
rivers and I’d have to perform a few small river   crossings on the way through. These crossings 
were not particularly technically challenging, but 4×4 wading is one of my favorite things 
to do. And dropping an off-roader nose first   into a fast flowing body of water never fails 
to get the blood pumping. So, this is an area full of river crossings criss-crossed by rivers 
all the way along. And look how very rarely used this place is. This is the track. You can 
just see the faint outline of tire tracks,   but it’s grass, man. I mean, nobody passes through 
here. Here we’ve just got a little foot bridge. There was a point where I thought there’s no 
way I can cross this. But then Oh yeah. So I   just hit thating tree with me cruiser bastard 
absolute knob. Oh freaking hell. Contact with my solar panel. [ __ ] Uh I’m going to dump 
all that air out of that side. [ __ ] hell. Ah, and there in is the consequence of driving 
tracks that very rarely used. And it hasn’t really done anything dropping out that. Oh, yeah, 
it has. It has. Yeah, you can see it’s hit there and dragged itself all the way along it. But, uh, 
testament to the red art panels. No damage. So, that’s good. And yeah, dumping all that air 
out of the airbag actually did really help. So, it’s pretty good to know for future. Okay, 
so this is the river crossing. It’s very unassuming to be honest. It’s not a big 
one, but pretty beautiful. Look at this. Honestly, it’s parisaic. Really like a lowlying 
valley would just crisscross with little rivers. They kind of all divert off into different 
directions. It’s gorgeous, gorgeous land. Just plotting my route to the coast. I think 
we might make the coast today. I will be so happy if we could cuz that would be some really 
good progress after weeks of languishing. So, this is where we are. Yeah, that’s all the way 
to the coast. So, I think we could do this. I’m confident that we can make the coast today 
and then try and make camp somewhere around here   tonight. And then tomorrow we’ll continue 
on on the circumnavigation of the coast. And I really want to go to the Extremo Norte. 
This is the northernmost point of that Iberian Peninsula. I feel like I’m finally starting 
to make some progress. I struck out into the   bright sunny morning, driving undulating grassy 
trails as I headed due north towards the coast. But classically for this trip, my progress 
was about to be cut short once again. Well, yet again, I’ve just ran out of fuel. Ah god, I need to get a freaking fuel gauge, man. 
This time I’ve only done 300 km. Look at this. This is how I gauge my fuel without a gauge. I 
push that lever in and then it resets the the mile or kilometer clock on there. And usually 
I get 450 to 500 km out of a tank. Considering the fact that I’m doing so much uh in low range 
and also using my night heater like considerably, you know, like every single day. Oh man, it’s 
it’s m it’s madness. So thankfully I’ve got uh a jerry can on the back. But my god, I’m stealing 
myself up for doing this now. I can’t be asked. I’m going to need to fill the tank up with 
the 20 L in the jerry can that I keep on   the back of the vehicle. And when these old 
diesels run out of fuel, you’ve usually got to prime it through from the tank as well. 
All right, I guess let’s get this done, eh? All right, kind of getting 
into the routine of this now.   Okay, we need to find a fuel station pretty 
rapidly. Ideally, I will not go tonight without having been to a fuel station because I 
do not like driving without a jerry can full just cuz you never know what might happen, 
you know. So, now comes the interesting part, trying to start the vehicle. I’m going 
to give it a try without priming to begin   with. Although I suspect that that will be 
a lost cause, but we’ll try it just in case. Woo, baby. didn’t even have to climb it through. 
Absolutely love it. That’s interesting. That is so the difference this time between that and the 
last time was that this time once it stopped when it ran out of fuel, I didn’t try to restart 
it, which I guess would have pulled air right through the tank. Rather, because it it cut out 
because of a lack of diesel, I just left it. And so I assume there was some diesel still left in 
the lines, which just gave it enough to pull the new stuff through and meant that I didn’t have 
to spend ages priming the bloody thing. So yeah,   pretty stoked on that. That’s something I’ve 
learned as well today. Every day is a school day on the trail. You know what I’m saying? All 
in end to end. I think that took about 6 minutes, 7 minutes. So, new record time for refueling after 
running out of fuel. I mean, I could abate this by just getting a freaking fuel gauge, but I need 
to go to an auto electrician for that. And it’s a   whole thing because the 24V vehicle and the sender 
not matching the gauge and all that. It’s like a whole massive process. And I have just survived 
for seven or eight years without a fuel gauge. So, probably just going to continue to do that. I 
knows the crews are back down onto the trail, intent on finally making some 
progress northward towards the coast. Okay. Wow. That’s an interesting 
turn of events, isn’t it? a whole rotten stump that’s hit the deck. Wow, man. It’s so funny. Like, every time that I say, 
“Oh, I’m going to make some progress today.” It   literally curses the day. What would you do with 
this then? Let me know in the comments below. You think that this is a winch off job? A push 
off with the bullbar job. A strap round. God, I do not know what I’m going to 
do with this. It’s massive. Oh,   that is a beast. Like absolutely colossal. 
And it’s rotten as well. So, it’s really heavy. Mad that. Like it must 
have fallen from quite a height. right in the middle of the trail and it is narrow 
there. I guess I could try to push around it. I don’t really want to be scraping all my vehicle 
up the side there. Look down here as well. It’s a cat. I could put my winch rope. Let me think about 
how this would work. I could put my winch rope around it, but loop it first around the bottom of 
that tree down there, the big thick trunk. And so get like a pulley system going on, if you know 
what I mean. And when I pull the the winch in,   then in theory, I’d be able to drag the stump 
off the track. It looks like it’s just fallen in the last day or so. This real realistically like 
Yeah, it’s a fresh fall. See all this here, you know? It’s come right down here from above. God, 
that makes you think, doesn’t it? in terms of, you know, you’re just chilling in your in your car 
on the track. Wrong place, wrong time. You know,   a freak accident or whatever that could take 
you out or camped up, you know, you would never see it coming. Rotten freaking stumpway in four 
tones just come swiping through. Oh, dead. Okay, so I guess we try to winch. The basic plan here 
was to use a double line pull to pull the stump sideways and off of the track. Yeah, probably 
that bow there because I know we’re not going to actually have enough room to go all the way 
down at the bottom there. So, there you go. I’m basically just going to wrap the windshield 
rope all the way around a couple of times.   one provide various pressure points 
and two use up the rest. With the winch line hooked around the bow of the 
tree to the right, it provided the third   point to allow the winch line to pull the 
stump to the side and down the embankment. Hell yeah. That is awesome, dude. That 
worked better than I could have expected it to. Absolutely brilliant. I was going 
to call that idea a pretty resounding   success. I packed away the winch rope and 
recovery gear and got back out underway, hopeful that this would be the last 
of the full starts this morning. Check it out. Little goats. Gabas penyas. This is rural life, man. I’m telling 
you. I love how they still use the dogs,   the big shepherd dogs, to protect their flocks, 
man. It’s an incredibly wholesome lifestyle out here. That’s my take away from it. I guess it this 
kind of life has not really changed from year dot. Like look at this. Like a tiny little farmstead 
that’s probably been standing there for 3 400 years looking at the construction site on that. 
They’re still here using Spanish shepherd dogs to protect their goats, uh, their herds of goats and 
sheep and whatever else. And they’re just working the land out here. It’s, you know, like I look at 
the way that I live my life like online and stuff   and I look at this, I think, god, I know which 
one I’d rather be doing. Certainly when I’m older, just unplug, get rid of the addictions of social 
media and stuff. Look at this like roof laid down by long dead ants hundreds of years ago. Still 
holding out. Man, this is so cool. Like I’m seeing Spain like I’ve never seen it before and probably 
nor will again, you know. So cool, dude. I pushed on throughout the late morning and into early 
afternoon, following an endless network of unpaved roads made up of farm tracks, infrastructure 
service routes, and occasionally forestry trails. All right, so I’ve pulled down into this little 
town to find a fuel station at last. I need to   fill up the tank and the jerry can. I’ve dropped a 
fair bit of altitude on those tracks and diverted off onto obviously pave road to get to this track 
to this uh town. But it’s spectacular. It’s a beautiful little town. Gorgeous old buildings. 
And I got to tell you, being down here, I mean, this is the first time that I’m saw I think 700 
m in weeks. And it’s making a big difference with weatherwise. It’s it’s warmer, which is Baltic 
up there. And the light is hitting different. And there’s palm trees which I pulled into the fuel 
station that I’ve been in dire need of all day. Okay, so €150 a liter. What is that around 
about 20? 1 20 a liter. Not half bad. Kind of wonder what makes the difference 
as to why it’s so much less here. Oh,   I already know that the answer to that question. 
Tax. It’s what makes the freaking difference. So, they have like uh service places here where 
the actual attendant comes and fills up for you. So, yeah, I’ve got them filling up right now. 
I’m going to fill up the jerry can as well here from the little town. It was a short ride down 
to the coast. This will be the first time I’ve   been beside the sea since disembarking at Bill 
Bao some 2 and 1/2 months earlier. Beautiful, dude. Man, the world is a beautiful place and 
the Iberian Peninsula especially. So, so this is it. The Bayisque, the North Atlantic. 
That is some cold freaking water right there. Hey, man. It’s a pity that I can’t just camp up on 
the beach here. In Latin American countries,   that’s what I’d be doing. But here, unfortunately, 
the enforcement is too strict, but like that sound crashing waves on the shore going to sleep with 
that as the backdrop. Like there’s few things better. It’s just gorgeous. I got here just in 
time to enjoy it with the sunset. Let me go check out these coes here. This will obviously all be 
submerged during high tide. God, bloody cold, I tell you that much. Wow, they’re really cool. 
Badass. It’s a full-on cave. Wow. Check that out. How cool. Damn, that goes so far back, mate. Yeah, that uh kind of gives me the creeps. I 
imagine it getting caught in there as uh high tide approaches. I’m a bit claustrophobic and 
afraid of drowning. So, combine the two things. You know what I mean? I reflected a moment on 
the route that have brought me here over,200 miles as some of the hardest off-roading I’ve 
ever done. I want to find a place to get camped up. Where that will be is anyone’s guess to be 
quite honest with you. I don’t know. Back of the car. Good old trusty Land Cruiser. Let’s get out 
of here. Look at the freaking mud on this thing. Wow. I’d come down to the coast on a short 
section of paved road and I headed back along it to go back to the trail. The sunset 
lighting up the sky with gorgeous pinks   and oranges over the rugged headland. I 
rejoined the trail on a forestry route heading upwards and in land a little onto a 
mountain that overlooked the sea behind me. I was now in search of a place to camp and 
I diverted off the main trail onto this roof overgrown track that was taking me deeper into 
the forest. My tires carving a path through   fallen branches, leaves, and dead bracken as I 
push my way through this longforgotten pathway. Oh yeah, this is the freaking place for me. This 
like this abandoned logging track looked like the ideal secluded place I’d been looking for. I 
decided this is where I’m going to make camp for the night. I jumped out of the cruiser and 
got ready to set up the camper for the evening. All right, so I’m camped up in this kind of 
disused logging trail in the middle of nowhere in the forest. So I’m pretty confident that no one’s 
going to bother us down here. Be absolutely fine   for sleeping tonight. And I’m going to get on with 
some food. I’m going to make my classic sausage stew. So, my ingredients are got my fuet here. 
I’ve got an onion. I’ve got one half of a tomato and then I’ve got actually some pata down below, 
which I’ll dig out in a second. Some garlic,   a few herbs, obviously a beer for the process. 
Yeah, some butter. I’m going to fry all that up in a pot and put some rice with it as well. Now, 
the fou I I think I’m going to be shocked because uh again, well, I made this mistake in in the 
past of featuring this fuet, and native Spanish and Catalan people told me that I was committing 
heresy by cooking it. Apparently, it should be   eaten raw as like tapas. Look, the thing is that 
I’ve I’ve had these two sausages for like way too long. So, look, please don’t shoot me. I am going 
to cook this for my own safety, right? and also because I like it cooked. But don’t tell anyone 
that, okay? It’s it’s for my own safety. That’s   the line that I’m going with. Okay. All right. 
This bad boy open. Love me an Australicia. Cheers. That is damn good. That. All right. So, I’ve got going 
on here. This is the stew. I kind of forgot to film the rest of 
it, you know, of me actually making it,   but got rice in there that’s kind of cooking 
up and this stew. Man, this looks the bomb. So, this is the fuet in there with the tomatoes 
and all the other good stuff. Onion, garlic, bay leaves. That is just where it’s at, honestly. 
And that, my friends, is the finished result. Absolutely beautiful plate of that. I’m going 
to bash some cheese on there and scran it. Right. So, I’ve just woken up in the forest 
here. This is where I pulled into last night and   uh and camped. Ideal little spot to 
be honest. Absolutely in the middle of nowhere down a disused track. This hasn’t been 
used for a long, long time. So, pretty ideal. Let’s have a look up here. Oh, wow. Pretty high on 
the mountain side. I thought that that was going to be flat and then there was another another 
track down there, but actually it’s quite quite a   lot further down. Good place to spend a couple of 
days to go there. I’m going to push on. All right, so for breakfast today, I’ve got the classic two 
eggs on bread. Bad boy. It’s a good way to set yourself up for the day. All right, so I’m just 
about to leave camp. Ended up staying a lot longer than I kind of anticipated because I had a ton 
of kind of admin and stuff to do online and I’ve got full 4G signal or 5G signal even here. So, 
I kind of thought, well, I’m not going to waste   that. And so, it’s now 1:00 in the afternoon. So, 
I’m going to head off now. We’re going to try and turn around if I can on this track, which is 
going to be interesting. And then we’ll head back out where I came in last night and continue 
on the trail. So, I’m pretty excited today because we’re going to be heading to a few of the most 
extreme points of the Iberian Peninsula. So,   we’re going to probably, I think, today hit 
the Pa Strema Norte. It’s basically the the most extreme northern point of the Iberian 
Peninsula. So during this circumnavigation,   I’m going to try to hit all four extreme points. 
The most extreme point, north, east, south, and west. And then we’ll have done like a four points 
tour as well as the circumnavigation off road. So yeah, going to get on to that right now and hit 
the coast. I packed the cruiser down and prepared to attempt this turnaround. This abandoned track 
was only accessible from the way that I’d come in,   and the way ahead was totally blocked off with 
fallen trees and foliage. This meant that a bit of low range action was going to be required if 
I didn’t want to reverse all the way back up it. Hell yeah. Land cruiser power, baby. You can see kind of how high we climbed 
yesterday. That’s the other track that   we left in the valley below. I’m going down 
to meet it now and we will rejoin our trail. So, there’s now that option down that way, which 
goes basically west, and then there’s this option up ahead. That’s going to go back north. And I 
think the trail wants us to take this way. But I’m going to just stop a minute and orientate cuz 
I think there might be a better way through here. Well, I always like to do a bit of a check when 
I’ve gone through really thick brush to make   sure that there’s no clinging on stuff around 
anything hot that could set fire underneath my car. And there isn’t. But there is something else 
that I got to show you. So, check this out. I’ve bent the [ __ ] out of my leaf spring. How bad is 
that? Look at this, man. I’ve never seen anything like it. So, that is bent to hell. Uh, the other 
side isn’t that much better, but it Well, it is a fair bit better to be honest. Oh god, there’s 
never not something on this trail. A lot of wet there as well. I don’t know what the hell from. 
So, yeah. I mean, driving thousands of kilometers of off-road trails is always going to have its 
have an effect on a vehicle like this. you know, even a legendary vehicle like a Toyota Land 
Cruiser 70 series. God, just the rate that was   just happening is I can’t bloody make any progress 
by having disasters like this. I pushed out onto the trail into the early afternoon, but I was 
swiftly brought to a halt again before I’d even   left the forestry track I’d used to pull in here 
last night. Right, so I’ve just realized what’s happened with the axle uh suspension situation. 
So, I could hear weird noises underneath and I was taking a a closer look. Those of you who know 
will immediately see what’s wrong here. So, I have contact between the shackle and the steering box 
uh pitman arm. These are anti-inversion shackles to prevent this exact thing happening. They 
should have gone the opposite way round. And   what’s happened is the shackle’s inverted, which 
is holding my leaf way too close to the chassis rail and thus making contact with everything. 
So, it’s putting everything out of out of   whack. and it in so doing has bent my suspension 
probably beyond repair. So yeah, that’s annoying. Oh man. Yeah, this is going to cause a lot of 
problems if I don’t get that figured out like right away. Yeah, this is not something that I can 
do on the road. This is This is uh something that   I’m going to need a mechanic for. Or at least a 
mechanic’s garage that I can like jack it up with, you know. Yeah, that’s kind of ruined my day. 
Well, yeah, that’s what I do about this. I could have done without that. You know, the most 
annoying part of that is I kind of always knew I   was going to have to to to change those shackles 
around, those anti-invers anti-inversion shackles. Weirdly hard for me to say. Uh, but I kind of 
thought, well, shackles exist that aren’t antanti   inversion, so he’ll be fine for now until I get to 
a place where I’m doing something else, you know, on suspension and I can take the time to swap them 
around because it’s no no small fee, you know what   I mean? And now my shackles have inverted and 
I wished I’d gone to a freaking specialist and done it before, but didn’t and now I’m in this 
situation. All right, let’s carry on slowly. It’s so funny. Oh, what is my life, brother? 
God, this is actually worse than I thought. It’s Listen to that. Oh, that’s just Yeah, I have to I 
have to pull over, man. That’s the the front prop shaft just rotating constantly on the crossmember. 
So, ah, yeah. Yeah, what I’m going to have to do there is unlock the hubs for the first time since 
I actually landed and disabled four-wheel drive. And I can’t do any more four-wheel driving 
until I got this sorted. Booger. All right,   so I’ve unlocked the hubs and dropped it out of 
four-wheel drive, and that’s removed the horrible grinding noise of the front prop shaft grinding 
on the crossmember. So, that’s one thing. And the car is driving okay now. You know, it’s not ideal 
because the bolt on the bottom of the pitman arm is kind of fouling the shackle of the suspension. 
However, it means that I can continue. It does mean that I can’t really use four 4×4 four-wheel 
drive. So, that’s going to be a problem. I’ve put up a a story on my Instagram account to see if 
anybody knows a mechanic or anybody around who might be able to help me, you know, find a spot. 
I continued pushing along the trail, more or less following my predetermined route that wound its 
way around the rugged Galacian coast. I knew that   I really needed to find a place that I could do 
this job sooner rather than later. Driving these relatively benign forestry trails is one thing, 
but driving a long-distance four-wheel drive   expedition without four-wheel drive is playing 
with fire. And I know from bitter experience that the terrain along this trail can go from 
relaxed to insane in a matter of just moments. The trail spat me out on the rugged coast again 
in a place absolutely full with these coastal erosion defenses. Man, these things are colossal. 
I’ve never seen them so up close before. It’s really quite impressive. They’re massive. 
I’m going to climb one. Wow. Look at that pier of them going all the way out into 
the sea. Big industrial area over there. It’s such a trip. Wow. Like, you know, I’ve seen these things before, but 
never up close. And you can never fully appreciate the scale of them until you see them like this. 
It’s cool. And over there, even more interesting, we’ve got like a fullon cliff face of natural 
stone. So, we’ll go check that out in a second as well. Littered with these gray, interlocking 
concrete monoliths, this place had a trippy, otherworldly feel to it. And driving through here 
almost felt like passing through the ruins of an   ancient alien civilization and added to the 
frontier-like feel of wild, rugged Galacia. The trail cut back inland and I found myself on 
these familiar waterlogged forestry trails once again, crushing miles westwards through Galacia as 
the afternoon’s light began to fade. So, I’m doing all of this in two wheel drive right now because 
I don’t want to be traveling with the hubs locked   because of the front prop shaft issue. And uh I’m 
just hoping I don’t hit anything madder than this cuz otherwise it’ll be a get stuck, block the hubs 
in, then try to recover myself sort of job rather than just being able to blast through. It feels 
like I’m kind of going a bit blind, you know? Like   it’s not the familiar feeling of capability that 
I’m used to with this cruiser, that’s for sure. The tracks alternated between spectacular sandy 
coastal paths and forest tracks that would cut deep into the interior of Galacia. Despite the 
problems I’d had at the beginning of the day,   I’d made good progress and I was 
starting to think about finding a campsite for the night. But it turned out 
the day wasn’t done with me just yet. Uh, wow. I’ve got no brakes. My brakes 
Something’s wrong with my brakes. Oh [ __ ] Yeah, my brakes are going 
all the way to the floor. Oh man,   I couldn’t stop then. That was 
horrible. Uh, right. What the Oh [ __ ] we got no brakes. Oh god. Disaster after disaster today, eh? God, 
that scared me stupid. That one honestly. My god, there’s no feeling like 
not being able to stop. That’s where the hell is that from? Oh no. Oh 
no. That’s freaking bad. I can’t fix that. That’s why the brake line has been crushed 
between the shock and the chassis. Because of the orientation of the axle Christ, 
right, so here we go again with the brakes. Oh man, I don’t even know if I’ve got a brake 
fluid. If I haven’t, I’m actually screwed. Okay. Yeah, that’s that’s a real 
bad one, quite honestly. Not here, I don’t think. Yeah, that’s gone from 
something that kind of like I could live with and needed to get sorted at some point to 
well, I can’t drive the car right now. So, yeah, that’s bad. That’s really bad. I 
searched through the entire vehicle hoping to catch a glimpse of an elusive bottle of brake 
fluid. I don’t have any brake fluid. Basically, I’m carrying two bottles which look like brake 
fluid. One of them did. And um what it is is GL5 gear oil and limited slip gear gear oil. And I 
must have when I was in a rush to leave thought, oh, one of those is brake fluid, one of those 
is gear oil. Uh and not looked properly. Oh, dude. Freaking hell. This is one of those 
moments where I can’t really drive this car. Damn it. Oh, that does not bode well. That one, 
mate. Okay, I now have no brakes whatsoever. Okay. Yeah. Look at this brake fluid everywhere. See all 
that under there? Oh, that’s brake fluid. But now I can’t stop the vehicle. You can see here. This 
is not good. Yeah. None of this is good. Oh man, you got to laugh because uh if you 
didn’t, you would freaking cry, mate.

EPISODE 22 of the Iberian Trail Adventure Series

No 4WD. No suspension – And no easy way out.

This was never going to be an easy route — but nothing prepared me for what happened next.

After months of wild terrain, solo repairs, and mechanical near-misses, the Land Cruiser finally gave in. Stranded deep in Galicia, I had one job: keep moving, no matter the cost.

This is where the expedition starts to bite.

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🧭 About the Iberian Trail Expedition
This is a world-first attempt to drive a continuous 7,000-mile off-road route around the entire Iberian Peninsula. From the Pyrenees to the Atlantic, it’s a solo overland journey in a self-built 1993 Toyota Land Cruiser HZJ73 camper, avoiding pavement wherever possible, navigating forgotten trails, and confronting the harsh reality of long-term remote vehicle travel in Europe.

This is raw, unscripted overlanding – from high-altitude mountain passes and hidden forest tracks, to mechanical breakdowns, wild camping, and real-time decision-making in some of the continent’s last remaining wilderness areas.

The vehicle: DIY-built, fully built Land Cruiser expedition rig designed for serious backcountry exploration and total self-reliance. The mission? To prove that true remote adventure still exists in Europe – and to experience every inch of it from behind the wheel.

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