126 DAYS to DRIVE HOME during the PANDEMIC // S05E04

When the pandemic first struck most people's instinct was to get home immediately. Those who were already in their home country hunkered down and sheltered in place. Those who were traveling internationally made their way home as the world braced for the crisis. In March 2020 we were in Morocco. There international borders were closed with little notice and we found ourselves trapped and riding out the storm for nine weeks under a super strict lockdown in North Africa. A special rescue ferry was put on by the British government which gave us permission to drive across the nation under lockdown and board the vessel to Europe. There we were again given special authorization on condition that we head straight back to my However overlanding a vintage vehicle 3,000 kilometers through scorching summer heat is always going to be an adventure. Plus aside from the usual hurdles we face while driving around the world we had a few additional urgent issues on our way north like minor surgery and having a I can't see nothing out of this eye. Still we managed to navigate our route north by self isolating where possible whilst waiting for the ferry service to resume from Europe to the island of Jersey. Would you believe every two weeks the ferry service was again cancelled due to the But today it resumes. Today we will finally complete this journey and today we will also get tested to see if we have contracted COVID-19. We are attempting to drive around the world. You guys are invited too so subscribe and buckle up. It's one heck of a ride. Today is the day that we are getting on a boat to go to Jersey after four months. Four months trying to get here and today is the first boat since the coronavirus pandemic. We're a little late so let's go. We have to fill out a pre arrivals form to tell people where we're going to be in case we or anyone on the boat has coronavirus so they can contact us. Heading to an island and they're being very strict over controlling the virus. Thankfully it's good news. Okay we're here I think. People have been asking about masks in the comments in the last videos. Why we're wearing them? We wear them because we're legally required to do so in some of the countries we visit. Laws are changing all the time and we try to keep up to speed with what we should do. I don't particularly mind wearing masks. It's not my favorite thing in the world but if it's gonna if it's gonna help stop spread the the coronavirus then I'm all for giving it a go. What's the harm eh? Bonjour! Here we go onto the boat. Finally last leg of the journey. Woohoo! Absolutely shocking seating allocation on this boat. Not trying to complain but it does what it is worth pointing out. We were all allocated, every single passenger on the boat was allocated to one side of the ship to one small area. I said to them why are we, there's hardly anyone on this boat, it's a massive boat why are we all in one place and they just said we were aware of the issue it's just a system allocation. I should say that it's easy for me to criticize. This is not business as usual and we know that everyone is doing their best to adapt to this strange new world. For the most part Condor Ferries did a fantastic job of providing the service in a safe way and the extra effort and vigilance was much appreciated. Jersey! Finally made it home. When I last left Jersey I wasn't expecting to be back here so soon. It's been a year since I was in Jersey and it's been a heck of an adventure since I was last back and who knows how long I'll be back this time. That is completely out of my hands and all dependent on if I or anybody else on this boat has the virus. On to Jersey soil. Jersey! Are we driving a left eh? I'm not looking forward to the next part. Hi. There's a lot more people than usual isn't there? God this is like it's like a welcome committee. Hello. Hello folks. First off, a new passport please. Where do you guys come from? Spain before that. You've been in Spain before that? Yeah. Where do you guys normally live? In this van. You live in the van? Yeah. Okay, in France? No we were travelling, we were on our way to Australia, travelling there so we had to stop and come back and we're going to start again when we come. You see these guys here? Yeah. Explain to me if you've been to Spain or been to North of Greece. Okay. All right, thank you. Thanks. Hi. Do you have a QR code? Yeah I do. All right, thank you very much. You can't get here. We're doing one at a time so if I do your one first. Yeah. Have you been in close contact with anyone infected with COVID-19 in the last 14 days? Not right now. Okay. Do you consent to the test? Unfortunately I do. That's it. I don't want to do this. I'll give you these. That's yours. Thank you very much for your patience. Pet travel. Okay, pet travel now, let's see. Jesus man, travel never used to be so hectic. Used to all just be sunshine and beaches and margaritas. Hello. Can I see the pet passport please? Had the blood test? Oh yeah, we've just been to Africa. You've been to Africa, have you? Yeah. Okay, did they ask you for your documentation on arrival? Yeah, they saw that. Yeah, they're very strict about it. I think they had a really bad case a few years ago and they destroyed thousands of dogs in Spain. Really? Thousands. Yeah, it's spread. Yeah, rabies is really bad in Morocco. Yeah, so thank you. You've done well. Thank you. Thank you for doing it all properly. Oh, there we go. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, so if you could just go out and you'd have to turn around because you're going to have to go in there for your next test. You're welcome. Thank you. Bye. I'm going to sit on my car alone. This was the step I was dreading the most. This is our first test of the pandemic and we had no idea what to expect. Here we go. She's going to come to you first. I'm going to ask her to do me first. Hello. All good? The boat journey was okay. Hi, how are you? I'm good, how are you? Yeah. It's quite the journey. Can we do this? Yes, please. Thank you. I'm not looking forward to this. It's not going to hurt. I hate medical stuff. Oh, you want me to make it a bit easier? How about we move it out? Oh, sorry. What are you going to do? Oh, no, it's going to slow up. It's all right, can we start again? That's it, well done. I thought I went free up on you. Oh, that's horrible. I had mine yesterday. Oh, I know, I was going to say. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. You're welcome. How was that for you? That was horrible. Thank you. We all good? Okay, so good luck. Are we free? Thank you. That was horrible. I felt like I was going to nearly fall off. That was horrible. Oh, my God. Welcome to Jersey. Oh, my days. Two days and we find out if he's defective. Excited to see your mum? It's going to be weird. I'm not going to be able to actually... I haven't seen my mum in a year and I'm not going to be able to give her a hug. Who's that? Hi. Hi, mum. Thank you. What a surreal situation. After everything we've been through, it would have been nice to give my mum a hug. But as she is in the high risk group, I didn't want to take any unnecessary risks until I get the results. Our home is our van. Usually when I'm visiting Jersey, I stay with my mum, but not this time. This time we've got our own retro quarantine pad. Quarantine. Let's go see what the quarantine house looks like. Hey. Wow, this is massive. Look at the windows. This is going to be our retro quarantine pad. Throwback to the 70s. Talk about throwback. Feeling quite at home here in this retro 70s quarantine pad. Please allow us to give you a tour. This is our relaxing spot. Oh, no, no, no, Alaska. You have your own relaxing spot. This is where we like to read in front of the beautiful big window. This is our exercise spot. This is our bar where we like to drink French wine. And I will leave this here for you. Cheers. And this is where we like to play guitar. Busted. This is where we try to play piano. And this is where we sleep. Oh, this is comfy. Stop it. Vibrating bed. What's that? Alaska. She's like, I'm out of here. You are going to move back into the comfy though. I want one of these in the comfy. Oh, it's nice. Cool. I've never seen one of these before. Can I get up? So this amazing house is a family friend's. It's Elaine's house. That's Elaine there. She's not here because she's on a boat in Greece. She got stuck there during the pandemic. She's been there for months. All around the house, there's dive gear everywhere because she's an absolute hardcore scuba diver that she has dived in the most remote places on the planet. I wish she was here. She has the most incredible stories. She's a hardcore adventurer herself. But thank you, Elaine, for giving us this house temporarily. We are so unbelievably blessed to be able to quarantine here. Thank you so much. So the instructions that we got of the ferry is, obviously we've been tested, so we need to wait 48 hours for the results. For the next 14 days, they're going to be texting us every single day and we have to respond. We have to reply with well if we don't have any symptoms or message COVID back if we're having symptoms. And if you don't message back, they'll phone you to check. If you don't respond every day, then the police officers will visit your place of residency to check on your welfare. So we were supposed to be waiting two days to get our test results. It is now day five and we've been waiting to get a text message because that's what they said they'd do. We've been calling, asking for our results. It's the fifth day and Ben has finally got an email. Not a text, an email. An email didn't even come to me. Somehow it went to my mum and my mum forwarded it to me and I didn't even give the testing people my mum's email. I gave them my email. So who knows what happened? Most of that is irrelevant because we're negative. Can you believe that we traveled all the way through Morocco, Spain and France and we did not pick up coronavirus? Because we were very careful, very, very careful. But honestly, the novelty of washing all of our groceries when we brought them home from the shop, wore off pretty quickly and we haven't been doing that. We have been sanitizing our hands and wearing masks in enclosed spaces, but I'm a little bit surprised that we are negative. But happy, obviously, because it means that we don't have to do the mandatory two weeks quarantine in Jersey. We can now get on a boat and go and explore Europe. Yes, adventure is calling. Or maybe not. Breaking news. Coronavirus masks are mandatory in France now amid fresh outbreaks. We've just come back from France and we're hoping to return to France. So if we don't wear a mask in public, enclosed spaces, you get a fine of 135 euros. So are they going to start shutting down borders again? Well, we might not be able to go back to Europe after all. Catalonia is looking pretty bad, but we're not going down that way. Infections are also soaring throughout the Balkans, so the Balkans are out. That's where we were going to go this winter. You can't make any plans right now, can you? You're literally going to take it step by step. What do you say, Leah? Would you go back now? I don't know. It's been so nice to be in a house for a minute and spread out. This is a huge house by Jersey standards. Now that the test results are negative, finally, after four months of trying to get home and a year since I last saw her, I can go and give my mum a hug. Oh, no, love! I can't tell you how good it was to give my mum a hug after all that we've been through this year. We would love to be able to spend a bit more time in Jersey with friends and family and maybe show you guys around my beautiful home island. But the chance of a second wave of restrictions in the near future is a very real possibility and we are keen to squeeze the most adventure out of 2020 that we can before we're forced into another lockdown. So it's time for us to hit the road and once again for us to point our compass east. But that is a story for next time. Oh, 15. I've got 15 miles an hour. How are you so fast? I used to be an athlete in school, believe it or not. I don't, no. Believe it or not. Shut up!