Bem vindo a Portugal; Sand drifts can't keep us down (part five)

Although we needed to get going fairly early on our last morning in Portugal, mixed messages had us all scattered. Samantha and I slept until our last minute possible, but the other girls had gone out to see the small fisherman town in the light of the morning without the rain. Once we finally gathered our things we headed for Cabo de Roca, the most western point of Europe.

Once again, European road signs evaded us and we were confused in how to get to where we were going. After what seemed like ridiculous directions from a motorcyclist we actually found our way there. “Keep the ocean to your left,” he said, and so we did.

The coastline wasn’t sandy beaches, but ferocious waves crashing against jagged rocks. There were sandy dunes lining the road, but the waters were meant for fishing. The wind blew hard and we stopped to look over the perfect blue waters. We could see the Cabo de Roca marked with a lighthouse in the distance. We were so close!

We jumped back in the van all windblown and headed towards the point. The road was a two-lane highway and was fairly busy and sand lined the edges. There was a sand drift that had come in and completely covered our lane for a good 20 feet. As we started to drive into it, I got nervous. Apparently, Sam didn’t know you can’t drive in sand drifts. Our massive van quickly slowed to a stop, and within seconds we were stuck.

Sam tried backing out, but only furthered the vans descend into the sand. A Portuguese man in a jeep pulled over and walked to our window. He was speaking to us quickly in Portuguese and we had no idea what he was saying. Finally he said, “Español?” and we all said, “SI!” He explained to us that he was going to help pull us out, and he held up a small rope.

We didn’t realize how bad of shape we were in. Sam tried to tell him not to worry, that we didn’t need his help. But he insisted and didn’t leave. The wind was whipping so hard and pelting everything with sand so we hadn’t actually gotten out of the van yet. We finally stepped outside the van and saw what we had gotten ourselves into. Here are our first moments of realization:

After taking this video, I realized how much traffic was beginning to build up. We were smack dab in the middle of the main road to a major tourist attraction. Charter busses drove by with tourists clicking pictures of us, people looked at us in anger. It was then that I realized we needed to direct traffic. While looking for a part to hook up our van to the man’s jeep, we had found a neon yellow construction vest in the glove compartment, which is required to be kept in your vehicle. So, I put the vest on and went out to direct traffic. It actually worked, which was the best part. I stopped one side of traffic and let one lane go, and then after a minute or two, stopped that lane and let the other side go. Meanwhile, the man was trying to pull out our van and the rope had snapped. The van kept dying while trying to get out of the sand and he was pulling the dead weight. He just got out and retied the rope and kept going. After the first rope snap, four girls got behind the van and pushed while he pulled. We got most of the way out when the rope snapped again. We finally made our way out of the sand and couldn’t begin to express our thanks to the Portuguese man. He wasn’t going to leave our side until we were out, and he was so nice. We are grateful for his help and patience. The situation was just crazy between the man pulling our van with a jeep, the sand pelting us, and me directing traffic. The Aussies were right; we are a bunch of loose units!

After getting out we were only 10 minutes from the Cabo de Roca. As we pulled up, cars starting honking at us, people were waving at us—they were the people that passed us on the highway!! The charter bus full of tourists were all there. We really were a spectacle. I guess you can’t be a van full of American girls and not get attention, but then when you do things like get stuck in a sand drift, you’re impossible to ignore.

We all did our thing and took pictures of the most western point, hung out in the gift shops to hide from the wind, and got some ice cream. After seeing what we could, we loaded back in the van and prepared ourselves for the drive back to Granada. Our amazing weekend in Portugal came to an end.



I don’t think any trip will ever compare to this one. Not only did we find adventure, we made adventure. Portugal is an amazing country and so under appreciated. I feel like not only was the trip adventurous and magical, but every second was well spent. It didn’t matter if we were lost or getting in trouble because we were making the most of it. I will never forget my trip to Portugal with the girls in the van. And I will never forget that adventure is always there, it just needs to be found; or ran into.