Pont Séjourné viaduct, Fontpédrouse, Pyrénées-Orientales, France

We woke up in our pine-nestled campsite next to Spain's border with Andorra in the Pyrenees, to the sound of mountain silence, which is to say: the occasional bird call, a rustle of wind through pine needles, and Chetak squeaking every time Odyssean Journey rolled over in their rooftop tent. The air was crisp, almost alpine-sharp, and it smelled faintly of woodsmoke and damp moss. Shehzadi, our ever-stoic Toyota Tundra, had a light coat of dew. It was the kind of morning that feels borrowed from a postcard.

Coffee was brewed, stretches were stretched, and sleepy grins passed between our two overlanding couples. The Vagabond Couple and the Odyssean Journey were back on the road. Today’s mission: leave Spain behind (temporarily), enter the fairytale micronation of Andorra, fuel up, caffeinate, and then keep pushing toward France. Because that’s what you do on the Silk Road—follow the stories wherever they lead.

Pyrenees foothills at La Farga de Moles, Lleida, Spain - Andorra Border

Let’s get one thing straight—this wasn’t just another scenic road trip through Spain. This was a turbo‑charged Silk Road detour with two overlanding couples, two over‑equipped trucks, and about a hundred impulsive detours. Think: ancient Roman ruins, mountain witches, haunted walnut orchards, paella feuds, flat tires, and one suspiciously enthusiastic goat farmer. Buckle up, because this leg of the Vagabond Couple’s Silk Road ride went full Iberian madness.

Ksar es-Seghir

Fresh off the blue-drenched high of Chefchaouen, the Vagabond Couple and Shehzadi found themselves chasing a different rhythm. Gone were the dreamlike alleyways and chilled-out cats of the mountain town. The road (here's a map) pulled them westward, toward the sea, into lands that had seen too much and still stood proud: Tetouan, elegant and stubborn and Ksar es-Seghir, tiny but heavy with centuries.

Rock of Gibraltar

🇬🇪➡️🇲🇦 The Vagabond Couple: From the Black Sea to the Strait of Gibraltar — One Tundra, Two Dreamers, and a Whole Lot of “You Drove From Where?!” 🚗🌍

This leg of our trans-continental Asia-Europe-Africa road trip (MAP) continues from us overlanding to Spain from Georgia (see From Greece to Spain (via Italy): Our Grand European Road & Ferry Journey) and takes us from the Andalusian coast to the gates of Africa — with Shehzadi, our trusty Toyota Tundra with Georgian plates (yes, Georgia the country on the Black Sea), handling every curve, checkpoint, and curious stare like a champ.

Igoumenitsa Ferry Terminal, Greece

Buckle up, fellow vagabonds and armchair adventurers! We recently embarked on a rather ambitious (some might say "bonkers") cross-continental dashcam odyssey (MAP), taking us from the sun-drenched shores of Greece via a detour into North Macedonia & Skopje (see 🚙 From Greece to North Macedonia and Back: Skopje Adventures in Shehzadi! 🇬🇷➡️🇲🇰➡️🇬🇷), all the way to the vibrant landscapes of Spain, with a delightful (and slightly chaotic) pit stop in Italy. This wasn't just a trip; it was a testament to our enduring love for ferries, questionable navigation, and the sheer joy of watching Europe whiz by from the comfort of our… well, dashcam!

Passive Multiplexer in European Apartment

Inside the "telecommunications cabinet" of our new Spanish apartment at Mar de Pulpi, we found a wifi router that is also a ONT for fiber-optic internet service, and this "Multiplexador pasivo" 1 in 8 out RJ45 UTP Cat 6 thing with 8 ethernet cables connected to its outputs and nothing connected to its input.

Optical Fiber ONT and WiFi Router in European Apartment

All rooms in the apartment have at least one RJ45 wall socket (the place for the TV has two). We had our own gaming wifi router that we wanted to daisy-chain to the main router. So we connected one of the RJ45 outputs of the ONT/Wifi router (Uplink GP542Z GPON / EPON ONT terminal 4x GE 1x USB SC/APC WiFi AC1200) to the input of the "passive multiplexer" and the gaming router to a wall RJ45 plug. As expected, it did not work. We were wondering how in the world would a "passive multiplexer" route data packets.

It turns out this "passive multiplexer" is a telephone device and is used for connecting landline telephones all over the apartment, using RJ45 to RJ11 cables. Indeed there was a RJ45-RJ11 cable lying around inside the telecommunications cabinet as well.

However, the ethernet cables that run from the passive multiplexer to all over the apartment are indeed CAT6 network cables. Therefore, all it takes to distribute the computer network to the RJ45 wall sockets is a network switch. We unplugged the network cables from the passive multiplexer and plugged them into a 8-port network switch along with a network cable connected from one of the ports on the switch to the existing ONT/WiFi router. We were then able to daisy-chain a second WiFi router from another RJ45 wall socket as well as have copper ethernet connections to laptops and other devices from other RJ45 wall sockets.

We found the relevant manuals online for the Passive Multiplexer and ONT/Wifi Router.

Who uses landline telephones in multiple rooms in 2024?