Satellite
Show on map
  • Day 39

    This Bicycle refuses to go to Porto!

    May 11, 2021 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    What a crazy day again!
    Besides all the ice cold wind and rain showers, 19km before Porto, the second thing I feared most happened, a puncture in my rear tyre!
    And I dont have a repair kit nor air pump!
    I cried in despair asking my fate why this is happening to me now, when Porto is only a few hours away?
    So, what do you do? Push, 5 km's!
    5 kms looking for a shop that might help. (But then I am in the country where you only have a bicycle Shop every 100km's).
    Then I THOUGHT my angels had come to help, when a shop for proffessional garden equipment apeared that actually had cycle tubes!
    The owner insisted that his mechanic do the job and I wait in the shop, and I thought "how kind of them".
    5 Km later a loud bang!
    The valve had torn off because the tube was not installed properly.
    This time I screamed!
    And once again I am standing miles from nowhere, 10 kms to Porto, it is getting dark, I am exhausted and freezing and simply want to get to a warm shelter.
    PLEASE!
    To make it worse, the tube and tyre were so messed up now that I could no longer roll the bike.
    So what do you do? Carry!
    So I carried bike and all its baggage to the next café asking myself "what is my spirit trying to tell me?"
    I asked the lady of the café "do you want a bicycle?"
    She gleamed! And I knew the answer to my problem.
    Everything was transfered back to my rucksack, I handed over bike, bags and all to a gleaming café owner 😃 and went my way!
    "May the road rise up to meet me"
    As I walked I wondered if I should change the blog name to "trials and tribulations of a wanderer".
    Read more