Back in Santander

We're back in Santander after one very long and demanding day, not to mention the stress and uncertainty of running into dead ends for all our plans trying to escape out of Portugal.

After the initial assessment that the bike can be repaired, but that it would definitely take beyond the time of our ferry departing halfway across the continent, not to mention exceeding the 11 days I have on my Shengen Visa, we started exploring alternatives of renting a van or something. We were initially delighted at the brainwave of getting a rental van only to run into another brick wall at every possible rental agency. They all had a policy were rental vans cannot be taken out of Portugal, never mind a drop off destination outside Portugal.

We eventually went back to the Honda Agency and asked them if they do not have a contact with a van we can rent and they introduced us to a friend of one of the chaps at the agency, Angelo. We bargained and negotiated for some time and after lots of discussions and Angelo even coming clear and saying out straight: "You're strangers in my country, I do not trust you." We had no choice but to agreed to their terms, hand over €600 to the friend at the bike shop the next morning before the trip, meet with Angelo the next morning at our hotel, pick up the luggage, drive to the bike shop, load the bike and hit the road, 650km to Santander. Unlike what we're used to in South Africa, 650km does not mean 6.5 hours on winding European roads through lots of little villages. We left Porto just after 10:00 with me following on the bike after them and Angelo had to turn around and head back to Porto, so we made our way with minimal stops for fuel only. I refuelled four time during the trip and never spend 11 hours in the seat before in one go. We arrive in Santander around 21:00 and had Angelo back on the road just before 22:00. We booked in right across the ferry port in a hotel with secure overnight parking for the bikes and made sure we can push the bike loaded with luggage across onto the ferry the next day.

On top of all the biking problems on checking out of the hotel in Porto, my credit card was declined even trying a manual authorisation by phone. I went online, fearing credit card fraud somewhere to find everything in order, even trying to use it at an ATM was declined. On phoning my bank in Ireland I'm eventually informed that VISA has an issues all over Europe and that I will be able to use the MasterCard issued on the same account, only problem is my master card is safely back in my safe in Ireland. With all my cash tied up in my Visa, Pat's cash drained on the van's hire and paying Angelo, we're stick in a fancy hotel, for sake of getting the bike on the ferry without propulsions or more van rentals and overnight storage costs, praying that we'll find some means of getting cash somehow. We snacked on what we had left from our backpacks and waited for breakfast the next morning to fill our grumbling tummies. I phoned the bank again the next morning using the VoIP setup from the laptop on the hotel broadband, and was assured they're working on the problem.

We went down for breakfast, ate as much as we could from the buffet, spoke to reception that graciously extended our checkout time to 15:00, and allowing us to leave the bikes with luggage in the secure parking till 19:00. Everything else is working out fabulously, we walked across to the ferry port to make sure we can roll the bike on and was reassured that it's not a problem either. Now only waiting to boarding time and hoping VISA is online at check out time. We went around the corner to the nearest ATM and managed to withdraw €120 each from our personal bank accounts, at least we have a backup plan in place encase VISA fails us.

Every so often talking to diffirent people before our trip the documentary, video or books from Hugh McGregor and Charlie Borman, "the long way down" or "the long way round", would come up. I just need to make this statement once and will hold my peace hereafter. They might've covered more miles over a longer period than we did, but they had it all arranged for them with support teams covering all the bases with virtually limitless budgets and sponsorships. Whenever they faced any adversity it was sorted out for them, bikes fixed and even replaced. With us facing adversity and working through it over the last couple of days was a true test of our characters. I was not easy, facing the disappointment of not being able to complete the trip, changing the plans, running into dead ends for solutions, not being able to access your finances and not offered any alternatives or options by banks and on top of that havin to deal with the language barriers and like Angelo put it bluntly to us: "You are a stranger in my country, how can I trust you."

At night when you put your head down on the pillow it's not only from physical exhaustion, the emotional strain wears you down to a point of hopeless despair that you can not imagine or describe. When we were kids, this would've been the moment where you threw down to toys and went home. Put it to you this way, I have a much different sense of what the Tom Hanks character must've gone through in Cast Away. Stranded away from you loved ones, unable to get back home. Putting yourself in that position for a minute would get you close to our feelings of despair at times.

Having said all of that, we're in Santander now, the road smoothed as far as we can tell, we'll have a van waiting in Plymouth in the UK, roll the bike off on that side and drive across to Fishgaurd for the next day's boarding and another tow truck waiting in Roslaire to get the back back to Dublin. We'll be recovery experts after this.

Oh and just in case you think that we're going through all of this because of a lack of planning and pre empting issues like this, we had to do all of this in spite of having breakdown insurance. The insurance company weighs up the cost of the recovery to the value of the bike, in spite of what you spend on it accessorising, i.e. adding the luggage, GPS etc etc. and basically left us with the choice of flying Pat out, hiring him a rental car and leave the bike in Portugal, or wait until the bike can be repaired. In reality, insurance means nothing unless you're travelling on a €20k bike with a much bigger budget for the whole experience in any case. Everybody is ready to take your money to buy the insurance, but come problems they try to get out of the arrangement as economically as possible. Ok, I've said my bit on Hugh McGregor and insurance, I'll step off to more positive subjects.

We're getting ready now to board in Santander. Will update again on the Ferry.