We sat down meticulously plotting the route through the Douro valley and set off for our starting point Gondomar. As we approach the off ramp of Gondomar Pat reported some engine noise from the bike. We pulled off at a local schoolyard with a huge outside roof, shielding us from the scorching Portugal sun.
We tried google again, but ended with results in Portuguese and realised that day six also happens to be Saturday. We googled Carole Nash and Pat explained the situation. An hour later we were on the phone with the Portuguese agent and another hour later a tow truck shows up at a local shop trying to load my bike. His English is about as good as my Portuguese and I eventually manage to get him to follow me to where Pat was waiting.
It took about another hours worth of phone calls between local agents, Pat, the tow truck guy, agent again, lots of incomprehensible Portuguese from the tow truck guy and some agreement at last.
The bike was loaded on the truck with all the luggage, taken and kept at the tow truck depot till Monday, when the bikeshop is open. The tow truck office had a taxi waiting, loaded all the luggage and drove Pat to a hotel they arranged for us.
We're waiting for Monday morning now for an official assessment of the situation, we're pretty convinced it's a timing chain tentioner that's broken. I hope and pray that it can be fixed and quickly too. In the meantime we're relaxing and if we can drag ourselves out of the airconditioned room we'll explore a little once it cools down. I'm not used to this type of heat anymore.
Glad to hear you got help. Probably the only time that I've not been able to find what I wanted in Google.
ReplyDelete