April 4, 2023
On the way towards Evora this morning, we rode past another motorcyclist on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. It looked like he may be in need of help, so I turned around to go back and check on him.
He was indeed broken down. He was from France, and had been traveling this part of Europe for three years, essentially on no money. He was riding what looked to be a mid-2000s Kawasaki 500 cruiser. As I pulled up behind him, he walked up and asked, “Do you speak any English?”
“English is pretty much ALL I speak”, I replied with a grin.
“Dude!” Not exactly the French response I was expecting.
It turns out his throttle cable had snapped at the lower connector to the carburetors, and he had no spare cable, few tools, and little mechanical experience, as best as I could tell. After some discussion, we decided to try to use the return cable in place of the “pull” cable to get him down the road to a place that might be able to repair or replace the cable for him. However, upon opening the throttle housing, we quickly saw that the return cable was broken off at the throttle tube, and had apparently been in that condition since he purchased the bike, as the end of the cable was nowhere to be found.
Not my favorite place to disassemble a motorcycle, but as Judith would say, “It could be worse…it could be snowing.”
This left him with few options, and without any money for a tow truck. We had a lengthy discussion about how he could move forward, and after exhausting other options, we agreed that I would install the remnants of the return cable on the carburetors, routing the other end near the throttle. I then attached a small pair of Vise Grips to the frayed end of the cable, creating a handle that he could pull to open the throttle. After testing it a few times to ensure it returned properly on its’ own, we left him to (hopefully slowly) maneuver to somewhere that could do more for him.
It wasn’t the best solution (two new cables magically appearing would have been nice), but it still felt like the right thing to do, and a fresh injection of karma that we might need to call on some day.
An hour or so later, I stood and read a sonnet written by Antonio Ascensão Teles, the parish priest of the village of São Pedro from 1845 to 1848. The poem was written to encourage people to reflect on their existence in general, but it also struck me as specifically appropriate to those who travel as we do. In reflecting on our travels, it’s more important to us to experience the people and the cultures than the tourist stops along the way, and to reflect on why we travel (ironic, since I was reading this in what had become a tourist stop). I realize that seems a bit odd, considering how much I’ve reiterated that I’m more of a hermit than most and dislike crowds, but I’ve come to enjoy the company of very small crowds, especially those who may not even share a common language but share a common curiosity about people from distant lands. The more we’ve traveled, the more we’ve learned about people from all over the world. Mostly, we’ve learned that regardless of what you may read or hear in the media, people everywhere tend to be the same. They want to be happy and to live their lives with as little stress as possible (hint: if that doesn’t describe you, you may want to reconsider your priorities). To that end, we’ve seen that those with the least — possessions, money, obligations, stress — tend to be the happiest, and they also tend to be the people who are the first to offer to do anything for you, including offering meals, places to stay, and assistance. They may have very little, but they are happy to share whatever they have.
So, having reflected on our travels, here’s the sonnet I read, translated from Portuguese to English:
Where are you going in such a hurry, traveller?
Stop…do not proceed any further;
You have no greater concern,
Than this one: that on which you focus your sight.
Recall how many have passed from this world,
Reflect on your similar end,
There is good reason to reflect
If only all did the same.
Ponder, you so influenced by fate,
Among the many concerns of the world,
So little do you reflect on death;
If by chance you glance at this place,
Stop…For the sake of your journey,
The more you pause, the more you will progress.
Father Teles’ sonnet hangs in the Capela dos Ossos in the Church of St. Francis in Evora, Portugal. When read while standing where it hangs, in the Chapel of Bones, it has an even stronger message.
We continued to ponder that while heading further north to Tomar, the seat of the Knights Templar. The castle in Tomar was built beginning in 1118, and the Convent of Christ was constructed through the end of the 12th century. The Templar Order was dissolved in the early 1300s and in 1319 the Order of Christ was established. This massive monastery is still undergoing restoration.
The sidewalks in the city leading toward the Convent of Christ have the Knights Templar cross inlaid in them.
Having done our best at a good deed for the day, and pondering the fate of travelers like us, we continued on towards Arouca, where we were looking forward to a bit of present-day experience and adventure.