Technical stuff

On our journey up north today a warning light came on and the car lost power. Daveen and the 4 British young folk were abandoned to touristic pursuits while I sought out a workshop in Coruche (not exactly the centre of the universe). A wonderful mechanic connected the car to an electronic diagnosis thing and immediately showed me that this pressurised feed hose to the engine inlet was burst (you can see the rip) he then said that he wouldn't be able to get another one til tomorrow and it's not worth trying to tape it up cos there's too much pressure........well I'm grateful for the diagnosis, but even though I say it myself I am quite good at lash-up repairs ( layers of masking tape, a layer of nylon webbing, more masking tape and then a good covering of parcel tape - no one had duct tape for sale) and here we are several hundred kilometres on in Coimbra! (Tomorrow you'll find out if it withstood the return journey or if we had to call a tow truck)