Cycling across Continents - Hernani Cardoso, A man with a mission

Hernani Cardoso

"An adventurous life does not necessarily mean climbing mountains, swimming with sharks, or jumping off cliffs. It means risking yourself by leaving a little piece of you behind in all those you meet along the way." -Shawna Grapentin

Wonder if this is what Hernani Cardoso had in mind when he decided to embark on a solo bicycle ride from Portugal to China, and back.

I do not know Hernani Cardoso personally. It was a friend of mine who told me the story of this retired Portuguese soldier who was on a very different mission – that of returning a stolen bicycle to its owner. It could have been just another news except for the fact that the bicycle was stolen and subsequently retrieved from Portugal, while its owner, Eric Feng, lived in China. 

In this era where anything can be shipped to just about any place easily and within a short span of time, this 54 year old adventurer chose to cycle all the way from Portugal to China to return the property to its owner. But apart from that, he also had an additional agenda… that of visiting all the countries that are connected historically with his homeland, and to meet fellow countrymen who have settled in other places in the world.  That has made the journey rather long and filled with deviations, but looks like this amazing veteran is in no big hurry, and prefers to travel at his own pace, enjoying every single moment that life is unfolding before him.

I have come across people bitten by the travel bug, doing solo drives and bike rides spanning countries and continents.  But for a man to pedal halfway across the globe alone, braving all the hardships involved in such a journey, is no mean feat, and I salute his enthusiastic spirit and sense of adventure that has urged him to undertake this trip.

I firmly believe in the fact that it is the journey that matters and not the destination. Like most passionate travelers who embark on specific journeys, perhaps Cardoso too would have had this wild, innate desire to breathe in the air of distant lands, to live among strangers, to feel the thrill of being on the road, and to understand the world through a better perspective than what Google has to offer…