The Oasis: Wanderlust
In 1962, Heinz Stucke had had enough of his tool and dye-making job. So he decided to do something drastic: he decided to see the world. And so he did: He quit the factory and rode his three-speed bicycle and departed from his hometown of Hovelhof in Germany and embarked on a long journey. He spent 20 years touring the world on his bike, and in the 1980s, he decided to visit every country in the world, and made good on his decision: He visited 195 countries and 78 territories. By 1999, the Guinness Book of World Records inducted him as the person who crossed the most distance on a bicycle. Here’s the strange thing: Heinz is still touring the world and has not yet returned to his hometown. He’s 71 today and has crossed 609,000 kilometers s between 1962 and 2010, living on donations and sales from the pictures he’s taken around the planet (he took over 100 thousand photos). He has a blog that he writes in, documenting his experiences.
Naturally, when someone goes through all that time and distance, they’re bound to come across interesting (and frightening) experiences, and Heinz is no exception. Some of his experiences include getting hit by a truck in Chile, being chased by an angry mob in Haiti, being beaten unconscious by soldiers in Egypt, detained in Cameron for “slandering the state”, suffering a serious case of dysentery in Indonesia in 1974, being shot in the foot by Zimbabwean rebels in 1980, being attacked by bees while bathing in a river in Mozambique and having his supplies stolen by an ostensibly nice man in the US who offered him a ride. His most recent incident occurred in 2006 when his trusty bike was stolen in England, the same one he’s used since 1962. Luckily it was found the next day, having been abandoned in some park.
If Heinz is planning on continuing his journey, this means he’d have completed 50 years touring the world by bike.
Although I’m one of those introverts who prefer to stay home away from social activity, I must admit I’ve always fantasized about venturing on such a journey, minus the beatings and bee stings of course! I’m sure many of you share such ardent desires.
Yet if you think that touring the world for years is too much of a commitment, you might like something called Adventure Racing. In this sport, competitors set to complete an extremely challenging course that includes trail running, mountain biking, paddling, horseback riding, paragliding, mountaineering, swimming, riverboarding, canyoneering and rappelling, among others.
As you can see, the sport is very demanding and requires enormous amounts of willpower, but in the end, it’s easy to admire those who go through such challenges, as those adventures themselves are the real prize, not winning the competitions.
