So you’d like to travel, but you can’t afford it, you say….. Well, then you should listen to Louise Sutherland who rode her bike through Sweden and Norway a couple of weeks back. She is in her own way a quite remarkable woman. During the last seven years she has been riding that bike through 35 countries with her tent and her small trailer. And she won’t give it up till she’s been around the world.
If you want something badly enough you’ll find the way and the means to make it happen, all it takes is willpower. at least this is what Louise Sutherland from New Zealand will tell you.
Louise is a small, tough and good tempered 30 years old nurse. For the last seven years she has been riding a bike through 35 countries pulling a small trailer. She’s down to her forth bike, but the trailer is the same one she started with. And every time she enters a new country, she write the name on the trailer.
As mentioned she is a nurse, and that may be why she has been able to set out on this enormous journey. You can’t go everywhere on a bike, oceans have to be crossed, but nurses are needed everywhere. Of course there will be problems with the formalities, but she manage to get a job where ever she goes. In the winter she is nurse Louise in London, New Delhi, Toronto or where ever she may be when winter comes. What ever she makes she puts aside building capital for next summers travels.
The woman must be mad you might think, but she’s far from it. She may be different from you and me, but she’s got her head screwed on right. The only difference is that she knows what she wants and she knows how to make it happen.
And she’s been lucky as well. She has had one single flat tire in seven years, in the north of Norway somewhere. And when she was robbed in India she was saved by a buss that only passed twice a week.
Well, everything has a start, so how did Louise start out on this adventure. For as long as she can remember, she has loved traveling. the first travel she can remember was when she was six and her sister five. They were to travel to visit their grandmother. They got on the train by themselves, got onboard the ferry between South Island and north Island by themselves. Their mother was a firm believer in teaching her daughters to manage on their own.
Everything must end as well, and when asked when she’ll call it a day, Louise says that it might be soon. I could easily keep this up for another 15 to 20 years, but what then.
I’ve met women on my travels who go from place to place just to experience something new. But these women have left their own lives somewhere along the road. I don’t want to end up like that. I want a husband and kids, a normal life. And if I keep this up too long I may not be able to adjust to an every day life like other people do.
Adventure awaits out there, to travel gives you so much. You learn what humanity means, you meet friendly people everywhere. But you must not mistake adventure for happiness. Happiness is somewhere back home, happiness is love and being loved, being taken care of and taking care of. Happiness is responsibility, that’s way I want to stop traveling before it is too late. So it was only natural for Louise to go to Australia when her nurse training was over, and from there to England, where she bought her first bike.
From the Swedish magazine "Bild Journalen" No 40 – October 3rd 1956
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