Norwegian cycles 3,800 km to Malta for a worthy cause

Norwegian real estate agent Hasse Pettersson, 55, left his house in Oslo last May 5 accompanied only by his bicycle and 13 kilogrammes of luggage.

On June 13 - 39 days later, he was in Malta at his house in Senglea, having cycled the 3,800 kilometres between his two houses.

Mr Pettersson did the trip to raise awareness about a Norwegian organisation which works to improve the life of poor Indian children.

He came into contact with the organisation some five years ago, when through it, he started to sponsor the education, medication and clothing of young Carisma, now 11, who lives with her family in the town of Puna, located 200 kilometres east of Bombay.

Before deciding to do the trip to help the organisation, called Future of the Sponsored Children, Mr Pettersson travelled to India visiting his sponsored child and her family to see for himself if the money he was sending over was being put to good use.

Finding everything to his satisfaction he now wants to assist the organisation become more popular so that it would collect the money it required to buy bicycles for young Indian boys to use to cycle the 10 kilometres to school. Living such a distance away put the kids off education but giving them a bicycle would encourage them, he believes.

The organisation also wanted to set up a place to provide maintenance for the bikes and train boys in doing the maintenance themselves. It also wanted more people to sponsor children.

Mr Pettersson said that when in Norway he spends an hour-and-a-half three times a week spinning on an exercise cycling machine at a training centre. He has been doing this for the past seven years and feels very fit as a result. So he decided to use his fitness to aid the organisation.

Having bought a house in Senglea in 1999, where he now spends most of his holidays, he decided to do a cycling trip between his two houses.

His trip is being featured in several Norwegian newspapers and magazines and through these features the Norwegian organisation was getting the promotion it required.

Before leaving Norway, Mr Pettersson planned a very rough route but then bought maps and planned his trips in more detail along the way also seeking the people's help.

The ferry trip from Oslo to Kiel, in northern Germany was sponsored by Colourline, a Norwegian line, while his trip from Malta back to Norway today is being sponsored by Air Malta.

Through his trip, he has passed through Hamburg and Hannover in Germany, Luxembourg, Dijon and Chambery in France, Turin, Genoa, Pisa, Sienna, Naples, Pompei, Salerno, Limosina and Catania in Italy. From Catania, he took the ferry to Malta. Of his 39 days on the road, he spent four resting.

Mr Pettersson said he used to wake up at 6.30 a.m. starting the day with a big healthy breakfast and then begin cycling at around 9 a.m.

He would stop to have lunch for about half an hour and then cycle again non-stop until 6 or 7 p.m. when he would have dinner accompanied by a couple of glasses of red wine.

On the road he would eat lots of chocolate and drink water continuously, sometimes consuming up to 10 litres a day.

The biggest challenge, he said, was having to go on every day whether he felt like it or not and no matter what the weather was like.

"I had to continue cycling when it rained in Germany and when the heat was unbearable in Italy."

He covered an average 120 kilometres a day.

He feels that the most dangerous part of the trip was cycling through tunnels. So before going through one he would always rest 10 minutes, drink water, put the lights on the bike and then sprint through as fast as possible.

Also dangerous were the highways in Italy where cycling was not allowed. Mr Pettersson said that at times he used to find himself in one and then it would be impossible to turn back.

In Naples, he was once stopped by the police who put him and the bicycle in their car and gave him a lift to safer roads.

Mr Pettersson said that during his trip he concentrated on not getting injured and on keeping the bike in good shape. In fact, he managed to only lose a couple of disc brakes in Italy but the bike was repaired within an hour. He changed his tyres once and got no punctures at all.

He said that once, when in Sienna, he had to sleep outdoors because all hotels were full. He managed to find a hotel the following morning and as he was by then tired out, not having really rested during the night, he spent his morning hours sleeping instead of cycling.

Asked whether he would do it all over again, Mr Pettersson said that if he had been asked that on the trip he would have said he would not even think of it. But now that it was over, he says he would - but follow a different route. Cycling, he said, was a fantastic way to travel.

Mr Pettersson said that so far this has been his longest bicycle trip ever. His second longest was only 50 kilometres.