Two-wheel tourists with a trusty tent

Press, 26 February 1980, Page 3

Two-wheel tourists with a trusty tent

Barbara and Larry Savage, came up to the roof of “The' Press” building yesterday | with their much-travelled! cent, which has won them friends, saved them from' bears, and. they hope, will earn them some money. The small outer-space' Sierra Design tent was the first of its type made, and has probably led the most exciting life, having spent the last two years travelling the world on the front of Larry Savage’s bicycle. The couple set off from their home in Santa Barbara, California, about 35.000 km ago, and after cycling around the world were in Christchurch yesterday on the last lap of the journey. Looking remarkably unmuscled and un-brown, although streamlined, the Savages tell tall tales and true of being chased by grizzly bears and alligators, and of being run over by an Indian truck-driver.

Larry said that, looking back at the trip which took them from America to Ca-

nada, Spain, Morocco. Por-f tugal, England, Ireland,. Wales, ■ France, ■ Germany Austria, Italy and so on, he would never again go canoeing in the middle of an alligator-filled swamp in Georgia, and he would not mistake a bear for a dog and playfully bark back at it when it approached him in Canada. He said that the most “spooky” part of the trip was visiting Thailand, where they had to barter for everything. including air tickets. Once when a trader thought they had got away with 15 cents too much he pulled a knife on them; Larry said that he would have killed them without compunction. Similarly, when Barbara was knocked off her bike and dragged along the road by a truck, people standing along the roadside laughed and when she stood up unharmed they clapped. Good entertainment, and it does not matter if a life is lost. The Savages could not cppe with that attitude.

Their tent attracted 'plenty of attention. In Morocco crowds of people stood in the rain peering from under their hoods at the yellow and blue dome, and in New Delhi they met Geoff Thorpe, aged 22, from Gisborne, who was interested in the tent.

Geoff had taken 15 months off from horticultural studies and was also seeing the country on a bicycle. .

The Savages hope to get some advertising work for the tent company when they

return home in April. Nobody' was keen to sponsor them before they left because so many other young couples were claiming to be cycling round the world and then not making it.

Both Larry and Barbara had office jobs in California and had saved enough to buy a house, but they decided that they wanted a. big adventure, wanted to travel, and needed some- physical exercise. It is certainly what they got.

They planned and saved; for the trip, which cost $17,000 including equipment! and airfares, for three years. When they get back home they would like to design and build a house (Larry is a mechanical engineer) incorporating energy-saving ideas such as a television set which could be powered by an exercycle. The Savages had custommade 15-speed bikes but they said that the trip could be done on any bicycle. While they were away Barbara’s family found an old' newspaper clipping about a relative who cycled through India on a one-speed bicycle in 1889.

In New Zealand, Larry apd Barbara are considering riding at night and resting during the day. because people have been so hospitable they have not been left alone to ride.

It has got to the stage! where they bet on whether a car will stop and the occu-.

pant offer them a bed for the night or a meal. Larry always says they will, and so far he is $5O in the lead.