An Interview with Bernie Howgate, author of "Newfie or Bust" and several other exciting books.

I recently reviewed Bernie Howgate's "Newfie or Bust". This book discusses his adventures crossing Canada while pedaling a single speed rickshaw that he obtained courtesy of the Ambassador of Pakistan.

Without knowing what was coming Bernie agreed to be interviewed by Bicycle Touring 101. Here's what he had to say.

Your books are very good about letting us participate in your adventures as you stroll. bicycle or kayak along. What I find missing is a bit more about how you became an adventurer. How did you get hooked into travelling the world and doing things that some people call insane and others call living?

Unfortunately for you, my first book covers this question in heartbreaking detail, but the short answer ................ women ha!

Seriously we all reach cross roads in life.......I just took the one less travelled.

It also helps if you don't have the balls for real life, suffer terribly from panic attacks and are a painfully shy person but put me in a kayak, or astride a bike and I sprout wings and fly....

It also helps if you have no children, not tied to a mortgage, can live off a shoestring and love meeting different people............

I come alive when I travel.

You have an interesting publishing strategy. Other then purchasing direct from your web site I understand the only other way to obtain your books is when you show up in front of the person's home selling door to door. Can you tell us a bit more about your unusual approach and your reasons for doing things this way?

It's an old Irish tradition - artisans going door to door with their work...........I'm 56, and I can still remember a time when - in northern England - gypsies, peddlers, writers, poets and artists came door...........before the days of charities, religion, Greenpeace and telephone marketing. Those were the days when artisans were part of the community and not objects of curiosity..........plus going door to door is a great way of meeting people.

In your book, Newfie or Bust, you ride a rickshaw across Canada. In your book you briefly discuss obtaining the Rickshaw via the Ambassador of Pakistan. How difficult was that to do? When your tour ended what happened to the Rickshaw?

Between 1989 - 91, I was known as Bernie the Bike man to thousands of school children. To make ends meet and to pay for my first book, I started to give slide shows - based on my round the world cycle trip - to schools. I must have performed to nearly 1000 schools in southern Ontario...............

At one, I met the son of an Pakistan Embassy Official..........one thing led to another.....a little cheek "I'll cycle it across Canada" can go a long way!

It's been displayed in a museum, bar, restaurant and now it's in a church - an object of play for children.

Canada is a very large country and you crossed it following an unusual route in the west. Looking back on your journey what were some of the most personally interesting areas that you went through. Would you recommend them to others and if so why?

That's an easy one - the PRAIRIES..........I love their quiet secondary roads and the people are so friendly. They ever hardly see cyclists, especially ones cycling across Canada. Just your story is worth the price of admission into someone's house and often roadside chats stretch into evening meals and a night between clean sheets.

I haven't read your first book that covers your World Tour by bicycle. Do you intend to publish another edition of this book at some point in the future? What countries and areas of the world did you visit?

Someday, when I have the time and the money to publish another thousand or two, I will. It is just not cost effective to print a hundred. Too expensive!

I visited North America, Pacific Islands, Australasia, South East Asia, Indian Subcontinent, Central Africa, and Europe.

Looking back over all of your bicycling adventures do you have any particular adventures that you think of quite fondly?

I have lived a blessed if not simple life. I have met thousands of people who have adopted me like a long lost son, given me they keys to their kitchens and sometimes their homes. Some I have loved and left behind and some have turned into life long friends but my favourite memory was knocking on my parents door - unannounced - and seeing my mothers eyes fill with the tears of joy at seeing her son after 6 years of world travel.

Your adventures aren't just limited to bicycling. You also have taken long winter walks and kayaked long stretches of water. Could you tell us a little bit more about these adventures including any of your books that might be available about them?

You can find the list of books in print from my website www.berniehowgate.com. I will publish a 5th book next summer entitled 'Around the Rock in a Bad Mood', based on a kayak trip around the coastline of Newfoundland, and also one in the works called 'The Walking Man' about a snowshoe trip along Quebec's isolated Lower North Shore.

Bicycle Touring 101 has readers who are new to touring. Thinking back to your first bicycle touring adventure what one or two pieces of advice would you encourage them to think about when planning or participating in their first tour?

Don't over plan your trip, try not to be goal orientated. Meeting people should be the name of the game.

Try not to be TOO FASHION conscious. Remember that it's not how many gears your bike has, but how well you pedal.

Don't be too proud to get off and push your bike up hills. Go at your own pace, but try and make the trip with a mate, partner or whatever! Outdoor exercise not only increases your appetite, and helps you sleep better, but it also increases your sex drive ha!

Remember to sleep dry and eat well!

How about some advice for the veteran cyclists out there who have toured for years? Is there anything that you think we sometimes forget when we have many tours behind us?

That's normal; repetition leads to boredom or burnout.

Take someone of little experience on your next trip..............your children, boy or girlfriends, your parents or grandparents.....eg: maybe your wife doesn't want to sleep in a tent, or do 100 miles a day, but she may want to go skinny dipping down by that pond you have cycle passed thousands of times before with the boys.

Slow down and smell the roses. New people bring different ideas. Remember don't limit yourself by other peoples ideas.....always be open for change.

Is there anything else that you would like to add?

Beam me up Scotty or send me down the Home Brew

With the exception of his first, impossible to find so far, book about his world tour by bicycle I have read and enjoyed each of his books about his bicycling, kayaking and walking adventures. In fact his kayaking adventure in Labrador motivated me to try kayaking on a much smaller scale.

I probably won't review his non-cycling books on this web site for a long time since they aren't directly related to bicycle touring. If you are looking for a book focused on adventure you might want to consider reading one of his kayaking or hiking books in addition to his books about his cycling adventures.

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