Louise Sutherland was a nurse from New Zealand who was working in London when she set off cycling around the world. She bought a bike in a church jumble sale in Soho for £2.10s and a 'grateful patient' in the hospital where she was nursing made her a small trailer 'to trundle merrily behind it.' She seems to have set off round the world almost on a whim – she had initially only intended to go to Land's End! She returned to London to collect her passport and her £50 savings and set off. This was 1949 and she returned to London in 1956. Her adventures are described in her book 'I Follow the Wind' which was 'written, printed and bound in its entirety by the author'.
Her route took her from Calais to Bruges, Holland, Germany and Italy. 'During my first day in Italy I felt most dubious about my chances of survival. I had been offered dire warnings about what happened to small girls travelling alone in that country. I did not wish to forego the camping , but equally, I did not relish the thought of being attacked in the dead of night……Of course no one did attack me.' The warnings grew even more dire as she approached Yugoslavia ' "They shoot on sight….." "They're communists remember. If you're arrested you might never be heard of again…" "They're so poor they'll attack you just to steal the valve rubbers out of your inner tubes….." ' The people however treated her with great kindness.
From Yugoslavia she went to Greece and then took a ferry to Israel. She had an amazingly resilient spirit and refused to be daunted by the fact that having paid the boat fare she had only 13/6d left in the world. In Haifa she took a job in a Mission Hospital for 3 months, then cycled onto Jordan where she worked as a nanny. From there she cycled to Beirut and spent 6 months working in a sanitorium. She had hoped to cycle across the desert to Baghdad but was refused a visa so had to travel by train to catch a boat across the Persian Gulf to India. She was refused a third class ticket as 'We do not sell third class tickets to white men and certainly never to a white girl. Anyway no girl is permitted to travel third class alone.'
She had, of course, received many warnings against going to India. In Bombay she was inundated with offers of hospitality but later found herself in a famine region where she went for 3 days without food. 'I knew that only by keeping the pedals turning could I ever get to the dense green jungle that would indicate a rain soaked district, and only by reaching such a district would I again get food.' Unfortunately all the warnings she had received almost came true when she was attacked by 2 men but they ran away when a bus appeared. 'The memories of the attack by the few have now blunted and are fading, but the kindness of the many will always remain clear. After the fear had completely left my mind, I could feel nothing but anger for those two men. They had placed me in a position where all the world could say:"I told you so!" But does one swallow make a summer?'
Whilst in Delhi she learnt that her father was dangerously ill and so she returned to New Zealand for a year. This was certainly not the end of her travels – she went onto Canada via Fiji and Hawaii. After working as a nurse's aide for the winter she then spent 5 months cycling to New York. She arrived in New York with just $25 to her name – not enough for the boatfare back to England and as she had no work permit she was unable to earn money. She had however a final stroke of good fortune, a TV company had heard of her journey and invited her onto their programme 'Strike it Rich'. She won $200 and so could afford the fare on the Queen Mary.
I had assumed that this was a one off journey but I recently discovered a second book 'The Impossible Ride' published in 1982 which describes her journey along the recently built Trans Amazon Highway. Everyone assured her that this was completely impossible due to vast distances of uninhabited jungle, attack by Indians, attack by wild animals, poisonous snakes, lawless gangs….The list was endless although no one mentioned the deep and virtually impassable mud that did almost bring an end to her journey. I particularly liked her remark on the subject of loneliness. 'Loneliness didn't worry me. I was never lonely while I was cycling. I had my bicycle to talk to.' This journey was even more remarkable than the last and the experiences from it inspired her to raise funds to equip a mobile clinic to help the people living along the 'highway'.
She had been persuaded to abandon her trusty trailer and 'for the first time in thirty years of world cycling be using pannier bags instead' She was also deeply distrustful of her derailleuar gear and felt that her usual 3 speed hub gear would have performed much better. She was unable to reinflate her tyres when she arrived in Brazil as she had never used presta valves before and never mastered the frame for attaching her handlebar bag. A knowledge of mechanics may be useful but it is certainly not essential as she clearly demonstrates! Determination and persistence however are. 'Yes, I WAS frightened sometimes. There were too many people telling me I couldn't do it. Too much talk about the impossibilities.I needed some pros to balance the cons. Some possible stories to balance the impossible ones- and now I had the best 'possible' one of all to tell! And, most of all, my faith in human nature had been completely justified.
July 19th, 2010 at 11:55 pm
What a lady! Makes my little treks around Cornwall completely insignificant. No I'm going to have to go into town (cycle, of course) and order the books!
July 20th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Good one Hilary. I would guess those books are pretty rare, but I found one online for £8.50 (I Follow the Wind: Southern Cross Press, 83 Goswell Road, London circa 1973 edition not stated. Hard back binding in publisher's original illustrated glazed boards … Monochrome photographic illustrations on glossy silk art paper, small sketches throughout. Signed presentation copy by the author).
July 20th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Wow!
That lady has guts!
Thanks for sharing that with us, Hilary.
Do you know, there isn't a Wiki page for her?
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=louise+sutherland
Perhaps someone should write one.
July 20th, 2010 at 6:08 pm
Hilary, thank you so much for sharing this totally inspiring woman traveller with us. I am going online tonight to research her book and get myself a copy! How she managed! She was some woman in mybooks, not just the fact she ignored the "its too dangerous' folk, who it seemed were about even in her day, but that she managed it without 'technology' which most of us could not do without. Imagine, no mobiles, no help when you really need it most,and … gulp… no GPS…
This IS THE book to get. Her tales will be exciting from an era when cycling such distances really was pioneering. Mick, she has a trailer!
Thank you SO much for sharing this important topic.
mary x
July 20th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
I ordered 'I Follow the Wind' today from Little Stour Books. There's also one on eBay – it looks a bit tatty but includes a newspaper cutting from the Daily Mail in 1978. 'The Impossible Ride' seems more widely available.
Her bike trailer looks amazing, and heavy.
July 20th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Yes, Mary, she had a trailer!
Wonderful!
….. for thirty years!
Beats me hand down.
July 20th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Is this form of printing still referred to as 'vanity publishing'? I suppose the modern equivalent is the blog. Any old blogger can do it.
Undoubtedly a very impressive effort, though. I wouldn't dare even now
July 21st, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Just bought a book off Ebay (free postage even to IOM!).
Cant wait for a good ol read.
Now looking for her second book, if anyone finds a source of this one, please let me know.
Mary x
July 21st, 2010 at 6:20 pm
I read the portuguese version of "The Impossible Ride" a few years ago and was looking for some news from her. I am a brasilian cyclist. Thanks for the article.
July 21st, 2010 at 7:11 pm
Louise Sutherland was a Self Publisher I think. There's an explanation of Vanity Publishing on the same website. I'd never heard of Vanity Publishing until now.
Re Takano's comment, is Louise Sutherland still living? Mary, you can buy 'The Impossible Ride' on Amazon.
July 21st, 2010 at 7:21 pm
I've not been able to find out if she is still alive. A firm called Kennett Bros Ltd of New Zealand is publishing a series of books entitled 'New Zealand Cycling Legends' which will consist of 10 books at the rate of one per year. 'Cycling Legends 6: Louise Sutherland – The Desire to Go' is due to be published in October this year.
I'm really pleased that this has generated so much interest.
July 23rd, 2010 at 11:22 am
Louise Sutherland setting off round the world (larger version on Flickr)
My book arrived – 'I Follow the Wind' – but it's not the original edition like Hilary's, although it is signed by the author (1973). It's very well written. I think that trailer is not the one she finished with, which has bicycle-type wheels with spokes.
August 1st, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Just take a look at Transamazônica road that she crossed:
http://inema.com.br/mat/idmat108267.htm
It is a quite recent picture but still looks almost impossible. . .
August 1st, 2010 at 10:11 pm
Thanks for that Takano. It really shows the scale of her achievement, its hard to imagine such road conditions and the effort it must take to get a bike and panniers through there.
August 4th, 2010 at 1:55 am
I read her book the Impossible Ride sometime ago and thought yes an incredible woman cycling where she did. She certainly gives NZ Nurses a good name as plucky hard working people.
August 15th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Let's try to find out where she is now? Just for fun, without deadline. I just created a google group. If you write an e-mail to where-is-louise@googlegroups.com I can join you. This is a reserved group, nothing appears in the google search.
August 15th, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Hi Hilary, you posted this article and I am very new in this website. So if there is any other way to exchange information is ok for me.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Hello Takano. Thanks for the suggestion, but we exchange information only on this website. It won't be easy for you to find out where Louise Sutherland is now. She was from New Zealand, and if she's still alive will probably be 85 years old or even older. It's possible that one of her relatives might comment on this website, but unlikely. Assuming they still exist, you could try writing to her publisher, Southern Cross Press, 104-106 New Canterbury Rd, Petersham, NSW 2049, Australia. Good luck.
September 2nd, 2010 at 7:28 am
An email received today from Roar Skaug Larssen in Sweden:
The article: Meet Louise Sutherland
September 2nd, 2010 at 9:28 am
That is an interesting article. I particularly like her quote about not confusing adventure with happiness
'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.'
I must remember that when I'm feeling that I don't go on big enough adventures!
September 2nd, 2010 at 9:50 am
The magazine the article was taken from was Swedish, but I'm Norwegian
September 2nd, 2010 at 11:14 am
Whoops! Sorry. Thanks for the correction.