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Read the following newspaper article closely:
Petro Lubben was a young man who found himself facing a major crisis.
Showing a great deal of courage and enterprise, he chose an extraordinary way to solve his problems .
Problems are Opportunities in Disguise
1. When a German baker ran out of dough, he decided that the best way he could handle this crisis was to follow a dream! So he put aside his rolling pin, dusted the flour off his arms, bought a bicycle and set off on a tour of the world.
2. Confectioner Petro Lubben enjoyed his work in a Bremen bakery. He loved making pastry and cakes. Then the bakery, which specialised in “health” confectionery, went bankrupt.
3. The months that followed were not easy. Petro was twenty-eight and disillusioned: he had lost his job and had no steady income. Petro was facing a crisis! He spent several months at home before deciding to use all his savings to buy a touring bicycle and travel the world.
4. On March 15 1986 he made up his mind. He said good-bye to his family and friends and set out on his 40 000 km journey to Cape Town. It was a journey that would test his mental and physical reserves to the limit.
5. It was spring when Petro set off. He cycled through France, Portugal and Spain and reached Gibraltar, the stepping-stone to Africa.
6. “The African continent lay before me, an exciting but huge challenge,” he said.
7. He landed in Tangier, Morocco, and almost immediately came face to face with a knife-wielding bandit, who tried to rob him. Passers-by ran to help him and the ruffian fled.
8. “Strangely enough that was the first and last time I was in danger from a human-being,” he said when he eventually reached Cape Town. After Morocco, the adversaries he had to face were the Sahara desert, malaria, hepatitis and punctures.
9. His trip through the Sahara was gruelling; he spent 24 days pushing his bicycle. If it had not been for other travellers in vehicles he would have died of thirst.
10. Jungle roads, sandy tracks, the remnants of tarred roads ... these all passed under his wheels as he pedalled slowly through Central Africa.
11. Wherever he could, he worked to earn money. In Gabon he drove a truck for an oil company for a month. In Zimbabwe he became a sculptor; using the soft, local serpentine stone to carve objects which he was able to sell.
12. At last he reached Namibia where he took his longest break. Apart from working in a bakery, he spent several weeks photographing the splendid scenery and the indigenous people. Then, taking the West Coast route, he left Namibia for South Africa.
13. “From afar I could see your famous Table Mountain,” Petro said when he arrived in Cape Town on August 6, 1990. “I felt a tremendous excitement - it drew me like a magnet!”
14. After four years - 40 650 km and 18 countries later - he had eventually completed his journey through Africa.
Adapted from an article in Cape Argus 1 September 1990
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