More than four years he has travelled the roads with his Speedhub equipped bike.  – In this week the extreme biker Peter Smolka finishes his bicycle tour around the world. Presumably, on August 10th, 2017 the 56 years old computer specialist will reach his hometown Erlangen, where he started the tour in March 2013.
Before the end of the tour, he gave us a short visit in Kassel, and had a look at the documenta 14. Peter Smolka will have completed his aim to travel around the globe entirely - altogether 88.000 kilometer. Apart from that he collected an amount 20.000 Euro for charity.
 
STORY TO HIS FIRST TOUR AROUND THE WORLD! 

It is the second time Smolka is riding around the world on his bicycle – his first tour took him from 2000 to 2004. Now he has cycled under the motto „Tour de Friends“  – because he intended to visit friends on the way, precisely: the friends of his hometown, that is to say the twin cities of Erlangen around the world. When he started there were seven cities. First there was Wladimir east of the Russian Capitol Moscow. During his travel another City was added: Riverside in California, USA. Conveniently it laid on his way, so he could easily manage to enlarge his tour.
Smolka has crossed 68 countries on this travel – without visiting his hometown in the meantime – riding each kilometer on land on his bicycle; only in areas of conflict like Pakistan and Egypt, authorities sometimes forced him on the back of a pick-up truck because of safety concerns. Consistently, he could avoid any flights, over the oceans he used a ship twice times. The complete route is to be found on his homepage www.tour-de-friends.de under the corresponding category „Reiseroute“.

Those, who wanted to donate some money could contribute to the pedaling with 20 Euro Cent per Kilometer and, therefore, become godparent of a part of a stage, what length they could determine themselves. The collected 20.000 Euro went to the helping organization “Doctors Without Borders”. The twin cities each got messages with greetings of the mayor of Erlangen, which Smolka had transported all the time in his pannier bags. Next to Wladimir, Riverside and Jena (Germany) there were destined San Carlos (Nicaragua), Besiktas (Istanbul/Turky), Rennes (France), Stoke-on-Trent (England), and Eskilstuna (near to Stockholm/Schweden). Smolka visited on his travel many international sites of his former employer Siemens. In March 2013, the computer specialist abandoned his office chair in Nürnberg (Germany).

Smolka’s passion for long time bicycle riding he developed at his first bicycle tour to Sweden close before taking his A-Levels in 1978. Then followed more travel tours e.g. to the Football World Cup in Spain in 1982, and during his studying he made series of bicycle tours which became longer and longer: 1984 eight weeks Balkan states, 1985 four months Middle-East and Egypt, 1988 five months over Spain and Western Africa to Togo. After his studying and the first years at work he rode to Cape Town in 1992/93 for one year. 

2000 Smolka set out on his first travel around the world with a different route like today, but like this time it was connected with a charity aim. Smolka has written several books about his experiences: In „RAD AB!“ (Publisher: Travel Know-how) he describes his first around the World travel tour on bicycle, in „Fahrradabenteuer Westafrika" Pietsch-Verlag, 1991, (not available anymore in bookstores) his trip to Togo. He worked at about a dozen more books as co-writer like with “ bicycle guide to the world” („Fahrrad Weltführer") (Travel Know-how Publisher).


However, about his recent tour a book is planned, too.

Contact:  Peter Smolka, peter@lemlem.de