From Cape to Kapp, Norwegian activist stops off in Slovenia
Ljubljana, 17 January - Teresie Hommersand is travelling from South Africa to her homeland Norway, but instead of flying as most people would opt to, she has decided to do it by bicycle to reduce her carbon footprint and raise awareness about climate change. She has recently arrived in Slovenia and plans to explore the country's mountainous region.
Ljubljana
Norwegian activist making a stop in Slovenia on her route from South Africa to Norway.
Photo: Tamino Petelinšek/STA
Ljubljana
Norwegian activist making a stop in Slovenia on her route from South Africa to Norway.
Photo: Tamino Petelinšek/STA
Ljubljana
Norwegian activist making a stop in Slovenia on her route from South Africa to Norway.
Photo: Tamino Petelinšek/STA
The 20,000 km bike tour is expected to take Hommersand several years and take her to 24 countries.
The 34-year-old set off from Ljubljana on Friday morning to explore Slovenia over the next two weeks. She told the STA she would like to cycle along the Soča river and cross the Vršič pass in the Alps.
Moreover, her plans include cycling the abandoned mines under Petzen Mountain, the highest mountain of the eastern Karavanke mountain range and the source of many legends.
After living in South Africa a few years, Hommersand decided to return to her home country by bicycle instead of generating a couple of tonnes of carbon emissions by flying.
Without having any previous long-distance cycling experience, she set out on her journey from the most southern tip of the African continent in June 2017 and plans to complete it at the northernmost point in Europe.
Cycling from Cape Agulhas to Nordkapp, Hommersand strives to raise awareness about the climate crisis and encourage people to start actively tackling it.
"I'm trying to show that environmentally-friendly actions are not necessarily limiting or boring, they can be quite the opposite," she said.
Hommersand uses portable solar powered projector and speakers to screen films about the environment on her journey. She brought environmental documentaries as well as fun classics to remote villages in Kenya, classrooms in Sudan and Turkey, the UN Environmental Programme office in Nairobi and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt.