A Life Well Travelled
Last week I received the news that Heinz Stücke had passed away at his home in Hövelhof, aged 86. There can be no doubt Heinz was a legend within our Bike Adventure Community. He spent 51 years travelling by bicycle to every single country and territory in the world. The majority was undertaken on a steel bike with three gears, although later on he would also travel on a Bike Friday and Brompton.
Meeting a Legend
Last year I had the privilege to spend a day with Heinz at his home in northern Germany, and it was an experience I won’t soon forget.
It was a wet day in September and I was there to interview Heinz for the podcast. As soon as I walked into his house I knew the day was going to be special. The session had been in the planning for a few months. At the start of the year I had received Heinz’s book, and inside the cover was a handwritten message from him saying I was welcome to come visit him anytime. I spoke to Heinz several times over the phone beforehand. Each call usually went with him talking at length, recalling stories from his travels, so I’d had an insight into what it was going to be like to meet such a great storyteller in person.
That trip produced two full episodes with Heinz — Episode 148 and Episode 149 — where we cover his 51 years on the road in far more depth than I can capture here. If you want the whole story in his own words, start there.
The first thing Heinz did when I arrived was take out his pocket camera and snap a photo of me. He quipped how he always takes photos of visitors, and I quickly reciprocated by taking a selfie of course. Heinz was bedridden, but as he would tell me during our podcast interview, in his mind he was still permanently travelling.
A House Filled With Memories From Five Decades on the Road
His house was entirely filled with maps, journals, photos and equipment from his huge world journey. Everywhere you looked there was a reminder of just how much Heinz had experienced during more than five decades of bike travel. Photographs were hung on every bit of space on the walls. He proudly pointed me to look inside the cabinets, which were also filled with over 100,000 slide photographs, taken by Heinz himself during his adventures.
Another wall across from his bed was filled with filing cabinets that housed all of his paper maps, each one with a line traced showing the route he had taken. I learnt from Heinz that there is actually a route through Germany called the Bella Route, and he showed me the map and told me all about it.
There were also cabinets filled with Heinz’s journals. I’ve often asked guests whether they record a diary from their travels in order to be able to reflect on them in years to come. It was quite special to see Heinz had done this for the entirety of his travels, and now in bed, he’d read those journals, look through the photos he’d taken and trace his finger along the route on a paper map, which allowed him to “keep travelling.”
A Simple 3 Speed Steel Bike
In a separate room in the house his bike was on display and it was quite a site to look at. A black steel bike with a double handlebar set up. Along every bit of steel tubing were and on each mudguard were handwritten names of countries where Heinz had visited. This was all part of making the bike itself look interesting, so that when he travelled people would be curious and naturally come to Heinz for a chat. Alongside the bike Heinz had displayed all the Brooks saddles he’d used on his journey. Pieces of the rubber tyres he had worn through were hung on the wall, where there was also a collection of cycling caps he had worn. Another section of the room there was a small tower of panniers on display, the very ones he’d used during the trip. I also noticed the Brompton which he used for the latter part of his trip as well.
All this led me to believe Heinz knew exactly what he was doing was unique — staying on the road constantly for that long had become his way of life, and indeed, his identity. All these items, even when worn out, were highly valuable to him, and he knew there were others who would see the value in them as well.
The Storyteller Who Funded His Own Journey
Heinz’s photography is exceptional, and he shared with me that learning how to compose an image to tell a story was central to helping him fund his travels. In all reality it was these images, and the stories he’d write about in articles that were published, that would ultimately fund his travels for five decades. That, and the extreme hospitality shown towards Heinz by no doubt hundreds if not thousands of people he’d meet along the way.
A Composer Who Never Stopped Working
During that interview Heinz also likened himself to a musician or a composer, someone so passionate about their profession that continuing to work on it for the entirety of their lifetime wasn’t seen so much as work at all. Indeed, even when at home in Hövelhof, Heinz spent his time working into the early hours of the morning, going through his collection. He was working on a file about the country Mali while I was there. I asked him about it during the interview, and of course Heinz then quickly pointed out Mali was a country he’d visited, but he also had a story about Bob Marley as well. Of course he did!
An Inspiration to So Many
I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve been in touch with me, or who I’ve interviewed, that have mentioned Heinz as their inspiration to travel. I spent some time last week listening to the interview I conducted with Heinz, and it took me right back to being in that room with him — so much so I can picture the animated facial expressions he made while re-telling his stories.
Still Out There, Somewhere
In a way, I’d like to think Heinz is out there somewhere now, still travelling.
R.I.P. Heinz.