You just have to be looking forward to it: a 30,000 kilometer bike ride from the top of North America to the very south of South America. Anfred van Roosmale (61) from Nuenen quit his job and has now been on the road for four months. Packed with a tent, stove and thick clothing, he cycles from Alaska through wind and weather to Argentina, where he hopes to arrive in just over a year. “I’ve sometimes thought, why am I doing this?” says Anfred.
The idea for the bike tour had been in his head for ten years, after Anfred came across the extreme tour in a travel magazine. “I love cycling and have always been an adventurer,” he says. “I’m 61, the clock is ticking and I still wanted to see some things of the world.”
Anfred quit his job after 44 years. At the end of August he landed in Alaska with his bicycle and enormous backpack, where his journey started. A journey he takes all alone. “My wife wanted to come, but only if the weather was warm,” he laughs. “We watched videos in advance. When she saw that it could also be icy cold and extremely heavy, she gave up.”
Anfred cycles about sixty kilometers a day. He keeps everything as cheap as possible. He sleeps in his tent or with people who offer a place to sleep. And he has a stove and a pan for cooking. An adventure that is not for the faint of heart. “You have to cycle every day, with slopes and headwind,” says Anfred. “And being alone is hard.”
Anfred feels like he has already faced the biggest test. That was the first week in cold Alaska. “It was muddy and I had to take dried food and water with me for seven days,” says Anfred. His bicycle therefore weighed forty kilos. “After a while, cycling was no longer even possible. I walked through mud up to my ankles. I then wondered why I was doing this.”
In Canada he came face to face with a group of bears and ended up in temperatures of minus fifteen. “Exactly at that moment I got a flat tire,” says Anfred. “I changed it under a roof with numb hands.” Then he went to sleep in his tent in the cold. “When I woke up in the morning, the water in my water bottle was frozen.”
It hurts Anfred that he has to miss his family. Especially at times when he has to suffer. “Such a trip obviously costs money, but it also has an emotional price tag,” he says. “I miss my wife and I haven’t seen my 93-year-old mother for a year and a half. I had thought less about that beforehand.”
Yet Anfred still sees the fun in it. “Every day is a new adventure,” he laughs. “And the many encounters along the way keep me going.” And that’s a good thing, because Anfred doesn’t expect to arrive in Ushuaia, the southernmost tip of Argentina, until March 2025.
He is currently cycling among the cacti in Mexico, where he will reach 10,000 kilometers in a few days. With his journey he raises money for the Red Cross. The counter now stands at almost 800 euros.
You can follow Anfred’s journey via Polarsteps And his Instagram page.