 北極海をゴムボートで、サハラ砂漠をバイクで制覇した３６歳のノルウェー人冒険家が、シアトルからニューヨ−クまで５３００キロをインラインで横断しました。１３８キロ滑った日もあるそうで、６月１９日に出発してから５ヶ月掛ってゴールしました。つぎはアフリカのニジェール川を船下りするそうです。
Crossing the US on roller skates 19. August 2005
Norwegian adventurer Helge Hjelland has crossed the North American continent on roller skates. He started in Neah Beach, Seattle on June 19th and has now arrived New York, the newspaper VG reports.
He arrived in Rockaway Beach, Long Island on Tuesday, after skating 5300 kilometres, an average of 88 kilometres a day.  |  | - The longest distance in one day was 138 kilometres, and I have been skating between seven and nine hours every day. The heat has been the worst obstacle. Some days the temperature passed 40 degrees Celsius, Hjelland says. He has had no support team on the trip, and has carried his own water, tent and sleeping bag. Hjelland has worn out four sets of wheels on the trip. The trip across the US is actually just a training session for his next adventure, namely to sail down the African river Niger, a stretch of 4178 kilometres.
He has earlier bicycled around the world and through the Sahara, and he has crossed the North Sea both ways in a rubber dinghy.
In case you wondered, Hjelland is a secondary shool teacher by profession, and has taken a year off to live out his dreams.
Krysser USA på rulleskøyter (Posted June 19, 2005, 06:00 AM)
Skating across America
Yeah, so I'm driving home last weekend, cruising down this long stretch of empty highway under a bright summer sun, and up ahead I see what appears to be a hitchhiker with a pack, hunkered down on the shoulder of the road. Now, I've hitched quite a bit in my earlier years, so I tend to stop for hitchers as long as I don't detect any evil mojo from them, so I stop.
Turns out this guy isn't hitchhiking at all, but is in-line skating (rollerblading?) across the country. He'd been out 8 days already, left Seattle and heading for New York City, figured he'd make it there sometime in September. He was out of water so I gave him a refill from my canteen (we jeep-driving mountain men always have such things laying around) along with a couple Snicker bars, and we chatted for a half-hour or so.
Helge Hjelland is this guys name, he's from Norway. When I asked him what motivated him to skate across the continent, he thought about it for a moment and replied, "Why not?" with a huge grin. "It's not the worst thing I've done," he said with a slight accent. "I once bicycled around the world..."
At which point he told me how he quit his job, sold everything he owned, and made his around-the-world bicycle trip, solo, including a stretch across the sahara desert during which he "came so close so many times" to being killed he swore he "would never do it again". He had a number of interesting stories like that, I could have listened for hours. After awhile he continued on his trek, inviting me to join him in November on a first-descent down the Niger river in Africa ("It's not really difficult", he said with all sincerity.)
So if you are driving around and see a long-haired Norwegian rollerblading down the side of the highway, stop and say hello. By the end of the trip he'll have lots of stories about the goodwill of Jeepers.
Skating across America at Baker City, Oregon (Posted June 29, 2005) Norwegian Completes Skate Across United States (Posted on Nov. 23, 2005)| Helge Hjelland in the African river Niger, a stretch of 4178 kilometres | | 凄いエネルギッシュな人です。早くも、ニジェール川下りのレーポートがアップされました。何が書いてあるのか？ノルウェー語かなー、知りたくても読めません。 Helge Hjelland | 
一瞬、ヘビかと思いましたが・・・ヒレがあるのでウナギ系の魚みたいです。
イメージ通りの、これぞアフリカ！って感じの風景です。
| |
Opp Niger i gummibåt (Posted on Feb. 08, 2006 )
- Flodhester og sjimpanser var skumlest (Posted on Feb. 08, 2006)
|
