Christian Gammon-Roy
Tribune
Klaus Lüttgen is a 66-year-old from Germany who decided to take an egg on a 9,500 km coast-to-coast-to-coast tour of North America. It is an odd premise, but Lüttgen explains the idea, and how he hopes that it will show people around the world how important it is to preserve clean drinking water. The estimated 5-to-6-months journey began in Cape Spear, Newfoundland, in April, and is to end in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories. Lüttgen will have seen the coasts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans by the end. He stopped in Sturgeon Falls, roughly 3,000 kilometres into his bicycle journey, on Tuesday, June 10th.
Lüttgen is now retired but he worked as an employee for a municipal utility where he says he was often confronted with pollution issues. “We are water, all is water,” he says, pointing out that water is foundational to every living person and thing on Earth. So, he embarked on a mission to get people involved in the preservation of clean water, but with the soft approach of showing people why it’s important, rather than telling them to do it. “I will show the people in Germany that this land is so wonderful, the world is so wonderful, so big, so green,” he explains. When it comes to showing that, Lüttgen is convinced that Canada is the perfect place.
“Canada is my love, and Canada is green,” answers Lüttgen when asked why he chose to do his bike tour here, rather than closer to home. He talks about his youth, growing up in Cologne, Germany, and how he had always dreamed of visiting Canada. In 1998, that dream came true when he took a bus tour taking him through the Northwest Territories and on to Banff, Alberta. That trip solidified his love for the country and kept him coming back. “I came back, and I came back in 1999, and 2001, 2006, 2008, 2011,” he recounts. The 2011 journey was similar to this one, where he cycled from Vancouver and into Alaska. Lüttgen hopes that if he can impress onto others his own sense of wonder and love for Canada’s natural beauty, it will convince them that preserving it and preserving the clean water that sustains it is important.
When talking about what makes Canada special to him, Lüttgen mentions the people he’s met during his tours. During the current trip, he says that he’s had some good conversations, and many people have supported him along the way with food, water, places to stay, and more. “It gives me power. When I meet people and we have a good conversation, or someone will give me a chocolate bar, or something, that gives power. I could be tired, and then I meet a friendly man or woman, the next 5 or 10 kilometres are easier,” he describes. Those are also the people that Lüttgen has asked to write messages on the big colourful egg that sits on the bike trailer behind him.
Lüttgen’s egg is a hollow container on wheels, hitched to the bicycle. It’s where he keeps supplies for his journey, but it is also a colourful conversation starter. On it are small paintings and during his journey, he’s invited people to write words of support for his mission. Eventually, the egg will travel back to Germany with Lüttgen, where he hopes to show it to people and bring it along when he talks to government officials about clean water protection. “Later, on the website I will have voting on where Klaus will go with this egg,” he adds, so that people can have some input and maybe get Lüttgen in front of their own government representatives.
In the meantime, Lüttgen still has plenty of kilometres to cover before reaching the Pacific Ocean, let alone the Arctic. He continues his journey from Sturgeon Falls towards Sudbury, and then further westward. All the while he collects stories, messages and signatures for his egg, photos and videos of Canada, and hope that the journey will be worth it by the end.
Lüttgen shares a final short anecdote about his travel: he has been getting his Tim Hortons cups without the plastic lids, and laments that when he gets food, a lot of things are in plastic containers. Those are the kinds of things that he hopes will be shifted as more people hear about his journey, and they see how beautiful Canada is. Lüttgen repeats that his ultimate goal is change through awareness.
For more information on Klaus Lüttgen’s current and previous journeys, he invites people to visit his website at rocktheroads.com. The website also contains links to his Instagram, and he mentions those are updated regularly throughout the journey, usually around once per week.
