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By WlLMA BLOKHUIS Focus Editor In 1980. CreFnTerjwg,ate trad- ed his cottage. comfortable Etobicoke home. and a high pay- ing job, for a bicycle. And, what he couldn't pack into the five bags he hung on his lO-speed ' he sold. At age 30, Howgate said goodbye to his $70,000 to $80,000 a year job as an electrical engineer, and circled the world aboard his trusty steed. Cyclist, author, photographer; publisher, artist, lecturer For Howgate. life was to became an odyssey. Today at 44. he divides him time between Oakville - “I'm staying with friends who are close enough to be my family" - and Mud Lake, Labrador, which he now calls home. In about six months time, Howgate plans to kayak down the St. Lawrence and up the coast back to his Labrador haunt. He plans to built himself a home there. So, what brings this soft spo- ken, very English sounding, cyclist back to Oakville? Business, he says. Self-employed, he peddles his book, "Tales of a Travelling Man,' door-to-door, finding this to be far more person- ally rewarding and successful than selling his book the tradition- al route through book stores, giv- ing speaking tours. _ "Hinvgate"cornbines his promo- tional tour, a slide show based on his eight-year, 64,000 kilometre (40,000 miles) around the world bicycle trek at schools, with per- sonal sales of his self-published book. Unable to find a publisher. Howgate produced the book him- self, 286 pages including illustra- tions, maps, photographs, and cover design. Of the first 5,000 copies pro- duced by Travelling Man Enterprises - Howgate himself - only 200 remain. The book has gone into second printing, hence he'll have another 2,000 to sell door to door. This brings him to Oakville, his home away from home. In several of the newspaper articles written about him, a slight man with a mop of curly shoulder length hair and salt-and-pepper beard, he's referred to Bernie Howgate of Oakville. In others, ALMOST 5,000 BOOKS SOLD it's Toronto. Now he says Labrador is his permanent home, but who knows where this travel- ling nomad who embraces some- thing of the 1960's hippie lifestyle, may turn up. Today, Howgate says Labrador is "the first home I've had since 1980, the year I started my trip around the world. I've travelled almost constantly, selling my book and doing slide shows." He's also working on a second book, 'Journey Through Labrador.' Tales of a Travelling Man Howgate travelled the back- roads of the world, past lions and panthers, eating sheep's eyes, snake, cockroaches, whatever the natives fed him, and slept in barns, roadsides, people's tents, hostels - rarely in hotels. Having left his family behind in Yorkshire, northern England, Howgate has come to embrace Canada. CROSSED CANADA Following his eight-year around-the-world cycling adven- ture, Howgate, on a rickshaw given him by the Pakistani embassy of London, Eng., trav- elled from Vancouver, B. C., to St. John's, Nfld., from May to October,1990, promoting his book, published just before he left. The rickshaw has since been donated to a museum near Mile Zero near St. John's, and that trip will be the subject of an upcom- ing book 'Tales of a Travelling Man' details, in words, illustrations and maps, how what began as a two- month sabbatical in the Maritimes grew into his eight-year odyssey when pictures of a boomerang and koala bear in a window of a travel agency in Calgary BE?.?,!!.,'.'?,'-;', OF IE nebullln'c Racing“ Sn ACCPAC MS/DOS & many more COMPUTER TRAINING Oakvllle's Buslnoss School 338-6600 (Cover Illustration by Bernie Howgate) On Dasher, On Dancer, on Friday night we’ll pay the fiSrI,.,,i,,,,,',,,',',, Merry Moonlight Madness All Toronto area stores open late Friday, December 10th until 11 pm. After 6 pm, we'll pay the GST on all merchandise 'FOC LJS beckoned him. Half an hour later, walking out with a ticket to Australia, Howgate was on his way . . . Hawaii. Fiji, New Zealand, South East Asia, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, the Subcontinent, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Kenya, Lamu Island, Uganda, Zaire, Europe, and England - where he stopped for two years to lecture at schools, giving more than 500 slide pre- sentations. while staying with his folks, before returning to Oakville in 1988. staying five months. The only break in this global adventure was in I984 when he (See 'Cyclist. . . t page 16) I THE th *(GST offers do not apply at Eaton's Toronto Warehouse Stores.) 1eyf 5618 9012 Take advantage of the many extra-special Moonlight deals after 6 p.m. EATON EATON AKVILLE BEAVER l We be Christmas 100 EjtiTC) N'S Goods Satisfactory or Money Refunded WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, I 993 Page 15 Hopedale Mall [mated Serving Oakville for Over 30 years, Monday to Friday 10(1) a.m to 91(X) pm Saturday loo) am. to 60) pm *Sunday Q Nam to SO) pm PNa all Ares may be Tall outed at 3rd Line and Rebeca in Oakville . 82741229 .