to view newspaper cuttings of the day, click here
While my school mates got their kicks from reading Karl May's fictitious adventure stories of the Wild West, my own heroes were of real flesh and blood: Dr Albert Schweitzer who in 1913 established a hospital at Lambaréné in what is now Gabon; and Heinz Helfgen who in 1951 set out from Germany to cycle around the world.
I would have added Oskar Speck to my list of heroes had I known about him then; however, I only heard about him while preparing for my return visit to Thursday Island in Australia's Torres Strait where I had lived and worked in 1977 - see here.
This almost forgotten epic also caught the attention of Sandy Robson, an Australian kayaker, who is right now retracing the seven-year voyage taken by Oskar Speck in the 1930s. She is expected to reach the tip of Australia and complete her five-year expedition by September 2016 - click here.
Another speck on the ocean.
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