By: Katsuko Hiruma Turski
MY LIFE AS ADVENTURER – JOURNALIST
In 1969 I had an idea of making an adventure trip, for instance crossing the Sahara Desert by car, etc., etc. The idea remained as a dream, until I met Roman Turski in Tokyo in 1970, to whom I married later. He was a born adventurer (so he used to claim) from Poland, and had travelled from Europe to Japan. The two persons of the same taste’s decided to lead an adventures life together.
First in 1971 we set off from Tokyo for Mexico to travel through all the Latin American countries by motorcycle. I was the first Japanese women who was going to make a trip by motorcycle covering all the countries in Central and South America. The TV station as well as newspapers and magazines in Tokyo, were very interested in our plan. Everything that we filmed was broadcasted, in which we introduced several native tribes and their culture that had been yet unknown in Japan. The trip was fantastic because I found so many kinds of different and interesting lives in this world. In this trip my life was drastically changed from city life to outdoor, even wild. Life changed – from my clean bed to a sleeping bag often invaded by bugs and whatever you name it. Fortunately my curiosity served as the energy to go on traveling in spite of many kinds of troubles, sometimes nearly losing our lives. This trip lasted for 5 years as we were travelling zigzag searching for interesting customs and traditions in each country. When we reached Ushaia (the southernmost town in the world) in Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, I realized it was a very long road, but was not yet the end of the route though the road geographically ended there.
The total distance of our trip came to nearly 100,000 km, equal to 2.5 times around the globe along the equator.
My second trip was around Eurasia Continent by train in 1977 for almost one year.
My first Africa trip with husband – Roman was carried out from 1978-80, really crossing the continent by different means of transportation included on foot. We went down from Algeria to Cape Town and returned to Egypt through East Africa. This trip of 2 years made me realize how little knowlege I had had about Africa.
Our next trip was around the U.S.A. and Canada and then flew to Europe via Iceland, crossing the strait of Gibraltar by ferryboat to Marocco to continue through Africa from north to south, and then back to Tokyo, it was literally “around the world” trip.
From 1988 to 1995 I realized many trips including: -around Australia with Tasmania, -Europe with Poland, -Asian countries, -Latin American countries (to see the changes after 23 years, since my first visit there), -Cuba, Haiti and Rep. Dominicana, -Bali, Indonesia. Etiopia, Eritrea, Jordan, Syria and Libanon – this became our last trip together.
At the end of February 1999, Roman’s life came to an end, leaving in my heart many adventures and memories.
After 2000, I collected journeys by myself and I went to Australia for three weeks, visited Finland, Germany and Poland.
Together with Roman, I have written numerous articles in newspapers and magazines in japanese and in English as well as 10 books about the world we visited.
In this wide world there are still many countries where I’ve never been, the countries I have visited so far number no more than 110.
-member of the Vagabond Center, Katee
Tokyo, Japan, July 2001