A Parow West resident recently completed a walk of more than 500 km to help his wife pay off her student debt.
Lucien Williams, who started his walk from Cape Town to George in the Southern Cape, returned home at the beginning of the month after leaving Cape Town at the end of March.
His planned trip to help his wife, Washiela, was also widely covered by the media before he had set out on his journey.
An experience of a lifetime
“The purpose of the trip was to raise awareness to my wife’s plight regarding her studies. She was studying to be a teacher through Unisa via a National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) bursary, however for some reason there was a short payment from NSFAS which prevented her from graduating.
“Unisa said we should pay the amount in the meanwhile, but we were flat broke and in debt. So out of frustration I joked and said maybe I should walk to George to raise funds and hopefully this would generate enough interest via social media to get people to assist us.
“This is where we started. I planned to leave on 23 March on my 40th birthday, and arrive on 1 April (April Fools Day) in George as part of the joke,” Lucien tells.
Strangers open their homes to Lucien
He would walk 60 km to 65 km for approximately 14 hours per day, leaving from Cape Town Stadium, passing Gordons Bay, Grabouw, Hermanus, Pearly Beach, Bredasdorp, Swellendam, Albertinia, Mossel Bay and ending at the Garden Route Mall in George.
“I am a New Apostolic and every night I stayed with members of the local congregations. I met beautiful people wherever I went, everyone was intertangled and woven together so much that I never felt alone or in a strange or unfamiliar place,” he says.
Lucien says he embarked on this journey with very little money in his pocket.
“I had R170 of my own money as food budget, but I never needed it as people opened their hearts, so much so that I came home with more than I took.”
Along the way he also saw a lot of nature and all it had to offer.
“I saw baboons, snakes, caracals, birds, ostrich, sheep, cattle, lakes, waterfalls, forests and more. I saw God and it was beautiful. I cannot explain this to you in words. I wish I could,” Lucien says.
His journey of 584 km over 10 days was also documented on a Facebook page called Lucien’s Walk.
