Who is this guy? Well, I think in the first days of this blog, all readers may probably now me. But on my journeys I may meet more people, people with which I was only able to make short contact, – beside that: who knows who is reached via this blog.
Born in the same year as Mark Zuckerberg, Katy Perry or Arjen Robben, as child of a “travelloving” mother and a former seafarer (engineer on a VLCC) could already be a good forebode for an exciting life. I was early inspired by thousands of slides from my fathers’ journeys, who visited all kind of harbors from Egypt to Singapore within his two years on sea. When I grew up my mother started to show me the world. I was 11 on my first flight, destination La Palma. Tunisia, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Egypt, Turkey and Bali were following – being 16 at the latter, too old to continue travelling with my mom 😀
Then 2k was coming… the magical year.
On March 31th 2000 a slide-presentation took place in Regensburg, by a couple from Cologne. Title: “Abgefahren” (could be translated as “way-out” or “freaky”) These two were globetrotting for 16 years, my whole lifetime, all around the world by motorcycles. The pictures, the impressions and the imagination of such a tour fascinated me like nothing before. Within the 2h of this presentation my mind made his way from pure fascination to the adamant decision to become a world-wayfarer too – a worldfarer. I bought the book they wrote, got it signed by them (they wrote “Live your dream, set a date!”) and bought a laminated worldmap the next week. Since then this was my vision, my meaning of life. Travelling the world, discover who it really is, beside of all-inclusive hotels, holiday package and regardless of political conflicts. Well, I was young ^^.
The same year, after finishing my junior high (Realschule in German), I rode alone by bike from Regensburg via Würzburg, Kassel and Flensburg to Denmark, 1100km. That was my evidence that it is possible to make long tours by bike, and so I decided to explore the whole world by bike.
Years of education and civil service were following. Finally 2006 arrived, and I got the chance to give in to my passion: with my former gf I was travelling to Thailand for 6 weeks! Our school, we both made up our university-entrance diploma (Ger.: “Abitur”), had a project running, that enabled us to make our final thesis abroad. So we chose Thailand, because it was affordable and far away. I wrote about the health system in Thailand, inspired by my training as a Paramedic, and travelled abroad the first time on my own.
2007 was coming – and so the date I set in 2000 for the start of my worldtrip: 01.08.2016 (hint: German writing – so first day, than month, than year 😉 ). 7 years of planning, archived my university-entrance diploma and gathered the perfect equipment – first of all a super trekking-bike I customized on my own. My first aim was to reach Sydney, by bike – and where I could afford it by train, rail etc.
But I only reached Istanbul, because I forgot one thing in all the prepping done:
How it is to be on the road alone, out of your known habits. Who’s watching my luggage and bike when I had to buy something, or had to sleep a night at the trainstation? This caused increasing worries and in the end panic. In addition I planned to travel from Istanbul to Mumbay by freighter to avoid the after-effects of the 2nd gulf war – and just hoped to find a ship where I could hire a passage as deckhand. Furthermore I was very naive about the visas…
Long story short: I handled the whole trip way to naive and just focussed on the material/technical part.
After that awful experience I stopped travelling, I just had to cope lot of stuff with myself. In lack of any vision or plan I started studying material-science. 2009 my mother endowed me a one-week trip to Tunisia – again. Completely with hotel, flight and transfer, to give me back some self-confidence. I was very anxious before the trip, but it my mothers intentions were archieved: The inner fire was and my desire to travel was lit again, but burning very low. Due to the lack of money during studying this was my only journey in these years. First in 2014, when I had my first job after the university, I was able to travel again. So I booked two weeks of surf-camp in the very south of France. Two weeks of waves, yoga and a commune-like living – and the small, barely burning passion grew stronger again: the desire for the life of a globetrotter.
It took two more years till the old passion was as strong as in the “old times” before 2007, but the time has come to dare something again. Thailand part two came up, thought as a kind of test for myself, if I have developed and learned enough to travel on my own now. It excelled my expectations – and gave me back some of the former self-confidence and crazyness.
Oh, and of course the plan of making a world-trip is also alive again. Even if it changed in some parts. It was transformed from a biketrip, to a VW-minibus trip, to just walk around the world, and ended up with the only chance to bypass most borderproblems and conflict areas: doing a circumnavigation by boat.
I hope I can give some useful hints via this blog for those of you who are interested in backpacking, exploring the world, tired of just seeing all-inclusive hotels, or just want to experience the world more authentic. This blog will change in content and appearance during time, so perhaps it’s worth a 2nd visit after some months again 😉
The Worldfarer 