Got2Go - 90.000 Kilometers AROUND THE WORLD on a motorcycle SOLO
Your world, your job, your friends your language, your habits, your life as you know it. Imagine you leave all of this behind and just go on a solo ride around the world. Who will you become if you follow this path all the way? What will the journey teach you? - Hello, everyone. Welcome to my channel and welcome to this super special and super exciting episode.
The book that I wrote in German about my solo journey around the world will finally be published in English from today on. It's a book full of stories and full of adventure. And yes, if you really want to support me get this book and leave a good review on Amazon. To celebrate this release date of my book I put together a little video. I think especially for people who already read the book these videos will be very interesting because they will maybe see the one or other person that this book is about. And now enjoy all the little videos from my ride around the world.
People often told me how courageous it is to be on the road alone, to go to foreign countries solo as a female traveler. I have often heard that it's brave to do a trip around the world on a motorcycle all by myself. But that's not the truth I experienced. As soon as I took off from Germany to my trip around the world, I didn't feel courageous. But my heart felt wild and free.
Within a few days traveling started to be my new normal. Being on the road became my new everyday life. I was about to realize that the most courageous thing I ever did was not the ride itself, but to take the decision to leave my old life behind for the big unkonown. I had done my motorcycle license about one and a half years before I went on this trip. But my lack of riding experience and mechanical skills didn't stop me from taking off and do what I had always dreamed of: an Overland journey from Europe to Thailand.
And then to the rest of the world. Yes, you can call it naive, but I strongly believe that we can only grow if we try things even if we don't master them yet. But my journey already came to a sudden stop more quick than I expected. I got right into a military coup in Istanbul.
I was worried that my trip would end. right here in Istanbul still on the European continent. But the coup failed. And it took only two days before I hit the road again. My journey had to continue.
I crossed Eastern Anatolia, traversed the mountain ranges of the greater Caucasus in Georgia. And then the one thing happened that I always was most scared of. In the autonomous Russian Republic Kalmykia I crashed with my motorcycle Cleo, and passed out. To make this short because it's an important part of my book: My health was not very good. Neither was my motorcycle Cleo. But I met a Russian guy called Schenja who was about to become my first real new friend on this journey.
Maybe because his drill skills were so amazing. Or even more because we continued traveling together through Russia, Kazakhstan and to Uzbekistan. Schenja's and my ways departed in Uzbekistan. But soon destiny would let our paths cross again, more or less by accident. I was attempting to ride the famous Pamir Highway in Tajikistan, right at the border of Afghanistan, over 4,000 meter high mountain passes, all alone in pouring rain.
Doesn't sound like a good idea? It wasn't. I got stuck, burnt my clutch and had to digged out of the mud by a group of Enduro riders who luckily came by. The result of this encounter: a very special friendship with a sniper. I crossed from Kyrgyzstan through China to Pakistan. One of the most memorable countries of my whole journey. Not only because of the majestic Karakoram mountain range and roads over 4,000 meters altitude, but because of one very special encounter that I will remember forever.
India and Nepal came with their own challenges. In Nepal, the rainy season was later than I expected. And I realized that the best advice is always to follow local guidance. Even when things go completely wrong. I promise, you will have a good laugh in my Nepal episode.
Reaching Southeast Asia was special for me. It was like fulfilling my dream, riding all the way from Germany to Thailand without being in a ship or in an airplane once. But this little victory was followed by one of the darkest chapters of my journey.
After shipping my motorcycle and flying to Australia, where traveling became much more easy without any big cultural or language barriers, I started to feel the sacrifice that being on the road 24/7 demanded. I felt my lowest in Down Under. Somehow I managed to crawl out of my self-digged black hole. And after the flight to Australia, Cleo and I went on another flight, to Buenos Aires in Argentina. I traveled to the end of the world.
To Ushuaia, the most Southern city in the world. And I realized how different traveling on the American continent was. All visa on arrival, no big pre-planning. For the first time of the journey, I was just able to go with the flow. But my flow seemed to be a bit out of rhythm and gave me new challenges to master. I burned my eyes in the highest desert of the world.
One of the hardest parts of traveling is letting go of your expectations. I had to learn this the hard way when Peru encountered a catastrophic flooding, with hundreds of people dying in the floods and landslides, and the Panamericana being just washed away - making continuing my ride impossible for weeks. Cleo and I decided to take a shortcut, ship to Panama city from Lima, with a short stop in Columbia for myself. The ride through central America and some of its more dangerous countries, like El Salvador or Honduras, was just lovely.
But things were about to change right after I crossed into the US. Bedbuggs and exploded rear wheel bearing,. and my father being sick, made life on the road quite hard. But support was about to arrive on an Italian diva. My travel partner,
who was not my traveling partner back then and who you will get a lot of more information about if you read my book. Don't judge me, but somehow I managed to become friends with a lot of former criminals on this trip around the world. One of them I met in Canada and he turned out to be one of the most lovable people I met on this trip. But an encounter with an US American motorcycle gang didn't end that well and brought me in a lot of trouble.
Initially I had planned this journey to last one year. Meanwhile, I had been on the road for more than 17 months. After visiting Newfoundland and New York city, it was finally time to start my journey home, even though I barely remembered what this word even meant to me. The last transport with an airplane took Cleo and me to Morocco, from where I was about to ride home and close the circle of my trip.
But where I as well experienced the biggest and most tragic loss of this whole journey. I have been going around in circles and now I'm back where I started. In this circle is the world, that now once again lies before me, as it does for all of us. It entrusts everyone of us with holding some of its secrets, and a different one to each of us.
If a decision can change everything, why haven't you made one for such a long time?
2021-05-21 14:48
