Today we’re sitting on the plane to Cartagena in Colombia, where our journey will start. We’re looking back to six month of preparations. In this article, I want to share with you how the idea was born and what was necessary to realize what started with a dream.
Once you’re out there, seeing how much our world has to offer, one journey leads to the next. And so did it for me. When I came back from Backpacking through the countries of Central America, I had this idea in mind to travel next time with a motorbike, leaving from home and riding as far as I can. So the final destination would be China. While studying I got a license and a motorbike as a first step.
In between, Lukas and I met in Freising. Before we knew each other, we had a very different style of seeing the world. He used to travel project based with his slackline and usually for a shorter period of time. I, on the contrary, went after school and in-between studies for long-term travels as a backpacker. In between, I usually stayed within Europe.
So the thought of traveling for a long time was very new to him, but he was still willing to give it a try and also got a license. In 2022 we went for a four week camping trip and testride to Norway. Everything went just fine and we had a really good time.
There was only one problem: We realized, that traveling by motorbike and outdoor sports in one trip could be a real challenge. Which, by the time, was a major part of our lives. First, there is the limited luggage, second, traveling with a motorbike and the according logistics are very time consuming and third, the good-weather-days can only be used for riding or outdoor days.
Even though we had a really good time, we came back from this trip and slowly realized, that this idea, the dream that accompanied myself for the last 5 years wouldn’t work out for us. So instead of a longer journey, I took off a few extra weeks from work to climb some peaks in the Alps in the summer of 2024.
But somehow, deep inside, I couldn’t let got off the initial idea. It took us a while to figure out what we wanted. In our mind we travelled through the US and through Canada, by motorbike and by car, by 4×4 and with a camper van. Until a sentence in the „Bergfreundinnen“ podcast, brought up the idea of South America – with a camper van.
That was somewhere in France, in the summer of 2024. We’ve been on the road for a few weeks and had been living in our small camper van and we somehow knew, this new idea would be right for us. Whereever we would go, mountaineering, climbing and slacklining would be our main focus. South Amercia has more than enough mountains, a small but motivated slackline community and sufficient infrastructure to do things.
So we did some research on the weather and soon realized, that we would need to start as soon as possible, but latest in February. We made a rough time plan and came to the conclusion, that we would need all the time we have for the preparations, so we set February as our deadline.
In August 2024 we started with the preparations. I talked to my work colleagues about the plans and gave them a heads up. We talked to our landlord about sub-renting our apartment and to our parents about storing our stuff. We did a lot of research about the type of car we would like to travel with and found the Landrover Defender with a lifted rooftop, which could be a good solution.
Lukas travelled all across Germany to check them out and learned a lot about the pro’s and con’s of this vehicle. We spent hours discussing what would be best for us. I talked to shipping agencies for the shipping of the car and checked travel groups for vehicles, which would be over there already. On Facebook, I found a beautiful camper van. It was not exactly a 4×4, but the van looked so nice and was already in Colombia, that we started talking to the owners about this one anyway.
By the end of November, we had two good options. A good-looking Landrover Defender in Germany and a beautiful Peugot Boxer camper van in Columbia. What would be more important for us? Getting everywhere with our own vehicle or a little bit of comfort between our days in the mountains?
Many people told us, that the defender needs lots of care and maintenance to run smoothly. We’re both not mechanics and not exactly motivated to spend hours underneath a car. Furthermore, we plan to spend quite some time in Patagonia, well known for the strong winds. With a camper van we could escape the wind, with a Defender not. With these two strong arguments, among many others, the decision was made. We would go for the (fully equipped) camper van. That brought us to the next challenge. How do you buy a German registered car which is in Columbia right now and still be travelled with until we arrive?
Together with the owners, we created a contract which would give both of us a good feeling. Lukas worked on some logistical challenges regarding changing the place of residency, the registration of the car, German insurance and global insurance, picking up papers and license plate and the payment process.
In the meantime, I spent lots of time researching travel insurances, talking to our German health insurance about the details of coming back and finally to the employment office, since I had quit my job by now. We also booked the flights to Cartagena. Taking the ship wasn’t possible because cargo ships don’t take passengers anymore since the Corona pandemic and for sailing or a transport using the relocation of cruz ships it was the wrong time of the year. We would leave Germany on the 16th of February.
By now it was clear that sub-renting our apartment wasn’t possible and we had to leave the apartment completely. Already in October we started selling furniture, equipment and stuff to reduce our belongings. I even found someone for my motorbike.
We also concentrated on eating our stocked food such as rice and cans and bought only fresh groceries to avoid any food waste. Even though we thought we never stocked food, it took us four months to reduce our stocks to two moving boxes.
Four weeks prior to the departure, we started with the moving and luggage logistics. We created a packing list, pre-packed everything in boxes and checked the weight multiple times. While packing, many things came up which had to be fixed, cleaned, bought or changed. So the packing process took much longer than expected.
Also the moving logistics where quite intense, since we had to split our belongings to bring them to our parents place which are 100 km and 350 km far away and everything had to be packed and stored exceptionally clean and well maintained to be stored for a year. My huge collection of plants didn’t make it any easier and I was very thankful for so many friends, who offered to take care of them.
The bureaucracy that came with the journey wasn’t dramatic once it was clear what had to be done, however figuring out what had to be done, was quite a process. The last days before the departure felt like a tetris game, because many steps depended on another, such as the upcoming election and the change of residency.
Then it was time to pack the bags. With the highline, climbing, and mountaineering equipment, the additional things we had to bring for the van, camping equipment and our cloths, we came down to 5x 23kg. We were super happy, that it worked out as planned.
When we were in the last steps of clearing our apartment and loading the car, I got a shocking call from my mom. Completely unexpected, we lost a young family member. From one moment to the other, the world was upside down. I spent the last days before the departure with my family in an emotional rollercoaster being in the paradox situation of people wishing us a happy journey while we were all having a hard time holding back the tears because of the very final goodbye of my cousin. Whenever there will be a quiet moment, I hope you’ll be traveling with us.
On the 16th of February, my mom brought us for our flight to Cartagena, Colombia to the airport in Zürich. The dream becomes reality.
