About the speed or slowness of travel

We have been on our world tour since 2015. Sometimes only temporarily, sometimes for a very long time. We have certainly learned a lot in these years and, above all, our lifes have changed massively. Not consciously controlled by us, but solely by the different living conditions that we had in those years. The importance of various topics has also been recalibrated.

Above all, it was difficult for us to say goodbye to working life, to our responsible jobs, the power structure, the political context, but also to the employees who have grown with us. For me more than Oliver, because he always had the plan to get out of jobs early in his life.

However, one thing has stayed with us. One characteristic of many, which is so inherent in us that it would make no sense to cut it out of our personality and which we both incorporate very strongly. And that certainly helped us massively in our old jobs and made us successful. We are both so similar here that sometimes it’s a bit too much, but we’ve gotten used to it. It is the speed of implementing things, doing to-dos straight away, not wasting time, efficiently weighing up individual components in order to then implement them in the correct and fastest order.

And of course, this characteristic also accompanies us when traveling and has a significant influence on our travel speed. In the more than 200,000 km that we have explored with Shujaa in South America, Africa and the Middle East, we came to a daily average of 150 km – and that with an appropriate use of Shujaa and many off-road slopes. Many observe this and probably sit in front of our blog and our maps shaking their heads. We also get inquiries and comments as to why we are “much too fast”. Last but not least, that is why we are writing this blog. Not out of justification, but rather to create understanding for different ways of travelling. And because we don’t like this evaluation and biased judgement. We also don’t ask other travelers why they are so slow and why in the end they only make it to Africa, because our wonderful world is so big. There isn’t just one way!

Why are we so “fast”? And we don’t even feel that way. While others ship to Buenos Aires and throw a coin there on arrival, whether they should go north or south, decide for the south, then find out later in Tierra del Fuego that it is quite cold there in July and in northern Argentina they miss the spring, we or rather Oliver sit at home during our travel breaks, almost every day over the books and blogs to prepare the next stage of our world trip. Certainly, several hours a day we invest here so that this is no longer an issue on the go. The trip is then ready and planning is fun.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that we won’t be flexible on the road and take other routes than planned. Of course, the planning is only a framework, but one that doesn’t take up any more time on the way. Roads, regional conditions, climates, fuel costs, road fees, customs formalities, relevant documents, procurement of replacement tires, even great restaurants – everything is in our Excel sheets. And along the way we concentrate on looking, enjoying and living – and also allowing for flexibility for the unforeseen.

The same applies to the truck and the technology. When we are at home, we have our Shujaa meticulously serviced and he receives intensive wellness treatments so that he is really well on the way. Of course, something can still happen, but even then we have our contacts and potential workshops in our lists. For example, Oliver has already ordered tires for our next North American tour in the USA (our tire size is rather difficult to obtain there), which he will only have fitted in a few months’ time…at a point on the trip when the current tires will be worn out. And here, too, there is nothing to research on the way or even to have delivered from Germany and to wait and wait and wait …

So far, hey, it has always worked very smoothly. Sure, that can change, but then we’ll accept that gratefully.

Another important point is our life and travel concept: we are usually on the road 6-8 months a year and the rest at home. At first we thought that we would leave Germany with Shujaa and then only come back after the end of the entire world tour 7 or 10 years later. However, our first stage in South America showed us that we need time to digest all the travel impressions. And that doesn’t mean two weeks on the beach to hang out and recharge our batteries. That’s not enough for us. We spend several months a year in Mallorca, our selected homebase, and live a completely different life there. However, this means that we gain distance to travelling every time, digest the experiences, and are happy again to continue travelling. Fortunately, unlike other travelers who may have given up all their belongings and live solely in their vehicle, we have the luxury option of pausing in a dream location. However, this also means that we don’t stay at mediocre locations for weeks on our world tour to organize, repair or recover from travel… because we have the choice.

We want to travel the world, we want to marvel at the earth with its wonders, we want to meet people, visit sights, drive through cities, live in deserts for a few days and feel all the enjoyment that comes with it. And that’s exactly what we do quite well with our way of traveling. Last but not least, it is a delight to listen to the sonorous engine noise in the driver’s cab and simply to gondola through the landscape for hours. This is meditation for us. We just love driving our expedition truck.

We don’t miss anything, on the contrary. We often meet travelers who copy our routes and start all over again in a country because they have missed something. Compared to the routes and reports that other travelers drove much more slowly, we see no difference, only that we might just continue after a visit and not stay in the hot parking lot for two more days.

A word about deceleration, which moves and occupies us all these days and which many of us “practice”. We also have these thoughts. But, we see that in completely different areas, not whether we drive 150 km a day or not, because in the car we accelerate the most.

Conclusion: every traveler needs to find his own pace. We have explained our point of view today because questions often arise and it cannot be explained in one sentence. And as I write, I notice that we are doing exactly the right thing for ourselves. And now we’re looking forward to the next stage. The last week in Mallorca has begun and we’re already excited to discover the world again… the first few days will certainly raise our daily average again 😉. We are really excited when we lock up our beloved finca and open the door to our beloved Shujaa again. In slightly cooler Canada.