Catching Up

Before writing about the latest adventure I have to bring you up to speed what happened the last four years. 

As Korea is one of the few countries flying to Palau 🇵🇼 we seized that opportunity and went there before flying to South Africa. Palau was awesome: lovely islands and great diving. A must was to swim in the jelly fish lake! We also spent some time on Peleliu which saw fierce fighting in WW2.

Not long after arriving in Johannesburg we made great friends which helped pass the time until our car arrived. Shout out to the Vesparados 🤘

When we reached Cape Town, by way of Lesotho, Melanie flew home and Aaron (our former flat mate who by chance was in ZA) joined me. Together we drove up and down the Garden Route as well ventured inland.

Once Melanie was back we were ready to head into Namibia 🇳🇦 but due to medical reasons had to put our trip on hold. We put the Land Cruiser in storage and flew home. 

Then a little pandemic hit the world which made traveling impossible for a while. So after a year we got the car back and toured a bit through north Italy 🇮🇹 with it. 

In the spring of 2021 Aaron and I flew to the Dominican Republic 🇩🇴 for a bit of backpacking (and looking at a potential house to buy 😉).

In the summer then our group from Mongolia 🇲🇳 reunited and the six of us travelled through France 🇫🇷, visiting the Normandie, Saint-Malo, Dune du Pilat and stopped at the river Ardeche.

In November we met up with the rest of my family in Tenerife. Seeing the nephew and niece, drinking wine and eating good food. 

Shortly there after Melanie and I flew to Morocco 🇲🇦. Strolling through the souks and enjoying some Tagine. 

Then Marcel switched with Melanie and we did a week of Enduro riding around the Atlas Mountains. Was exhausting but awesome!

In 2022 my Atlantic crossing finally happened, after being postponed for two years in a row. 

Starting in Sint Maarten 🇸🇽 in the Caribbean it took us four long weeks to get to the Azores by catamaran.

Where Melanie was waiting for me 😍 Together we travelled around the islands, tried the local dishes, drank local wine and went whale watching. After hundreds of years hunting them the locals had great system to spot them. We were lucky and even saw some sperm whales and a “small” blue whale 🐳 

In the summer then we met up with Tobi and Nik and toured through Czechia 🇨🇿, Austria 🇦🇹 and norther Italy 🇮🇹 by LandCruiser. 

As I still need some nautical miles for my skipper certification Melanie & I booked a week of sailing out of Athens. Spending first some time visiting Hellenic sites before setting sail.

And now you know 😅

Over the highest mountain pass in Europe (13.08.2016 - 15.08.2016)

We drove over the french alps back home to Switzerland! 

But first we had another night in an old castle surrounded by vineyards in the Piedmont region. The following morning we took the most direct route to France. Not exactly the fastest but it made us cross the lovely Colle delle Finestre. At least the uphill part was... The downhill part was a dirt road the first eight kilometers. Not so funny on our tiny wheels.

Anyway, we made it and then crossed the mountain pass between France and Italy. Next was the Col de L'iseran, with 2770 metres above sea the highest in Europe! Okay it was only ten metres more than the Stelvio pass which we did in the beginning of the trip ;)

Snapped some pictures and then we descended to the village of Val d'Isere. Exhausted we decided to enjoy the lovely weather a bit more and stayed for the night.

In the morning we drove on to Chamonix to see the mighty Mont Blanc. And then we were only two passes away from Switzerland! Over some tiny passes we then progressed to Gstaad/Saanen for the final night. 

The night was short and the morning after brutal but we still managed to drive all the way home. 

In total we did 3'504 km in three weeks... At least I did, Winstons odometer displayed 90 km more?! Don't know which one is right :D

Top of Europe!

Along the Côte d'Azur (10.08.2016 - 13.08.2016)

After leaving Andorra (and crossing one gigantic traffic jam uphill) we drove to Carcasonne for the night. The little city is well preserved and looks really nice towering on the hill.

The following day we drove all the way east to the coast but didn't quite make it. The crazy Mistral made riding our micro machines way to dangerous. We were almost blown off and had to lean into the wind at certain times. It was blowing up to 60km/h from the side o_O. So we spent the night in Salon de Provence and continued the following day with a big headache ;). A lovely stretch between the hills later and we reached St. Tropez! 

Here we stayed on one of the luxurious yachts anchoring in the gulf. Okay it was an old rundown boat, but still! Having a swim and enjoying the view was awesome. Also at night we got picked up were all the fancy people waited to get to their boat :D The illusion was a bit spoiled when our broken little dingy arrived, but still! ;)

St. Tropez otherwise isn't really worth mentioning... A lot of ladies dressed as girls and a lot of girls dressed as ladies. Weird world between the yachts and Ferraris.

The next day I would never have traded our motorbike against one of these luxury cars. Almost all the way to Cannes was one never ending traffic jam. We must have overtaken millions of cars... 

A brief stop and off we where for lunch to Nice. Enjoying a last time the fresh spoils of the sea.

On to Monaco, country number eight of eight! Almost three thousand kilometers behind us and still not home :D

We toasted to our success and drove on.