Hi there,

sneaking this wonderful forum for ages, I (m,38,4x4) just signed in here a few weeks ago. Want to get inspired on routes, sights and tricks, but also want to contribute where I can.

In my teens & early twenties, I backpacked Indo & Brazil, ski toured and bicycled the Alps and Pyrenees and toured the entire windsurfable european main coast several times before moving to South Africa, ran a kiteboarding school and car rental for seven seasons in Cape Town, toured SA, Namibia, Bots & Moz in a Toyo-bakkie, a Merc-/8 or on the KTM of a good friend in off-season. Unfortunately I had to move back to Germany to step in as sickness cover into the already ran down family business. This took the last few years, in which the job didn´t allow to travel at all.

Restored a S2a Landy during the chewy melt down of my job and most of the rest. Though I didn´t bought and rebuilt the Landy intentionally for traveling (and a S2a Diesel isn´t meant for it), it seemed to suit me fine as a getaway car on two recent +5000km trips to the shores of Sardinia and the peaks of the Western Alps. Left me completely reinfected with the travel virus, again.

I`m pretty keen to leave again asap on the real big rtw-escape, but not really sure, which way to go, yet. Always dreamed of crossing Africa north to south not just by plane. By now I guess, I´m only lacking a decent Sahara trip, as I´ve already seen most of southern Africa and I´m not quite sure, if all the mud is worth the costly bribing in central Africa or the hilariously priced national parks in the east. Do the elephants look different there? Best surf/wind statistic would be in Somalia anyway, but who do I tell, nobody will go there to surf in the future decades to come.

So the second big dream - surfing Chile downwind south to north and skiing the Andes and/or the champagne powder of the Rockies - came up my mind. Which lead roughly to the route Tanger -> Dakar -> container to the South Americas. But I could keep up the Sahara for later.

By now, I´m browsing the web for the cheapest and most convenient antlantic crossing for a 20"-container (carrying all the sports gear doesn´t allow RoRo) and how to avoid the costly 4k€-Carnet deposit.

I´ll try to fund this trip partly by working along the road as a certified ski-, snowboard- & kite board instructor. Not sure, if this will work out completely.

So far, that´s me and my "plan". Maybe I´ll wake up tomorrow, desperately wanting to eat me through the street food of Asia or to snow kite the frozen Lake Baikal and turn this "plan" upside down. Let´s see.

In the mean time, feel free to surf my couch or my tools, if you should want to stop in Dortmund, Germany. Just drop a PM in advance.

Cheers

Now all you need is a bike :-)

I truly like to ride a nimble bike along some bumpy track, but never made a driving license for it - shame, I know. But this pretty surely saved my limbs in my early years.

To me, traveling means more, to get to remote spots and to hone my skills on more forgiving surface than "just" riding rocks and tarmac. Prefer to furthermore ruin my bones and ligations on snow and water. Means, I´m carrying a coffin sized quiver full of boards, kites and other stuff. The dog needs plenty of space, too. And where would I put the fridge for the and the folding lathe floor for a cosy snooze? Yep, I became a picky pussy - but who cares.

A bike is not an option, sorry.

Cheers