Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Riding 50cc Kreidler Florett Bikes in Australia with Bea and Helmut of Time to Ride

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Riding 50cc Kreidler Florett Bikes in Australia with Bea and Helmut of Time to Ride · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
0:09
Speaker 1: Ashley Jordano, and today I'm joined by Bier and Helmet
0:13
Speaker 1: Adventure motorcycle riders of Time to Ride.
0:16
Speaker 2: Welcome to the podcast. You too, I'm so glad to
0:18
Speaker 2: have you.
0:19
Speaker 3: Hello, Ashley, thank you very much for having us. We're
0:22
Speaker 3: quite excited.
0:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, very thrilled to be part of this podcast.
0:28
Speaker 2: Where are you tuning in from today?
0:31
Speaker 3: Actually from back home in Upper Bavaria right now.
0:34
Speaker 4: We're back home with our families. We aught spring is
0:38
Speaker 4: a good time to do a short visit sort of
0:41
Speaker 4: visit family, visit friends and so on.
0:43
Speaker 3: And well, after over twenty months now on the road,
0:47
Speaker 3: we've had like it's time to go home and see,
0:50
Speaker 3: like I said, Femilyine friends and we have to organize
0:52
Speaker 3: a little bit of stuff and get some work done.
0:54
Speaker 3: And so it's actually nice combination of yeah, visiting and
0:57
Speaker 3: working some stuff.
0:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really nice to have a reset once in
1:00
Speaker 1: a while so you can go back fresh. And you're
1:03
Speaker 1: just returning from an Australian trip, so we'll definitely talk.
1:08
Speaker 2: All about that.
1:08
Speaker 1: And I'm excited to talk about the bikes that you
1:10
Speaker 1: chose for the trip and the sort of mindset behind
1:14
Speaker 1: that and the places you went to in Australia. But
1:18
Speaker 1: the whole motorcycle adventure riding started in twenty eleven. For
1:23
Speaker 1: you too, take us back to that time and your
1:26
Speaker 1: mindset back then when you sold everything and left.
1:29
Speaker 4: Well back then, it's actually quite a while ago. I
1:32
Speaker 4: have to say. We thought it would be a great
1:34
Speaker 4: idea to visit Australia. Or actually it was Bo's idea.
1:37
Speaker 4: She wanted to travel through Australia, but not on a
1:40
Speaker 4: motorcycle mainly. But for me, my.
1:42
Speaker 3: Big dream was visiting Australia once and really traveling the country.
1:46
Speaker 3: And I told him about the idea and he was like, ah,
1:51
Speaker 3: with a backpack, that's not mine. And also with a vein.
1:53
Speaker 3: I don't see myself in the car. I love motorcycle riding.
1:56
Speaker 3: We could do it with a motorcycle. And I had
1:59
Speaker 3: no bike experience on a bike back then, and I said, Okay,
2:02
Speaker 3: if this is the only way of visiting Australia, let's
2:05
Speaker 3: do it on a motorcycle.
2:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm well. And then shipping and flight courts and
2:10
Speaker 4: also our employers they said, well, we have to quit
2:13
Speaker 4: if we want to do such a longer journey, and
2:16
Speaker 4: then we decided, well, for all the money and we've
2:18
Speaker 4: got time now when we could ride to Australia and
2:21
Speaker 4: that started actually a trip around the world, which was
2:24
Speaker 4: planned for two years, but we ended up traveling five
2:28
Speaker 4: and a half years.
2:29
Speaker 3: So really the world became our home for such a
2:32
Speaker 3: long time, even if we did not expect this journey
2:35
Speaker 3: to turn into a world trip at all.
2:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, I hear that from a lot of Overlanders and
2:39
Speaker 1: can relate myself. When you get going, you're like, I know,
2:42
Speaker 1: we're going to do it in two years, and then
2:43
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you're like, what's happened? There are
2:46
Speaker 1: so many things to do in places to see, so
2:49
Speaker 1: it's so wonderful and I'm curious what were you doing
2:53
Speaker 1: for work before you least.
2:54
Speaker 3: I'm an environmental engineer and Hamut is mechanical engineer, which
2:57
Speaker 3: comes in quite handy because he's really I I don't know,
3:02
Speaker 3: I can't I know, I can rely on him and
3:04
Speaker 3: I don't have to worry that we break down somewhere
3:06
Speaker 3: in the middle of nowhere because he will fix it.
3:09
Speaker 4: That's the only reason why I'm allowed to travel. Keep
3:12
Speaker 4: a woman in the night, then picking up the motorcycle
3:15
Speaker 4: and fixing it. That's my part.
3:19
Speaker 3: I know.
3:21
Speaker 2: Those are really important skills to have.
3:23
Speaker 1: So it's and then so when you decided to leave,
3:28
Speaker 1: what was going on in your life at that time
3:30
Speaker 1: that you wanted to leave everything and travel just.
3:33
Speaker 3: Been curious, curious to see the world. And like I
3:37
Speaker 3: said that back then, I was not so much into
3:39
Speaker 3: motorcycle riding. That really came with the trip, which was
3:43
Speaker 3: kind of interesting. But I think we didn't expect or
3:47
Speaker 3: we didn't know what to expect from such a trip.
3:50
Speaker 3: We never traveled outside of Europe before, so we were
3:53
Speaker 3: completely new to this topic over land traveling at all.
3:57
Speaker 3: And but I think over the months we just realized
4:00
Speaker 3: that that's that's exactly what we want to do and
4:04
Speaker 3: where we want to be on the road, somewhere in
4:06
Speaker 3: the dirt with the trends.
4:07
Speaker 4: Get this feeling you're in the right place in the
4:10
Speaker 4: right time, and it felt just right. So we absolutely
4:16
Speaker 4: enjoyed it.
4:17
Speaker 3: And well, first where we had a very German plan.
4:20
Speaker 3: We have to be there at that time. There at
4:21
Speaker 3: that time, we say, listen, this money, so this allows
4:23
Speaker 3: us to travel such a short distance and over time,
4:27
Speaker 3: we recognize that it just doesn't work like this fixed schedule.
4:31
Speaker 3: And then we also had the opportunity to work along
4:34
Speaker 3: the way, like for Australia. We had we've been young
4:36
Speaker 3: enough back then we had a work in travel visa,
4:38
Speaker 3: so we worked there for a while and saved quite
4:41
Speaker 3: a bit, and so this allowed us to continue to travel.
4:44
Speaker 3: And at some point where you became really interested in photography,
4:50
Speaker 3: and we started a blog back then, because we're talking
4:53
Speaker 3: about twenty eleven, so back then there was no such
4:56
Speaker 3: things then Instagram, I think Facebook just started and you
4:59
Speaker 3: had a few blocks out there, and but not so
5:02
Speaker 3: many information about traveling, about visa, about other requirements. So
5:07
Speaker 3: we wanted to all the knowledge we collected, we wanted
5:10
Speaker 3: to share with others and also keep our friends and
5:13
Speaker 3: family big home updated. So we decided to start a block.
5:16
Speaker 3: But there was never in the beginning I thought that
5:18
Speaker 3: this could turn into something professional, but over time it
5:23
Speaker 3: just evolved.
5:24
Speaker 4: Life happened.
5:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can totally relate to that.
5:27
Speaker 1: I would have had no idea when we first traveled
5:30
Speaker 1: that here we are now in twenty twenty six and
5:33
Speaker 1: the world's different, and there's so many opportunities and it's yeah,
5:37
Speaker 1: it's totally a different world now. So take me along
5:41
Speaker 1: on your route on that trip. Where did you start?
5:45
Speaker 1: You started in Germany obviously, but from there, where did
5:47
Speaker 1: you begin and where did that journey take you?
5:50
Speaker 4: Well, back then we went east first, so through Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Russia, Kazarstan,
5:57
Speaker 4: Mongolia to the very far east of Russia. Back then
6:01
Speaker 4: was actually planned to ship from there to Japan, but
6:04
Speaker 4: the Fukshima accident happened just a month or two before,
6:08
Speaker 4: so we had to skip the plan, and so we
6:10
Speaker 4: shipped around China to Southeast Asia, traveled around Southeast Asia
6:15
Speaker 4: down to Indonesia, all these islands, and from their ship
6:20
Speaker 4: to Australia eventually kept going after one and a half
6:23
Speaker 4: years to New Zealand and then South America to the
6:27
Speaker 4: very bottom and then from there basically six sect up
6:33
Speaker 4: to Alaska. From there we went back home.
6:36
Speaker 3: So only five and a half years later we were
6:38
Speaker 3: turned back.
6:38
Speaker 1: Home, and you took two hundred trans alps on that trip.
6:42
Speaker 4: Right, old ones back then, they've been already let me
6:47
Speaker 4: think twenty twenty five years old, but they're basically bulletproof,
6:51
Speaker 4: cheap bulletproof, a bit like a sector. As long as
6:56
Speaker 4: they have oil and water, they they would run, they
6:58
Speaker 4: eat anything. We did a roughly one hundred and fifty
7:02
Speaker 4: five thousand kilometers. They had already like fifty thousand on
7:05
Speaker 4: the clock when we board and rebuild them, so they
7:09
Speaker 4: never let us down. Absolutely great motorcycle and they're still
7:13
Speaker 4: we have them still and they are still running and
7:16
Speaker 4: three hundred thousand k's on the clock now and right
7:19
Speaker 4: now in the museum in Germany.
7:22
Speaker 2: That's amazing cool.
7:24
Speaker 4: So they tell a little bit about this story about
7:26
Speaker 4: the journey. So that's that's a great idea. And the
7:29
Speaker 4: Technical Museum in sin Sheim is an absolutely great museum.
7:33
Speaker 4: Even if you don't like museums, this is one to
7:36
Speaker 4: go because there's technique from all sorts.
7:40
Speaker 3: From submarines to airplanes and everything.
7:42
Speaker 4: And not today like watching it, but you can touch it,
7:46
Speaker 4: you can sit in it, you can and that's a
7:48
Speaker 4: great place for those motorcycles to know that.
7:50
Speaker 3: They don't like roder in the garage now that you're
7:53
Speaker 3: traveling again, but they are really somewhow where they can
7:55
Speaker 3: still tell a story about traveling and about all the
7:59
Speaker 3: leagles being relied. I mean, now we switched to even
8:01
Speaker 3: all the bikes for the new journey.
8:04
Speaker 1: Yes, I was going to ask you about that, So
8:07
Speaker 1: fast forward to this Australia trip. I'm so fascinated you
8:11
Speaker 1: chose two fifty year old fifty cc two stroke Creadler
8:15
Speaker 1: Florrette Classic bikes for this trip.
8:18
Speaker 2: How did the bikes.
8:20
Speaker 1: You took on the five year journey lead you to those?
8:24
Speaker 3: Like?
8:24
Speaker 1: How did your riding experience from the past and inform
8:26
Speaker 1: the bike choice for Australia.
8:28
Speaker 4: It actually happened, you know again like saying, with our
8:32
Speaker 4: first decision with this word trip, beer was involved. So
8:36
Speaker 4: that's al. We had a couple of beers sitting around
8:39
Speaker 4: the campsign. We said, well, we would love to travel again,
8:42
Speaker 4: but we need something different. Australia would be great. We
8:45
Speaker 4: haven't seen everything there. We loved it, and you know,
8:48
Speaker 4: we loved these remote places and these quirky towns and
8:52
Speaker 4: pubs and all sorts of stuff they've got.
8:55
Speaker 3: You talked about something different. I imagined a nice four wheel
8:58
Speaker 3: drive finally with a fridge and cook something nice at
9:01
Speaker 3: the evening. But you had a different idea.
9:04
Speaker 4: This is a moped. I grew up with those things
9:08
Speaker 4: and let's do it. With a mope, but then it
9:10
Speaker 4: will be different. We both were instantly hooked with this idea,
9:15
Speaker 4: and then we bought two of those, rebuilt them, and
9:18
Speaker 4: prepared them actually for the journey. The Journey was playing
9:22
Speaker 4: twenty twenty, but as you know, with Corner, things were
9:26
Speaker 4: delayed a little bit. Let's say this way, so we
9:30
Speaker 4: had more time to test write them and then overthink
9:33
Speaker 4: our idea. That's the right one. But yeah, we love
9:38
Speaker 4: it absolutely, It's very different. Yeah, but it's great.
9:45
Speaker 3: Well, we knew that riding such little bike comes with
9:50
Speaker 3: definitely different challenges, not only that they are not as
9:54
Speaker 3: comfortable as a modern bike. I mean you have very
9:56
Speaker 3: old suspension and also very little suspension. They have no
10:00
Speaker 3: maybe as no modern technology, and a slow very slowly.
10:04
Speaker 4: We have one hundred and fifty millimeters drum brakes, so
10:07
Speaker 4: every bicycle bicycle thirty years ago had better breaks sort
10:11
Speaker 4: of thing, and danger is your power is not exciting.
10:18
Speaker 4: Let's say this way as well. But it's different, and
10:21
Speaker 4: what we actually wanted to achieve with those bikes was
10:24
Speaker 4: basically back to the spirits of traveling and riding. Nowadays
10:29
Speaker 4: you have so much technology, and then, especially with our blog,
10:32
Speaker 4: we get a lot of it. We got a lot
10:33
Speaker 4: of emails from people who said, well, they bought the
10:37
Speaker 4: news motorcycle lens on and now they can't afford to
10:40
Speaker 4: travel anymore. And that's why we said, well, let's go
10:44
Speaker 4: back to like thirty forty fifty years and people back
10:47
Speaker 4: then they just took what they had and they had
10:49
Speaker 4: the greatest adventure and memories. And that was basically the
10:53
Speaker 4: idea that.
10:53
Speaker 3: Kicked it off with those little to see what's possible
10:56
Speaker 3: on something really old, really basic.
10:58
Speaker 4: Just focus on the basic things and experience the adventure
11:03
Speaker 4: and to create memories.
11:04
Speaker 3: And actually what happened then also surprised us. And when
11:08
Speaker 3: you were the mechanic and our team and you were
11:10
Speaker 3: quite sure that they would be reliable and tough enough
11:14
Speaker 3: to tackle the Australian outback cut, there was really some
11:19
Speaker 3: kind in some way a new way of travel because
11:23
Speaker 3: how the people reacted. Even back then with the big
11:26
Speaker 3: bikes and all the luggage on it and all the
11:28
Speaker 3: stickers from the different countries, we had great encounters. But
11:31
Speaker 3: now with the little bikes, especially turning up somewhere in
11:34
Speaker 3: the middle of nowhere in the bush with three hundred
11:36
Speaker 3: kilometer of rough corrugated roads in both directions. People just
11:41
Speaker 3: wouldn't believe that someone would turn up with a little
11:44
Speaker 3: bike like ours, and it was a needed conversation starter.
11:48
Speaker 3: And also riding these bikes, even if you maybe can't
11:54
Speaker 3: imagine in the first place that it would be fun,
11:57
Speaker 3: we really enjoyed that. Also, we did some really tough row, bumpy, sandy,
12:01
Speaker 3: deep river crossings everything. It was so much fun because
12:05
Speaker 3: they are quite small and light and low and nimble,
12:09
Speaker 3: and it was almost like riding a bicycle kind of
12:13
Speaker 3: going everywhere.
12:14
Speaker 4: And when it brings fun to say, it brings different
12:16
Speaker 4: challenges as well. Some parts are easier because of the weight,
12:19
Speaker 4: but other parts, like deep sand where you need white
12:23
Speaker 4: tires and power is really a struggle. And we had
12:26
Speaker 4: parts where we had like r I don't now, fifteen
12:28
Speaker 4: twenty kilometers just deep sand and then you're just pushing
12:33
Speaker 4: with like forty five degrees of Saleseo's heat. You know,
12:39
Speaker 4: you're just pushing and kicking and all sorts of stuff.
12:43
Speaker 4: But it's part of the chill. It that's what we lost.
12:45
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
12:46
Speaker 1: I was very curious about this, like how did you
12:49
Speaker 1: outfit the bikes to be as minimalist as possible. What
12:53
Speaker 1: did you choose for gear and storage to be able
12:56
Speaker 1: to use this platform?
12:58
Speaker 4: Well, of course, or I have to say, you still
13:02
Speaker 4: get all the spare parts to rebuild it, which is great.
13:05
Speaker 4: That makes it easier, but of course you won't get
13:08
Speaker 4: any accessories for those bikes, so you have to build
13:10
Speaker 4: everything on your own. We talk about luggage racks. I
13:13
Speaker 4: build a batch blade. We also have a luggage track
13:16
Speaker 4: on the front because we can't carry so much luggage
13:19
Speaker 4: in the back and we want to balance the weight
13:22
Speaker 4: a bit better.
13:23
Speaker 3: Because you have no big engineo big tank, the bike
13:26
Speaker 3: gets really heavy in the back. So we figured out
13:28
Speaker 3: if we put a little bit of luggage in the front,
13:31
Speaker 3: you have to find a good balance. Then it actually
13:33
Speaker 3: makes it more stable and even better to ride, because
13:36
Speaker 3: a lot of people think that the bags in the
13:38
Speaker 3: front would be a disadvantage, but actually if you pack
13:42
Speaker 3: clever and balance ad wisely, it makes it actually even
13:46
Speaker 3: better and most able to write.
13:49
Speaker 4: I'm modified of course the ignition the electronics we weak
13:53
Speaker 4: dangin so it can handle the weight a lot better,
13:57
Speaker 4: and especially the long distances. In Australia we have we
14:01
Speaker 4: carry different pockets for different terror so we at least
14:03
Speaker 4: you know, like if you have a stretch of a
14:05
Speaker 4: thousand CA's of Bitjamin, we can do at least like
14:08
Speaker 4: sixty or inscredible sixty. So that makes it a bit quicker,
14:15
Speaker 4: but still slow. We love slow.
14:17
Speaker 3: It's kind of meditative and very important. You changed to
14:22
Speaker 3: where we have a little better y. Now we can
14:24
Speaker 3: charge stuff on a USB port because we carry a
14:27
Speaker 3: lot of camera equipment to document the trips, so that
14:30
Speaker 3: was also important for us that we are able to
14:34
Speaker 3: recharge our equipment somewhere in the bush at least for
14:36
Speaker 3: a couple of days before reaching the next campground. Nice.
14:40
Speaker 1: And how did you manage fuel range for the region
14:44
Speaker 1: tank in Australia?
14:46
Speaker 4: The original tank has twelve leaders and it lasts for
14:49
Speaker 4: roughlys minus three hundred and fifty ks, which is not
14:53
Speaker 4: too bad that most of the time it's enough. In Australia.
14:56
Speaker 3: You have to say, when we met the other travelers
14:59
Speaker 3: somewhere in middle of nowhere, and they mostly travel with
15:02
Speaker 3: the big four wheel drives, and they're always surprised how
15:05
Speaker 3: we can make it to these places with the little bikes.
15:07
Speaker 3: And then when we tell them, oh, we have twelve
15:09
Speaker 3: litter and can do three hundred something case with it.
15:12
Speaker 3: They can't believe it because they're big trucks that they
15:15
Speaker 3: use twenty five cert to lead the per hundred, so
15:17
Speaker 3: they're always they've been quite impressed.
15:20
Speaker 4: But in case like if we had like more remote places,
15:23
Speaker 4: we just filled up a pet bottle we found in
15:26
Speaker 4: a rubbish bin at the gas station and or two
15:29
Speaker 4: or three whatever and that usually was enough even for
15:35
Speaker 4: the remote stretches.
15:36
Speaker 2: Excellent.
15:37
Speaker 1: How much space did you need four electronics and personal items?
15:42
Speaker 2: Like did you have a bag? Like how big.
15:45
Speaker 1: Were the things that you were bringing.
15:47
Speaker 3: With you on Like we always say we have heaps
15:50
Speaker 3: of electronic and then there is a space for three
15:53
Speaker 3: anddies and three T shirts And that's not a chalk
15:55
Speaker 3: that's really serious.
15:57
Speaker 4: Like of course we carry tools and spare parts certain amount.
16:01
Speaker 4: I love to be basically independent, like if you break
16:05
Speaker 4: down in the middle of nowhere, I can fix it somehow.
16:07
Speaker 4: That was important for me already on the word trip.
16:10
Speaker 4: And so we have a bit of this stuff, but
16:12
Speaker 4: mostly it's camera here, like we are doing an adventure
16:16
Speaker 4: reality documentation. It's a show ongoing show. We really love
16:21
Speaker 4: to where I really love to work with the cameras
16:24
Speaker 4: we love to present to tell those stories. So of
16:26
Speaker 4: course we need or we like to use a lot
16:29
Speaker 4: of electronics and that's basically most of our equipment DEA
16:34
Speaker 4: and then of.
16:34
Speaker 3: Course we have a ten we have slipping bags, cooking equipment. Yeah,
16:40
Speaker 3: everything to be also quite independent when it comes to
16:43
Speaker 3: kept being somewhere in the bush for a couple of days.
16:46
Speaker 1: Were there any pieces of gear that surprised you that
16:49
Speaker 1: you're like, this is my favorite thing that we brought
16:51
Speaker 1: and I did not expect it. Or did you have
16:53
Speaker 1: enough experience from your past trip that you kind of
16:56
Speaker 1: knew what to bring in how it would perform.
16:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so. Due to the worldship, we knew
17:03
Speaker 3: pretty well what we want to bring. Especially the water
17:05
Speaker 3: filter was for us a real game changer. We traveled
17:09
Speaker 3: through KP York area, for example, or telegraph track that's
17:13
Speaker 3: really remote, and we've been off the grid for a
17:15
Speaker 3: couple of days and we only met I think three
17:18
Speaker 3: other cars in four days, so there was really no
17:20
Speaker 3: one on the track. So it was really great to
17:24
Speaker 3: stop in the evening filter some fresh drinking water and
17:27
Speaker 3: then cook something basic and just really be out there
17:31
Speaker 3: in the world for a couple of days without relying
17:35
Speaker 3: on a campground or whatsoever really is important for us.
17:39
Speaker 4: Well, of course, say they set up changed the pennuers
17:43
Speaker 4: on the motorcycles were way bigger, even though like on
17:46
Speaker 4: the small bikes the bakes then they might look big,
17:49
Speaker 4: but like the average penny on our motorcycle had like
17:52
Speaker 4: thirty six leaders and the real side bakes on our
17:56
Speaker 4: little mopeds now they have roughly twenty leaders each, which
17:59
Speaker 4: is like half the size. So we had to rearrange everything,
18:04
Speaker 4: go even smaller, take even less. So that was four
18:10
Speaker 4: started was one of the bigger challenges. By now we've
18:13
Speaker 4: sorted everything out and as I said, the camera wips
18:18
Speaker 4: even more. But people wouldn't believe I don't know about
18:22
Speaker 4: you traveling, Like if you go into a moltil or
18:25
Speaker 4: hotel room and you unpack your basic stuff, it's like
18:28
Speaker 4: it's a mess in this room. People can't even get
18:31
Speaker 4: to the bed and people would say where does this
18:34
Speaker 4: fit down the bike?
18:35
Speaker 3: You know, it's like but everything has its spot. Then
18:38
Speaker 3: it works.
18:39
Speaker 4: It works.
18:39
Speaker 3: And it's also interesting how little you actually need for
18:43
Speaker 3: your day daily life, even if you travel for so
18:46
Speaker 3: many months in a row like we did, you don't
18:48
Speaker 3: need much. We really don't need much. And that's also
18:51
Speaker 3: a realization we had on the world trip already. Something
18:54
Speaker 3: we try to also do when we're back home, that
18:57
Speaker 3: we don't buy heaps of stuff, but really think about
19:01
Speaker 3: what do we really need, what do we enjoy?
19:03
Speaker 4: What do we want guess or do I really need this?
19:06
Speaker 4: If I do buy something proper, something good, last quality,
19:11
Speaker 4: then enjoy it, you know. That's our philosophy in life
19:14
Speaker 4: in general, especially with traveling even more because often you're
19:18
Speaker 4: in the middle of nowhere and then you need to
19:19
Speaker 4: rely on the stuff you're using. So it's I think
19:23
Speaker 4: one of the bigger challenge was for sure food and water.
19:28
Speaker 4: It's it's in the remote stretches if you're traveling there.
19:32
Speaker 4: Especially with the little mobiles, we can't do these distances
19:35
Speaker 4: like you would do with a big motorcycle or car,
19:37
Speaker 4: so we have to like carry sometimes a big, massive
19:40
Speaker 4: amount of water, and that is.
19:42
Speaker 3: A challenge wade.
19:44
Speaker 4: Rise and space wise.
19:47
Speaker 3: And I also I really tried to cook fresh every
19:50
Speaker 3: day if possible, but in the very remote stretches. Poor
19:53
Speaker 3: Heelmot had five minute noodles for I don't know a
19:56
Speaker 3: week in a row and forage with more than the morning.
20:00
Speaker 3: But yeah, that's also fine. It's I mean, it's for
20:03
Speaker 3: a limited period of time and then it's so fine
20:06
Speaker 3: for sure.
20:07
Speaker 1: I also think going back to this stuff comment like
20:10
Speaker 1: a lot of times when you're doing this, you just
20:12
Speaker 1: forget that you have things. And I've noticed that when
20:15
Speaker 1: I go back home sometimes I'm like.
20:16
Speaker 2: Oh, I forgot I even had this, so does it
20:18
Speaker 2: mean that much to me?
20:20
Speaker 1: Or we go away and come back to the camper
20:23
Speaker 1: and I open it up and I'm like, oh, I
20:25
Speaker 1: didn't remember I had this, So like that's just a
20:27
Speaker 1: sign to me that maybe I don't actually need it.
20:30
Speaker 1: But sometimes you're like, actually, I forgot I had this,
20:33
Speaker 1: and I love it.
20:34
Speaker 4: So yeah, yeah, the same experience here. Now we're coming
20:39
Speaker 4: back home after twenty months. Here, I have to start earlier,
20:44
Speaker 4: even like when we quitted our jobs and sold basically everything,
20:48
Speaker 4: like we kept a little bag or little box and
20:51
Speaker 4: there were these emotional things in there. I can't I
20:53
Speaker 4: can't sell this, so I can't give it away. I
20:57
Speaker 4: can't throw it away. But then you're going for a
20:59
Speaker 4: year or six months or whatever, and you returned back
21:02
Speaker 4: and you haven't even you didn't even remember that you
21:06
Speaker 4: had it, and that was quite often the part when
21:09
Speaker 4: I don't need it. But as you said, sometimes you
21:11
Speaker 4: have things like I loved it.
21:14
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, So tell me more about how the simple
21:19
Speaker 1: machine changed the experience of your journey. You've alluded to
21:23
Speaker 1: a few different things, but I'm wondering you went into
21:27
Speaker 1: it with a mindset of simplicity, and what things surprised
21:31
Speaker 1: you coming out on the other end, what.
21:34
Speaker 4: Things surprise as well. First we planned to travel around
21:37
Speaker 4: Australia with the goal doing some of the toughest tracks
21:41
Speaker 4: the country has to offer. That was the main goal
21:43
Speaker 4: first for six months because we didn't know if we
21:46
Speaker 4: would enjoy like thousands and thousands of kilometers of straight
21:50
Speaker 4: rolls on these little bikes. So but then we did.
21:53
Speaker 4: That was the first surprise and we absolutely loved it.
21:57
Speaker 4: And of course they were incredibly capable of off road
22:03
Speaker 4: as well. Like people would say, well when we told
22:05
Speaker 4: them we do kdo go telegraph track and all that
22:08
Speaker 4: sort of stuff, and they said it's not possible with
22:10
Speaker 4: those bikes, and they absolutely loved it. We did as well.
22:14
Speaker 4: And third thing, I would say, it's how people react
22:17
Speaker 4: on the bikes. It's not only like technical interested men,
22:22
Speaker 4: but also women and children. You know, the two strokes
22:25
Speaker 4: sound is very unusual nowadays. It's a bit like a
22:27
Speaker 4: normal yeah. Like if you turn up at the supermarket
22:31
Speaker 4: and there are people walking in and out, everyone is thereing,
22:34
Speaker 4: and then we have a bicycle bill because we don't
22:36
Speaker 4: have indicators or any sort of electronics, so we only
22:39
Speaker 4: have a little bicycle bill and then you like thing
22:42
Speaker 4: and people are smiling, and that's you know, that's the
22:45
Speaker 4: national language. You instantly have a connection with all those people.
22:49
Speaker 4: And there is the very base part.
22:51
Speaker 3: Yes. Also I would say we had some really funny encounters,
22:56
Speaker 3: like on the old telegraph track we mentioned a couple
22:59
Speaker 3: of times now because it's one of the toughest we did.
23:02
Speaker 3: We had the last river crossing the final boss Nolan's Brook,
23:06
Speaker 3: and it is rather long and almost hip deep with
23:09
Speaker 3: soft sand and you have to say more technical airfield
23:14
Speaker 3: does it's quite low, so Ian would build some kind
23:17
Speaker 3: of snork and really wanted to give it a try
23:21
Speaker 3: and push it through. And then just when we were
23:24
Speaker 3: about to start a group, a guided group.
23:27
Speaker 4: Of Induro motorcycle group turned up that they have like
23:32
Speaker 4: guided motorcycle tours up there, very remote, but it's paradise
23:37
Speaker 4: for indoor riding. And those guys turned up and they
23:41
Speaker 4: stopped and where are you going? What's the plan? And
23:44
Speaker 4: now you are loaded? And we said, well, we're already
23:46
Speaker 4: four days on this track. And they do it in
23:48
Speaker 4: I think in two days or one day, and we
23:52
Speaker 4: absolutely enjoyed it. And there it looks like an old lady.
23:55
Speaker 4: And quite often because those little mopets they actually look
23:58
Speaker 4: quite grown up rather big people always say that. They
24:02
Speaker 4: would stop and say two fifty, it's a two fifty.
24:06
Speaker 4: Now it's a fifty. Ah to fifty, now it's a fifty?
24:09
Speaker 4: What a fifty? Are you insane? It's like you know,
24:13
Speaker 4: And that was the same part like they usually are
24:16
Speaker 4: in a rush. So they turned up. They quickly go
24:19
Speaker 4: through the water and keep going because they have quite
24:21
Speaker 4: a few miles to do, and they ask, god, it's
24:24
Speaker 4: a to fifty. Now it's a fifty to what a fifty?
24:28
Speaker 4: And you're mad, absolutely mad. And then they took the
24:31
Speaker 4: time to first of all, watch us with the first go,
24:34
Speaker 4: but we absolutely drowned the whole thing in the river.
24:38
Speaker 4: And then they carried they helped us out of the river,
24:41
Speaker 4: and then they carried the second bike through the rivers.
24:44
Speaker 4: It is just one of those movement.
24:46
Speaker 3: We had so much fun with them, and this was
24:48
Speaker 3: really ongoing that the people. First they enjoyed watching us
24:52
Speaker 3: tramel on these little bikes, and also they very off
24:55
Speaker 3: the off a tab or when we turned up on
24:57
Speaker 3: a campground really late after a tough day of I
25:00
Speaker 3: think some I mean the Australians are really like their
25:02
Speaker 3: coldies in the evening as well, like weebermarn stew and
25:05
Speaker 3: very often someone turned off and said, ah, you guys,
25:08
Speaker 3: you look like you need a colding now, and then
25:10
Speaker 3: it's oh, thank god, that's awesome. And this is just
25:12
Speaker 3: these little things.
25:13
Speaker 4: It's just it's a very gibb river road. In the
25:17
Speaker 4: middle is a roadhouse and both sides are like four
25:22
Speaker 4: I don't know, five hundred case there's not much or
25:24
Speaker 4: four hundred case and it's just dirt, heavy corrugations, beautiful landscape.
25:29
Speaker 4: So we turned up at this roadhouse at sunset. Off
25:32
Speaker 4: the sunset everything was closed to we were running out
25:34
Speaker 4: of fuel. So there were three men standing there having
25:38
Speaker 4: an evening beer and they were like we turned up
25:41
Speaker 4: and they were like, so sort of what do you
25:45
Speaker 4: want at this time of the day. And we turned
25:48
Speaker 4: up and then told them if gas station is still open,
25:51
Speaker 4: if we can buy some beer and so on, and
25:53
Speaker 4: they said, now it's already closed. You have to come
25:55
Speaker 4: back tomorrow. And then they started like, what is this
25:58
Speaker 4: achie sort of bike? And I said, well, it's it's
26:01
Speaker 4: a German bike, a old one, I said to fifteen,
26:03
Speaker 4: And then we had the same conversation again, and from
26:06
Speaker 4: there on, like instantly we were best friends, you know,
26:09
Speaker 4: like and these were they were running the roadhouse, like
26:13
Speaker 4: we stayed there for two days. They offered us a
26:15
Speaker 4: job and anything else we could just wish for. That's
26:19
Speaker 4: just these things you miss when we have the feeling.
26:23
Speaker 3: When you're traveling in a van or a car, of
26:25
Speaker 3: course it has a lot of advantages, but also you
26:28
Speaker 3: sitting inside your little cabin, you're kind of enclosed and
26:33
Speaker 3: if you close the window, you don't need to talk
26:36
Speaker 3: to anyone, and with a motorcycle or bicycle you have to.
26:40
Speaker 3: You are in the environment anyway, and with our little
26:45
Speaker 3: bikes even more, you talk to everyone. And that's that
26:48
Speaker 3: makes the difference the different experiences with this journey. I
26:52
Speaker 3: think it's.
26:53
Speaker 4: Great, and that's why Actually we shipped them now from Australia.
26:57
Speaker 4: That was never the idea. We shipped them now to
26:59
Speaker 4: Asia and we keep going over there and keep filming.
27:04
Speaker 3: I mean you have to say, like I said before,
27:06
Speaker 3: we planned six months in Australia. Now it's twenty months
27:09
Speaker 3: in Australia and we keep going still. So yeah, and
27:13
Speaker 3: now with Asira, I think will be very different because
27:16
Speaker 3: all the scooters there, our little bikes will fit in
27:18
Speaker 3: there perfectly, and it will be quite different the way
27:22
Speaker 3: of travel. But we're really looking forward to that. We
27:25
Speaker 3: already missed them.
27:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, that would be such a great adventure to follow.
27:30
Speaker 1: Let's talk about logistics. So you said you bought the
27:33
Speaker 1: bikes at home, did you? I'm assuming you shipped them
27:36
Speaker 1: over to Australia. What is that process like for somebody
27:39
Speaker 1: who wants to send a bike.
27:41
Speaker 4: When you can ship by containership for example, or by plane,
27:45
Speaker 4: depends on price wise, big difference. Plane is a lot
27:48
Speaker 4: dearer and time wise plane is a lot quicker. That
27:51
Speaker 4: is the big advantage. So we flew them to Brisbane
27:55
Speaker 4: from Germany, which was price wise also okay because both
27:59
Speaker 4: mopeds are rough us so we could fit them in
28:01
Speaker 4: actually one motorcycle crate.
28:03
Speaker 3: We went to a BMW Dela got GS twelve grad
28:06
Speaker 3: and just fitted both in this grade.
28:08
Speaker 4: It was actually just one box from Perth. We ship
28:12
Speaker 4: them via ship to Malaysia. The same process. You have
28:16
Speaker 4: to create them and then it gets picked up and
28:18
Speaker 4: of course you have to do customs and so on,
28:22
Speaker 4: and it's not depends on the country, as you probably know.
28:26
Speaker 4: If it's it can be difficult and time consuming sometimes
28:30
Speaker 4: but usually it always works out somehow.
28:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean for Australia we needed a Canadia passage,
28:35
Speaker 3: this special customs document and also for some countries in
28:39
Speaker 3: Asia now as well. But then again due to the
28:42
Speaker 3: experience of our first trip new I mean rules and
28:46
Speaker 3: regulation changed over time, but some things are the same,
28:51
Speaker 3: so we knew more or less what to do and yeah,
28:56
Speaker 3: so therefore I think it was easier than on the
28:58
Speaker 3: first big trip.
28:59
Speaker 4: But if someone is interested in shipping and so on,
29:03
Speaker 4: like we've got quite a few things on our website,
29:07
Speaker 4: but mainly if you ship by ship, you always have
29:12
Speaker 4: to expect delays, like massive delays like we never had
29:16
Speaker 4: in time. Never never, we talk about weeks later. So
29:21
Speaker 4: if if you what's the Eglish world. Now we're there.
29:27
Speaker 4: If you expect this, then it's all good. Where's maybe
29:34
Speaker 4: flying by plane is or shipping by plane is the
29:36
Speaker 4: bet option?
29:37
Speaker 2: Yes, expect delays.
29:38
Speaker 1: That's a great way to prepare and buffer your timeline,
29:43
Speaker 1: so you expect the delay. For Australia, you had a
29:48
Speaker 1: Kerney like you said, and what's the tourist visa like
29:51
Speaker 1: for you there?
29:52
Speaker 3: We actually have been quite lucky because a lot of
29:54
Speaker 3: people ask us how we can spend more than a
29:57
Speaker 3: year in Australia because back on our works, we've been
30:00
Speaker 3: young enough for this work in channel visa which you
30:02
Speaker 3: can extend for up to three years, but now a
30:05
Speaker 3: bit older, so we needed a normal tourist visa and
30:08
Speaker 3: we applied for the longer one already, so you can
30:11
Speaker 3: get three months one three months very easy online and
30:15
Speaker 3: the longer one one year one. You have to hand
30:18
Speaker 3: in some documents like bank statements and reason why you
30:23
Speaker 3: go back home, just to make sure that you don't
30:25
Speaker 3: stay there legally in work and it's kind of stuff.
30:28
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was quite easy for us, and then
30:31
Speaker 3: this visa allowed us twelve months with multiple entries and
30:34
Speaker 3: every time you come back now it gets a bit complicated.
30:38
Speaker 3: Within the first twelve months, every time you come back
30:41
Speaker 3: you get another full twelve months. So about eleven months
30:46
Speaker 3: into the first twelve months, we flew out of the
30:48
Speaker 3: country and came back after a couple of days and
30:50
Speaker 3: had another twelve months. So this allowed us to stay
30:53
Speaker 3: almost two years in Australia, which was quite awesome and
30:57
Speaker 3: love that. I don't know if it works for every passport,
31:03
Speaker 3: because apparently they do make differences, but for us at
31:07
Speaker 3: least it worked really easy with no problems at all.
31:11
Speaker 2: For sure.
31:12
Speaker 4: And well it's great, yeah, I mean it's a massive
31:17
Speaker 4: country you need this time. It's like if you take
31:19
Speaker 4: your time and explore it, there's so much to see.
31:24
Speaker 3: And we tried to work on our YouTube videos on
31:27
Speaker 3: the goal, which turned out to be not so easy
31:30
Speaker 3: because infrastructure in Australia is yeah, in the remoter areas,
31:35
Speaker 3: it's Internet can be quite slow in times and as
31:40
Speaker 3: accommodations quite expensive. When you sit in your tent working
31:44
Speaker 3: on the videos is not ideal and you share the
31:48
Speaker 3: white side with the whole I don't know one hundreds
31:50
Speaker 3: of the other people of the campgrounds, so that turned
31:52
Speaker 3: out to be quite challenging. And it made us slower
31:54
Speaker 3: as well, because we stayed in certain places for a
31:57
Speaker 3: while working on results and then kept traveling.
32:01
Speaker 4: But it's a massive country, so you can easily spend
32:04
Speaker 4: years there.
32:06
Speaker 2: For sure.
32:06
Speaker 1: I was wondering for you to for trip planning, what
32:11
Speaker 1: are your interests and how do they dictate where you
32:13
Speaker 1: go and what you do well.
32:15
Speaker 4: Now, the focus was a lot on the show we
32:18
Speaker 4: were producing, so we actually want to it's not just
32:21
Speaker 4: about us. It's not just about the adventure. It's part
32:24
Speaker 4: of it, of course, the writing, the challenges that brings
32:27
Speaker 4: it with it, but we also visit a lot of
32:29
Speaker 4: quirky places, pubs, town's history. We bring in a lot
32:33
Speaker 4: of history, so landscape, wildlife, people we meet in their stories,
32:38
Speaker 4: like just to give the fewer a great idea about
32:43
Speaker 4: the country, what is it like? What can you do there?
32:46
Speaker 3: I mean we personally also prefer also on a vision,
32:49
Speaker 3: we don't want to ride through a country and just
32:52
Speaker 3: tick off countries or just a certain route. We really
32:56
Speaker 3: like to immerse into the country, meet people and have
33:00
Speaker 3: the chance that we maybe we are invited. Like in
33:04
Speaker 3: White Cliffs, a little open mining town, we ran into
33:07
Speaker 3: a guy and he lives in a dugout, which means
33:10
Speaker 3: an old open mind, and he turned it into his
33:14
Speaker 3: home and he invited us. And then it's great that
33:16
Speaker 3: you don't have to say I timetable doesn't allow me
33:19
Speaker 3: to stay a couple of days now, But then we
33:22
Speaker 3: try to take the time really meet the people and
33:25
Speaker 3: they show you around. You learn so much more about
33:28
Speaker 3: the place than you would if you would be normal
33:31
Speaker 3: throughist visiting.
33:32
Speaker 4: Or so far. It's not only the writing. It's not
33:35
Speaker 4: only doing a certain amount of cases or seeing the road.
33:38
Speaker 4: We also love camping, a lot, bush camping, fire us,
33:43
Speaker 4: cooking and all that sort of stuff. Photography of course,
33:46
Speaker 4: the animals. It's a it's a big variety for sure.
33:53
Speaker 4: We are interested in awesome.
33:55
Speaker 1: Which resources did you use in Australia for planning or
33:59
Speaker 1: they just and follow up question what were some of
34:04
Speaker 1: your absolute highlights in the country.
34:07
Speaker 2: Sorry, that was two questions that one.
34:09
Speaker 3: So for trip planning and research, I would say we
34:12
Speaker 3: can heighly recommend the Hemo Maps. There's an Australian brand
34:16
Speaker 3: and they have really very detailed maps print and digital.
34:20
Speaker 3: And also for camping we used Viki Camps. It's not
34:23
Speaker 3: for free, you have to buy it. It's I think
34:25
Speaker 3: it's a one time purchase, but it lists really a
34:28
Speaker 3: lot of campgrounds. And it's so and so because I
34:32
Speaker 3: think having all these three campgrounds listed in an app
34:36
Speaker 3: can also be a disadvantage because so many people suddenly
34:40
Speaker 3: show up at one place that they start closing them
34:42
Speaker 3: down if they leave their rubbish or just don't treat
34:44
Speaker 3: the places lies. That's definitely something that's a disadvantage with
34:48
Speaker 3: this modern apps. But on the other hand, it really
34:50
Speaker 3: helps to discover some really beautiful spots. So we I
34:55
Speaker 3: think we try to sometimes it's easier to have an app.
34:59
Speaker 3: Way can look up, okay, we can stay here and
35:02
Speaker 3: you here. That makes all the traveling easier.
35:05
Speaker 4: Yes, that there's water very little somewhere in the desert,
35:10
Speaker 4: and that helped us a lot, of course.
35:12
Speaker 3: But also we try to find our own spots to
35:15
Speaker 3: camp that are not listed when not many others stay
35:19
Speaker 3: just somewhere where we become almost.
35:20
Speaker 4: Really it's quite often easy because it's you know, like
35:24
Speaker 4: sometimes often you're in a place like five hundred k's
35:27
Speaker 4: around you, there's no more so it's like you do
35:30
Speaker 4: right into the bush pitch of the tent and it's
35:32
Speaker 4: all for you. It's great, especially with.
35:35
Speaker 3: The bikes, you're very flexible. We can just go off
35:38
Speaker 3: the road when it's not private land and just pitch
35:40
Speaker 3: of tent behind some bushes, and.
35:43
Speaker 4: I would say tourist information. We like that as well
35:46
Speaker 4: because you talk to someone you know, like people working there,
35:49
Speaker 4: they have jobs and they they are quite often enthusiastic
35:52
Speaker 4: about their their area and they tell you the tiny
35:55
Speaker 4: little things. So we love to go there and do
35:58
Speaker 4: some research. And of course etern like in general whatever
36:01
Speaker 4: you know read block out titters. Australia is quite a
36:04
Speaker 4: few travelers as well, like they call it grain nomads,
36:09
Speaker 4: old people they like when they're retired. They travel through
36:12
Speaker 4: Australia for years and often have a block or so
36:14
Speaker 4: and then you discover great things there or videos of
36:17
Speaker 4: course nowadays of course with YouTube, people make a lot
36:21
Speaker 4: of YouTube videos in then.
36:22
Speaker 3: And when we researched Australia because like I said before,
36:25
Speaker 3: we wanted really to give it a go with the
36:28
Speaker 3: some of the toughest tracks of the country, so we
36:31
Speaker 3: watched a lot of formal drive shows Glinn Fourbeild drives
36:34
Speaker 3: shows Forbid Drive twenty seven, one of our favorite channels
36:38
Speaker 3: and they do crazy stuff and we've seen like the
36:41
Speaker 3: all Telegraph track before gunshot. This is a five meter
36:45
Speaker 3: vertical drop crazy and when you see it, when you
36:48
Speaker 3: see it on the YouTube, it looks scary already, but
36:52
Speaker 3: when you stand there really and look down, you think, oh, no, men,
36:56
Speaker 3: no way can.
36:58
Speaker 4: You free under pains?
37:01
Speaker 1: So you have to find some water, find some water
37:04
Speaker 1: to wash those underpants, which may be a challenge.
37:08
Speaker 3: Too, but yeah, well. Water is another good thing to
37:13
Speaker 3: talk about because crocodiles are a major topic, especially in
37:17
Speaker 3: laws on Australia and in certain areas they have more
37:20
Speaker 3: crocodiles than people, not choc and so you always have
37:25
Speaker 3: to be a bit careful with where you come close
37:29
Speaker 3: to water. Also with our water filter, we had situations
37:32
Speaker 3: where one was like observing the water and the other
37:35
Speaker 3: one was quickly grabbing some water with a like a
37:38
Speaker 3: folded will bucket we carry.
37:42
Speaker 4: She's more delicious so they can eat meat.
37:45
Speaker 3: So there are certain things you have to keep an eyeron,
37:47
Speaker 3: or also wildlife sometimes snakes or big topic like poisonous
37:52
Speaker 3: snakes or spiders. And I think Australia has a reputation
37:56
Speaker 3: of having a lot of poisonous and dangerous things come in.
38:02
Speaker 4: Like we've spent in total in our lives, not three
38:05
Speaker 4: years in Australia. Second camping everywhere, bush camping sort of,
38:09
Speaker 4: you see, And that's the great stuff about Australia. It's
38:12
Speaker 4: it's quite often it's like waking up in the zoo.
38:15
Speaker 4: You open your tent and there are a bunch of
38:17
Speaker 4: kangaroos just feeding outside your tent or EMUs, like we
38:22
Speaker 4: can't on a river bank and you know, you get
38:24
Speaker 4: up in the morning and there are five five meters
38:26
Speaker 4: old water crocodiles just sunbulfing twenty meters next to let's
38:29
Speaker 4: say net twenty let's say fifty meters. Yes, so it's
38:33
Speaker 4: like you sit there and you just watch them and
38:36
Speaker 4: it's beautiful, Like we love this so me we never
38:38
Speaker 4: had a dangerous situation except for every now and then
38:41
Speaker 4: a kangaroo that jumps across the road or emu. That's
38:45
Speaker 4: something different. But it's amazing wildlife wise, Australia is.
38:53
Speaker 3: I think that that brings us to the second question,
38:55
Speaker 3: what was our favorite part or favorite parts of Australia.
38:59
Speaker 4: Well, I'd say kpe York, a remote stretch northeast old
39:03
Speaker 4: telegraph track for sure was a big challenge. Great memories
39:07
Speaker 4: Kip River Road, but there are so many places like
39:10
Speaker 4: we really did love.
39:11
Speaker 3: Then we traveled all the way across the outback from
39:14
Speaker 3: Adelaide up to Darwin, right through the center, took the
39:17
Speaker 3: Onna Data Track, and there was also a couple of
39:19
Speaker 3: days really just camping in the bush in the desert,
39:22
Speaker 3: and they have amazing sunsets because it's so flat and
39:25
Speaker 3: you can really see until the horizon and it's just
39:29
Speaker 3: the sun. The sky is different there and the sunsets
39:32
Speaker 3: is really spectacular. And because you're out in the bush,
39:34
Speaker 3: you have no light pollution during the nights, and because
39:37
Speaker 3: you have no light pollution in the night, you see
39:40
Speaker 3: amazing night sky, the Milky Way, really clear, really bright.
39:46
Speaker 1: Light.
39:47
Speaker 4: Photography is also.
39:51
Speaker 3: I would say West Coast because it's not so densely
39:54
Speaker 3: populated in the East. It's rougher. Also, the ocean is
39:59
Speaker 3: rough and the coast is wider, and it was some
40:02
Speaker 3: really beautiful spots there, came right on the on the cliffs,
40:06
Speaker 3: pretty big, picul.
40:12
Speaker 2: So great.
40:13
Speaker 1: It sounds like it tacked all the boxes with the challenges. Nature,
40:18
Speaker 1: beautiful landscapes, those are always the things and the people
40:21
Speaker 1: of course, and what are some of the quirky places
40:24
Speaker 1: that you went to. You're talking about how you love
40:27
Speaker 1: to hang out and check out some sort of different
40:31
Speaker 1: little quirky locations.
40:34
Speaker 4: Well, they, like Australia has quite a lot of quirky pups,
40:37
Speaker 4: you know, like people left their brawls and and blades,
40:43
Speaker 4: and of course like then they have often also quirky
40:47
Speaker 4: sort of self made monuments somewhere the.
40:50
Speaker 3: Big lobster, the big banana, the bigh we climbed, the
40:53
Speaker 3: big gum boots and.
40:55
Speaker 4: We were sitting on the big bench. And like they
40:57
Speaker 4: have a lot of like big things, but also like
41:01
Speaker 4: you drive down the road and then they have like
41:05
Speaker 4: a tree with teddy bears and then I don't know,
41:08
Speaker 4: like it's many many quirky things there.
41:12
Speaker 3: And another cool thing in Australia is that they don't
41:14
Speaker 3: have especially in the outback towns. In this pubs, it's
41:18
Speaker 3: not like you have to be dressed in a certain way.
41:20
Speaker 3: You go there, whether you're nicely dressed and you want
41:23
Speaker 3: to go out for a nice pub night, or you
41:26
Speaker 3: just come back from work from somewhere in the mine
41:28
Speaker 3: you're completely dirty. You also go there and just everyone
41:31
Speaker 3: in choice himself and that's always great that they don't
41:34
Speaker 3: care really about how they.
41:36
Speaker 4: Look on like we had Friday pub evenings, Like people
41:39
Speaker 4: are barefoot, people are in short people are in and suits,
41:42
Speaker 4: people are in even maybe the stresses all working closest
41:47
Speaker 4: filthy up until the hair. So it's it's there's basically anything.
41:52
Speaker 4: That's something we do love as well. They're easy going.
41:55
Speaker 4: Australia is easy going.
41:56
Speaker 1: Easy going where everyone can show up. I love that much.
42:00
Speaker 4: Yay.
42:01
Speaker 1: And the big thing that's so funny, like the big lobster,
42:04
Speaker 1: big banana whatever. I feel like I see that in
42:07
Speaker 1: North America, like in Canada, like biggest hockey stick and
42:11
Speaker 1: things like that, but I don't often see that in Europe.
42:14
Speaker 1: So maybe it's like more space or or whatever. But yeah,
42:19
Speaker 1: that's that's a fun, fun addition to a road trip,
42:22
Speaker 1: the biggest banana.
42:24
Speaker 3: Yeah. Then, I think Australia is not super popular with
42:27
Speaker 3: all oland travelers, maybe because they have quite a strict
42:31
Speaker 3: quarantine so every thing has to be really clean, and
42:35
Speaker 3: also with the kanne and everything makes it a bit
42:37
Speaker 3: more difficult to enter Australia. But we really love it
42:41
Speaker 3: and we think it's worse to give it a try.
42:43
Speaker 3: It It's still one of our favorite countries in the world.
42:47
Speaker 3: That's the reason why we came back after the world
42:49
Speaker 3: trip again to see it again.
42:50
Speaker 4: And someone had to ride a fifty ccle for this country.
42:56
Speaker 2: Someone had to do it.
42:57
Speaker 4: Someone had.
43:02
Speaker 1: Fantastic How do you think that this experience on two
43:06
Speaker 1: bikes has changed you as people?
43:08
Speaker 2: If at all?
43:09
Speaker 4: Mainly I would say the first trip, you know, like
43:12
Speaker 4: traveling around the world, selling everything, living out of a
43:14
Speaker 4: couple of pennis seeing Actually, well, let's say this way
43:19
Speaker 4: like back then, I watched a lot of motorcycle movies.
43:23
Speaker 4: Of course we watched Longer Round and so on, which
43:25
Speaker 4: is like a mussive you travel probably over land with
43:29
Speaker 4: a motorcycle. At least we did enjoy it, and for
43:32
Speaker 4: me was always like the biggest freedom that gets sold
43:37
Speaker 4: to you, especially from Hollywood as well. It is like
43:40
Speaker 4: riding a motorcycle down the road, the endless highway, towards
43:43
Speaker 4: the horizon, towards sunset. You have no plans, you can
43:46
Speaker 4: go wherever you want, and that was always my idea
43:48
Speaker 4: of having freedom. But when we left Germany and started
43:52
Speaker 4: traveling on those motorcycles, I recognized that the biggest freedom
43:56
Speaker 4: actually came with just having so less things, you know,
44:00
Speaker 4: like because I do not have to worry about so
44:03
Speaker 4: much stuff anymore. And that gave me the time to
44:05
Speaker 4: write down on the road towards the horizon and the sunset,
44:09
Speaker 4: and that was actually a big learning and of course
44:14
Speaker 4: seeing well, meeting a lot of people like you now
44:17
Speaker 4: you have he got invited, just picked up from the
44:21
Speaker 4: road somewhere in Russia wherever in the world, and some
44:26
Speaker 4: they take you in and it's like you're not The
44:28
Speaker 4: whole family is there. And then the next morning the
44:31
Speaker 4: mother is crying because you're living again, you know, like
44:34
Speaker 4: I gave us like food and medicai and medicine just
44:38
Speaker 4: in case something happens and so on, and then touches
44:41
Speaker 4: you you.
44:42
Speaker 3: Realize that actually people all around the world they want
44:46
Speaker 3: the same and you want to have a good life
44:48
Speaker 3: for the family, and they want to be saved, they
44:51
Speaker 3: want to have enough food, and it's not about the
44:54
Speaker 3: religion or the culture. And I think we live in
44:58
Speaker 3: a very secure bubble and it was a real eye
45:02
Speaker 3: opener for us to look beyond this bubble and see
45:05
Speaker 3: how life actually is in a lot of areas in
45:08
Speaker 3: this world, and it looks very different to what we're
45:10
Speaker 3: used to in.
45:11
Speaker 4: How privileged we like. Not everyone can do this, so
45:14
Speaker 4: it's it's for us. We appreciate this a lot. Then
45:17
Speaker 4: we tried to give it back, as I mentioned, with
45:20
Speaker 4: the show we are producing, it's like it's it's not
45:22
Speaker 4: about us, it's about the people we meet, the country
45:26
Speaker 4: we're traveling in, and also there every now and then
45:29
Speaker 4: we have some messages, some learnings in there, and we
45:32
Speaker 4: tried to give something back that we we were we
45:37
Speaker 4: learned able to do what we learned along the way,
45:40
Speaker 4: and so as I said, we are very privileged to
45:43
Speaker 4: do this, so very grateful.
45:45
Speaker 3: Definitely changed our perspective of the world, but it also
45:50
Speaker 3: actually changed how we live now because our usual plan was,
45:57
Speaker 3: like we said in the beginning, I am environmental engineer,
46:00
Speaker 3: Hamlet is mechanical engineer. We wanted to travel for two years,
46:03
Speaker 3: have an adventure, then just come back home and get
46:05
Speaker 3: back in our jobs and live our normal life again.
46:09
Speaker 3: That was the plan, but it never happened because in
46:12
Speaker 3: this five and a half years on the road, so
46:14
Speaker 3: much changed inside us that we, like you discovered your
46:18
Speaker 3: love for photography, and I really enjoy writing and tellic stories.
46:23
Speaker 3: So we started not only with our blog, but also
46:26
Speaker 3: at some point some motorcycle magazines approached us and ask
46:29
Speaker 3: us if we want to write articles for them because
46:31
Speaker 3: they like our photos so much. And so slowly all
46:35
Speaker 3: this grew into a very different direction because we never
46:38
Speaker 3: planned to become travel authors or speakers or YouTube filmmakers
46:45
Speaker 3: or whatsoever. It just evolved over time and became our
46:49
Speaker 3: big passion and now our job.
46:52
Speaker 4: When we short, we do something that fulfills us, that
46:55
Speaker 4: it gives us a purpose and a sensing life, and
46:58
Speaker 4: that is mainly something then then changed a lot because
47:03
Speaker 4: like when we grew up, it's like you do this
47:05
Speaker 4: job and you do it until you're a retired sort
47:08
Speaker 4: of thing, no matter if you enjoy it or not,
47:10
Speaker 4: that is not a question usually And nowadays we follow
47:13
Speaker 4: our hard sort of thing and then you know, like.
47:16
Speaker 3: It feels different. Even if we put a lot of
47:19
Speaker 3: effort in hours and work in the stuff, it feels different.
47:23
Speaker 3: And I think if you follow your passion, it opens
47:27
Speaker 3: a lot of doors you wouldn't even imagine they would open.
47:31
Speaker 3: Like when we came back, National Geographic approached us and
47:34
Speaker 3: ask us if we want to make a book with them,
47:37
Speaker 3: And first I sort of it's spent because National Tipographic,
47:40
Speaker 3: Why would they write an email to us little Bavarian travelers,
47:45
Speaker 3: But they did, and so we made a beautiful book
47:48
Speaker 3: with them and had other opportunities. And I think when
47:51
Speaker 3: we first started with the idea of traveling the world
47:54
Speaker 3: on motorcycles, we would have never guessed where it would
47:57
Speaker 3: lead us. At the end of the day.
47:59
Speaker 4: It's not an easy poth go. You have to say,
48:02
Speaker 4: as you probably know, sometimes you you don't know where
48:06
Speaker 4: it will lead you, which is also the exciting part.
48:09
Speaker 4: Not everyone can handle this. I guess we talked about
48:12
Speaker 4: it the other day. Quite often we don't know where
48:14
Speaker 4: we are sleeping the night, you know what's going on.
48:17
Speaker 4: We just have a direction, and that is quite I
48:21
Speaker 4: would say quite a few people are scared scared of this,
48:25
Speaker 4: and we really aren't. It's like that's the biggest thing
48:28
Speaker 4: for us.
48:30
Speaker 3: It's definitely the most at home.
48:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that a lot of people need the
48:36
Speaker 1: security of knowing what the next day will bring, and
48:39
Speaker 1: I respect that. So I think that that this lifestyle,
48:44
Speaker 1: it can't guarantee anything and everything's kind of semi out
48:48
Speaker 1: of control all the time, and so if that's something
48:50
Speaker 1: that you can't handle.
48:52
Speaker 2: I totally get it. I totally get it.
48:55
Speaker 1: And I think it's interesting too because I am I
48:59
Speaker 1: like control and I like to know what I'm doing
49:02
Speaker 1: and where I'm going. But I think that that part
49:06
Speaker 1: of myself eases up a little bit when I'm on
49:09
Speaker 1: the road because I know that there are things that
49:12
Speaker 1: I cannot control, and so it's almost like that control
49:15
Speaker 1: freak side of myself just kind of lets the tools
49:17
Speaker 1: down a little bit, you know, because it's just things
49:21
Speaker 1: will happen. You'll have a plan, but as you said earlier,
49:24
Speaker 1: the plan is going to be shot and you're going
49:27
Speaker 1: to have to pivot. So yeah, that can be really ungrounding,
49:32
Speaker 1: But in.
49:32
Speaker 4: General, it's a lot about trusting in life and the
49:36
Speaker 4: right things would happen at the right moment, and that's
49:38
Speaker 4: what was one of our biggest learning while traveling as well.
49:41
Speaker 4: You have a breakdown in Mongolia and you would say, well,
49:44
Speaker 4: that's the end of the world, but it isn't. You
49:46
Speaker 4: meet someone who knows someone and it can fix this.
49:49
Speaker 4: But in between, we're going to have a meal with
49:52
Speaker 4: the family and the greatest evening ever sort of thing.
49:56
Speaker 3: Very often also unexpected things, things that you think the
50:00
Speaker 3: first place are well bad things, or things like break down,
50:05
Speaker 3: a problem very often turned out into something really great
50:09
Speaker 3: in the end. In this very moment, you don't see it,
50:11
Speaker 3: but in the retrospective you realize that this maybe had
50:16
Speaker 3: to happen because it leaded to something really great.
50:19
Speaker 4: But it's not. It's not about traveling. It's an ordinary life.
50:23
Speaker 4: It's the same case and everything life in everyday life.
50:27
Speaker 4: You need to trust in it and then everything will be.
50:31
Speaker 3: But then you have to say, your Triman, you always
50:33
Speaker 3: have a plan B.
50:37
Speaker 2: Yes, I think it's that's fair.
50:40
Speaker 1: I don't do.
50:43
Speaker 2: A plan B is helpful for sure. Cool. Well, thank you.
50:46
Speaker 1: Guys so much for coming on the podcast and chatting
50:49
Speaker 1: and it's been such a pleasure. And I can't wait
50:53
Speaker 1: to see where you go next in Asia and those
50:56
Speaker 1: sci bikes are heading around wherever you may land and
51:02
Speaker 1: I can't wait to follow. And how can we follow
51:05
Speaker 1: you online and watch your videos and read your articles
51:09
Speaker 1: and see what you're up to.
51:11
Speaker 4: So the main thing that happens right now is on YouTube.
51:16
Speaker 4: That's time to write Underscore Adventures Two Dirty red faces.
51:21
Speaker 4: That's that's us on any general Facebook, Instagram, and we
51:25
Speaker 4: also have a website with that's time to write dot
51:29
Speaker 4: d with massive amount of information on over that motorcycle
51:35
Speaker 4: traveling around.
51:37
Speaker 3: The world and in Germany and alls a lot of
51:39
Speaker 3: technical stuff bike modifications. Yeah, that's heaps of stuff to read.
51:44
Speaker 4: Of course, we have a book. I can show it here,
51:46
Speaker 4: but it's in Germany of course, so I'm not sure
51:50
Speaker 4: if that's helpful. But there are a lot of photos in.
51:55
Speaker 1: For our German speaking listeners. Great, or you can use
52:00
Speaker 1: Google Translate app for each page and just enjoy the photography.
52:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you have to mention maybe YouTube is in
52:08
Speaker 3: English and our perfect Bavarian English dialect, so a lot
52:12
Speaker 3: of people said that we sound a little bit like
52:14
Speaker 3: Arnold Schwatson Egger. I'm not sure why that, but maybe.
52:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, but the show is completely in English and all
52:20
Speaker 4: our posts on socials is everything is in English as well,
52:23
Speaker 4: so that's not a problem at all.
52:25
Speaker 3: And it's time to write dot t E or time
52:27
Speaker 3: to write wherever you go, and it's always the doty
52:29
Speaker 3: faces pretty easy to.
52:31
Speaker 2: Find, fantastic.
52:33
Speaker 1: We'll make sure to include the links with this podcast
52:36
Speaker 1: so people can find you. Thank you so much again
52:39
Speaker 1: for joining and I can't wait.
52:42
Speaker 2: To see what's next.
52:44
Speaker 4: Thanks for having Yes that is really really PLA was
52:47
Speaker 4: good for and try to.
52:48
Speaker 3: Talk and if someone has some questions please just drop
52:50
Speaker 3: it underneath the video or send us a message somewhere
52:54
Speaker 3: you can ask whatever comes into your mind about the
52:57
Speaker 3: fifty C or whatever.
53:00
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, and a shout out to the
53:03
Speaker 1: Overland Journal podcast listeners for tuning in.
53:06
Speaker 2: To today's episode. We hope you enjoy it and we'll
53:09
Speaker 2: catch you next time on