These are now weeks that my team and I are taking care of the sending and purchase of suitable cars for my journey from Alaska to Patagonia

I will be doing the northern part of my drive with a Ford Majestic Camper bought in Vancouver: it includes sleeping areas for seven persons! For now it is still being worked on in a garage in Vancouver in order to fit my needs. Two acquaintances, Walter and Peter from Whitehorse, are currently on the way to release the Camper. They need for this to cover a distance of 2.500 kilometres direction south. They will afterwards bring the car to the film wrapper who has a studio in Vancouver: this will make it ready for our journey. This Camper offers enough space and even a shower: this detail will be a delight for all especially in the North where it is so cold outside. It is also with this Ford Camper that I will start my trip from Alaska to the Panama Canal. We will be accompanied by a wagon car which we bought in the North and will use as second car.

The Ford Rimor I will use in the South was bought in Austria from an old retired couple. If they would have known which oceans and places in the world their beloved Rimor would go to, they would have maybe given it an even warmer goodbye. This car as well will be pimped and transformed to fit my needs.

My 22 years old Toyota, which also came with me in Africa, will also be part of this project in the south part of the adventure. It is with tears in my eyes that I am thinking to my faithful mechanical companion which will not travel back from America. It is hereby its last adventure with me: this car knows for sure that I was not an easy owner.

The shipping costs per car from Bremerhaven, Germany, to Cartagena, Colombia, are nearly reaching 5.000€, taxes excluded. The fact that it is a pricy endeavour was already familiar to me due to my trip in Africa. On an organizational point of view, a shipment is a nerve-wracking bureaucratic nightmare that consists of a chaos of paperwork, notarial authorisations and various certificates. This as well is part of such a project as such a preparation is already half of the way or, in my case, nearly half of the journey already. Kathi and Markus’s two cars will be brought to Bremerhaven. My cars will spend exactly one month travelling on the oceans, almost embarking on their own adventure before ours even starts. Both cars have been equipped with additional gas bottles and a diesel generator which were of course emptied before boarding in order not to jeopardize safety on the ship. As such a vessel departures only once per month and to avoid ship failures, delays due to bad weather etc., the shipment has already taken place to keep the tight schedule.

After the arrival of the shipped Toyotas and the Ford Rimor, two friends of mine, Kathi and Claudia, will fly to Colombia to drive the cars through customs. This process usually takes several days. Once this is done, my Toyota and the equipment will be filled up and then parked in a safe storage area. This will allow me to start the second part of my journey, from the Panama Canal to the south of Patagonia.

My goal is to spend as much time on the bike as possible. For this reason, I wish to pass on hotel accommodations and instead directly stay in our camp next to the street.

I am curious to see if all my planned stages will be completed on time…