1-Australia | 2-New Zealand | 3-SE-Asia | 4-China | 5-Transsib | 6-Baltics | 7-East Europe | 9-France

In April 2001 I sat in the plane to Sydney. I was expecting to visit Australia for 6 moths in the saddle of my bicycle, before going back to Germany. What I did not expect was that it was going to be a voyage of 2 1/2 years, crossing more than a dozen countries...

The joy of cycling didn't really last long - after only one month on the red continent I ended up with a broken leg in the Snowy Mountains. After having spent the following month in hospital and recovering in Canberra I drove my new second-hand car to the airport of Sydney to catch up with my sister Christiane. Together we cruised across Queensland heading north as far as Townsville. From there we went inland to experience the outback on the way to Alice Springs and the Uluru (Ayers Rock). In Darwin Christiane left Australia with a heavy heart, I sold the car and started the endless ride trough Western Australia on my pushbike. In December 2001 my brother Raphael told me he would come to New Zealand. So I boarded a plane from Perth to Auckland instead of Frankfurt.

In time for my birthday Raphael arrived in Christchurch. Our first destinations were the Southern Alps to climb Mt. Aspiring and later on Mt. Cook, the highest peak of the island. In the south we fought our way through the jungle of Stewart Island before the wind carried us north to the fantastic forests of the west coast. Raphael felt drawn back to the mountains and I found a job in Nelson. I saw new possibilities arising and started dreaming of Asia...

After a short stop-over in Bali I arrived in Singapore in November 2002. Excited with culture and tropics I was floating along through Malaysia and Thailand to Bangkok. The cool mountain climates of northern Thailand refreshed my senses although I failed to enter Myanmar. So I needed to change my plans from Burma and India into Laos and China. Malaria caught me longer than expected in the backwaters of Laos and I crossed the border to China not until February 2003.

Together with Scott, who is Australian and living in Tokyo, I went for the in two respects breathtaking ride through the Yunnan province. After having climbed several thousands of meters we split up at the little town of Dêqên. Scott had to go back to Tokyo and I made my way up north across the lonely highlands of the Sichuan province and on to Xi'an in Shaanxi. Beijing wasn't far away anymore but due to all the troubles caused by SARS it was harder than anything else to get there. In June 2003 I bought the ticket for the Trans-Mongolian Railway to Moscow.

Still moved by the impressions of the 6-days-trainride I wandered around the summerly metropolis. In St. Petersburg I jumped back onto the saddle of my bike to ride on to the Baltic States. Only slowly I realized my return to Europe and reached Poland faster than my mind could follow. But I carried on to Slovakia and Czech Republic. From Prague started my final ride back home together with Raphael. I reached Dresden in August 2003.