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Revision as of 21:17, 24 April 2015 by Mighty Morphin Army Ranger (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Gunther Holtorf is a German who visited 179 countries in a Mercedes Benz G-Wagen named "Otto". The journey covered 884,000km (549,000 miles) and took 26 years, beginning in 1988 and ending 2014. He was accompanied for most of the trip by his third wife Christine, who died of cancer in 2010.
Holtorf was born in 1937 in Goettingen. He worked in aviation for 30 years, mostly with Lufthansa. He spent the last three years of his career as the chief of air transport for Hapag Lloyd, before quitting the job to travel. Choosing not to be sponsored or accept advertising, he instead funded the trip through savings, and through the proceeds from a map of Jakarta, the first example published. He had developed the map as a hobby while working for Lufthansa in Indonesia, growing it as a business in the 1990s into a 450-page atlas of the city. As competition emerged, by 2005 he had given up the business and switched to travelling full time. Adjusting for inflation, Holtorf estimated he spent 450,000 Euros on the journey, or 1,500 Euros a month or 50 cents per km.
The journey was initially intended to be a two year tour of rural Africa, but later developed into a world tour. After Africa, they visited the Americas, before moving on to Australasia, Asia and finally Europe. By 2005 they had visited all the inhabited continents and 100 countries, and they then doubled back to visit those countries not already visited. Only one country he wanted to enter refused permission, Antigua and Barbuda, while he chose not to visit others for reasons of practicality, cost or security. They also visited various partially recognised territories, such as Kosovo and Western Sahara. During the trips, the couple lived out of the car, travelling by day and sleeping beside it, or inside it, by night. Holtorf modified the interior to include a bed with storage underneath it. They only ventured into towns for supplies, with meals being cooked on a gas stove.
Initially, the journey was interrupted by extended visits home to Germany or mapping trips to Jakarta, sometimes for a year or more. When not travelling, the vehicle was placed in storage at a convenient point on the route. After 2005 the travel was largely constant. With Christine at home for treatment, Holtorf was accompanied by his 27 year old son Martin, for an Asia to Europe leg in 2007. Christine had recovered sufficiently to rejoin for a journey to the Caribbean in 2008, before her final trip, a visit to the UK in 2009. They married two weeks before her death in June 2010. After her death, Holtorf continued the journey alone, as well as being joined for a year in 2012 by a friend, Elke Dreweck.
The G-Wagen was a standard production model 300GD. To cope with the weight of 400 spare parts and supplies, which took the gross vehicle weight to 3.3 tonnes, Holtorf upgraded its springs and shock absorbers. The trip involved around 300 ferry voyages, with the G-Wagen being shipped in a container 41 times. Dockside transfers in smaller ports often involved precarious or improvised methods. The vehicle consumed around 100,000 litres of fuel, averaging 20 miles per gallon fully loaded. Holtorf utilised preventative maintenance, filtered fuel, and kept the vehicle under 50mph. He was able to fix all breakdowns, the most difficult being changing a front wheel bearing at 4,000 metres in the Andes. He only had one major accident, in 2014, when the vehicle ended up on its side after a verge gave way in Madagascar. As a result, the cabin body section was replaced on a trip back to Germany. The engine was found to be in good condition after a 2004 inspection, and ended the journey with its original pistons and cylinder liners.
Entry to North Korea required payment of 5,500 Euros and involved an escort car, a set schedule for the fortnight visit, and the roads being cleared especially for their passage. According to Holtorf, his entry into Japan was "technically illegal" due to a long standing dispute with Germany over car registrations. Entry into China required significant amounts of paperwork for each province, as well as an escort car. Assistance from Mercedes-Benz included worldwide third party car insurance from Axa, paying the shipping costs from Australia to Germany for the model's 25th birthday celebrations, paying for the escort car required by China, and persuading the Philippines to drop the demand for a $30,000 bond.
Entry into Australia was only possible after "costly and time-consuming" sterilisation of the vehicle. In Africa, Holtorf contracted malaria eight times, dislocated his shoulder, and almost lost a foot due to infection. They also came into close contact with elephants and hyenas while camping in Africa, while in Australia the car was struck in the side by a Kangaroo. In Afghanistan, the couple had to camp inside an ISAF base. Only once were the couple held at gunpoint, in the border region of Ethiopia. They spent Christmas Eve 1998 stuck in a mudhole on the Brazil-Guyana border. When asked for bribes, Holtorf declined and instead resolved to use patience and persistence, and occasionally through bartering with lifts.
After the journey, the car was sold to Mercedes-Benz. It was to be displayed in their Stuttgart museum for two months, before embarking on a publicity tour around Europe.
References
- ^ "Gunther, Christine and Otto". BBC News. 9 October 2014.
- "German man drives Mercedes G-Wagen on 557k-mile, 26-year road trip". 16 October 2014.