Monthly Archives: September 2017

my black flag

Posted on

When I woke up, I had a Lady Gaga song stuck in my head. The NA clock was still there: And so was the NA tea pot: I said goodbye and left the little mosque: The village still looked a bit like a frontier settlement from the Wild West: But the black chadors everywhere broke […]


The Sultan’s Beautiful Young Daughter

Posted on

It was the same as every time when I started on a journey: there were worries, and there were preparations to be made. But I had to step out into the unknown at some point sooner or later. So I did: By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy.Learn more Load video Always […]


Between Jaffar And The Throne

Posted on

One more day. My clothes in the hotel laundry, “The Good Wife” on my phone, the GPS track growing, the photos and videos finding their places on my hard drive: I felt a bit worried: what was walking in Iran going to be like? Would there be more plainclothes policemen to grab me? And where […]


Only One Obstacle Remains

Posted on

I changed the tyre, but something seemed a bit off with it, so I decided to take it to a bike shop. It was going to be my first car ride in Iran: The bike shop was right next to the place where I had bought my sim-card. I decided to go there first and […]


With The Iron Fist Of Tyranny

Posted on

I stayed in today. Edited some photos and some videos. The Turkmenistan footage seemed like a mountain in front of me, and I was only slowly digging my way through. Also, I had acquired a bottle of Zamzam cola: Now those of you who’ve been with me long enough know that I love the Uyghur […]


The Grand Vizier JAFFAR Rules

Posted on

I decided that I needed a sim-card in order to access the interwebs. Also, I wanted to look at Iran. So I took my camera and went outside. The actual city was about a kilometer or two to the north of the hotel. On the way there I saw a lot of these signs: And […]


In The Sultan’s Absence

Posted on

When I woke up I was still somehow in this country that had previously existed only as an abstract thought – Iran. It was my first full day here. The room I was staying in was okay: There was wifi, but it was slow as hell. And I mean: AS HELL. I was so tired […]


really

Last day in Turkmenistan. As unbelievable as it had seemed only two weeks earlier, I was about to reach the border of Iran on foot. I felt tired. I felt excited. It was like a fever. So I left the hotel and looked back: A strange place, but a comfortable one at that. The Boss […]


Tears

Posted on

When I woke up, Nang was still there, and after I started walking… …he decided to come along! I could hear his little paws follow me on the asphalt, and every now and then I would stop to give him some water and pet him. We were walking together, Nang and I. It was MAGIC! […]


and along came Nang

Posted on

The night had been pretty shitty. But there was nothing to do but walk, so I did that. I started walking in the dust: Sometimes there was a dirt track right next to the road, so I tried walking there, but that meant even more dust: By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy […]


8-0-0-0

I had gone to sleep with 7995km down. So when I woke up, the next celebratory dance was just a bit more than an hour away. I had danced seven times before. Now was the eighth time. Eight thousand kilometers from Beijing to here. So I got on the road, walked a little bit: And […]


a possible shortcut

Posted on

These are the slippers I had worn for about 100km through the Turkmen desert: They looked the part. I was glad to be back in my regular hiking shoes again. The Caboose was doing a great job, by the way. No problems whatsoever, she was always there, ready to go: We passed what looked like […]


MacGyvered that shit

Posted on

Not having found any suitable shoes at the bazaar, I MacGyvered something today. Here’s the shoe that is damaged at the heel: Here’s my flip-flop where I cut out a piece: Here is the piece: And here is the fix for the shoe: Let’s hope it works. We left early in the morning, when the […]


the biggest city that died

Posted on

Today was my only day off in Turkmenistan. But it was going to be packed. The ruins of Merv to be looked at. Shoes to be bought. And we needed to stock up on food for the remainder of the trip. First we went to see the ruins. There was a gate with a ticket […]


Mary

Posted on

Okay, today’s post is going to be a deluge of photos, and it’s going to have the longest Let’s Walk video to date. It might be a bit much. But again, I thought I’d share with you as much as I can about Turkmenistan the way I saw it. But first, breakfast: It wasn’t the […]


hello, cloud

Posted on

The people I come across on this Turkmen part of The Longest Way are really nice, almost all of them. There have been the occasional instances where people stared at me in a way that could be considered unfriendly, but I think they were just confused and didn’t know what to make of me. Foreigners […]


are you German?

Posted on

I keep seeing these weird things in the desert. Like the upside down plastic bottles. Like the written notes hanging in the bushes. Like this thing: It’s probably far from the truth, but I like to think that the desert inspires people to express themselves artistically. A truck driver spends hours and hours on the […]


the village that was too big

Posted on

When I woke up, hot water for our morning tea was already boiling: It felt like a sort of luxury camping actually. And no more spiders. Or at least I hadn’t seen any. Today my guide Shukur helped me get the Caboose out from the dunes: I had been experimenting with nicknames for the two, […]


in slippers through the Turkmen desert

Posted on

Of course wearing flipflops was not feasible for long distances. But my right heel looked pretty bad: It wasn’t a simple blister anymore, it was a wound. Blisters could be treated quite effectively in the course of one night, but this was different. So I decided to wear my bathroom slippers today: I had bought […]


candy flipflop spider land

Posted on

The first thing I saw in the morning when I got back on the road was this restaurant in the desert: Then two guys stopped their car and asked for a photo: I particularly liked the hat. Walking sucked, though. My little toes had been squashed by my leather shoes, and my other pair of […]