MY STORY
When I returned from my trip to the Hymalaja in 1989, a little later I saw a motorbike with a trailer parked on Gwattstrasse. Then I had the idea that I could go on a trip like that. But since I am closely connected to the water, I thought it would be nice to have a rubber boat with me to paddle around on a lake or to let me drift down a river. I said to myself it would be great if I could take the bike and the trailer with me on the boat and simply continue my journey on the water with my bag and baggage.
This thought would not let me go and I started planning. The first thing I did was buy a 3.60 meter long Metzeler rubber dinghy with a 25 HP outboard motor. So I built a trailer with my father in his workshop in which the dinghy and all the equipment had space. Finally, I looked for a motorbike or moped to pull the trailer. At a motorcycle dealer named Schindler in Heimberg, I found a 50 ccm strong, manually operated moped with fan cooling from the Zündapp brand, born in 1983. This was often used by farmers to bring milk cans to the dairy.
At that point in time I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do. In April 1991 we could finally start. The trailer with all its contents weighed 300 kg and the 3 HP of the moped had plenty of work to do to get around. First I went to Basel then I was able to ride on a Rhine ship that took me to Rotterdam.
From there I drove to Flensburg where I put my rubber dinghy into the water for the first time and stowed the trailer and the moped on it.
Despite all warnings, I went out to sea and made it to Sweden. There it went ashore again and I enjoyed a spring-like Sweden all the way to Stockholm. Then I took the ferry to Finland after all, because I didn't want to strain my luck too much. The wonderful way to the Nordkapp followed, through the large Finnish lake area. Further, from the Nordkapp partly through grandiose fijorde, to Bergen in Norway. Then with the ferry to Iceland.
In Reikyavik I had to load everything into a container and ship it to New Foundland. I myself flew to Greenland and took the mail boat along the coast. A month and a half later, I reached New Foundland and the journey with the moped could continue; I was suddenly on the Trans Canada Highway. An indescribable feeling of happiness spread inside me.
We continued on the sea along the east coast to the south.
Then I switched to the street and drove the moped to the Hudson River, switched back to the water, on which I then took the rubber dinghy to New York to the Statue of Liberty. After this 6 month adventure I flew back to Switzerland healthy but tired.
The money was used up and I had to do military service back home. On the way back to Switzerland I said to myself, someday you will continue where you left off, because my destination for the previous trip had actually been Patagonia. I think I missed it by at least 10,000 kilometers, "Ouch". Now, 26 years later, after starting a family, buying and remodeling a house, the new (old) project is slowly picking up speed.
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