Hello! My name is Anne – and I explore the world in a slow, conscious way: Traveling overland. Solo. By bicycle. I turned my passion into my profession, sharing my experiences from the road as an author, photographer and public speaker.

In a way, my childhood primed me for taking unusual paths. I grew up in Southwestern Germany, with a low mountain range in easy reach for exploring. My younger brother and me never understood when other children complained about hiking or going on vacation with their parents. We never did any of that. Instead, our family went out to have adventures. When we did what others call hiking, we rarely followed paths, but ventured crosscountry. When we did what others called going on vacation, we crossed Europe in our orange VW transporter – sleeping in our bus, our tents, or underneath the stars.

As a teenager, an extended student exchange program brought me to Brazil – one of the best experiences in my life and one that forever fired my imagination of the beautiful places out there to be explored. Ever since I turned 18, this is exactly what I have done. Since that day, I was fortunate enough to live in a number of countries (USA, China, South Korea), have travelled all over Asia, crossed Russia, explored parts of South America and its Northern neighbor, started to venture out to Africa and kept being on the move in Europe. Relationships and friendships, studies and jobs came and went, the travel bug stayed and has led me to more than 50 countries so far. Reporting from my journeys in words and photos became a hobby early on and an addiction only shortly later – an addiction that turned from sending e-mails into blogging in 2008.

Sports has played an exceptional role throughout my life. Ever since I turned five years old, I have always been in a competitive sport. The form of sport changed over the years (individual to team), but the dedication stayed, the many hours of training and competing, both nationally and internationally. I never competed in cycling or triathlon, which makes it easier for me to achieve one of my aims for this cycling expedition:

Letting go of all expectation, letting go of the urge to compete and watch kilometers or times. This is a journey into mindfulness and observation, not a race to the finish line. I’d love to have your virtual company for this journey!