One Year – Five Continents

For more than twenty years I have been dreaming of taking a year off and traveling the world. Whenever I attempted to do so something just was not right or I got that one job offer I could not resist, never mind that I had applied for it in the first place. Let’s not talk about self-sabotage, please.

I wanted to hike for a year, that was clear. I did some longer stretches of hiking, though mostly stayed within the perimeter of school holidays.

And then COVID hit and everyone was sitting at home. Traveling was only permitted in your imagination or online. That was the moment that tipped me over the edge and starting to plan.

I wanted to hike the Pacific Crest Trail or PCT in short.

So my brain switched into planning mode and I began looking at dates, money, equipment. YouTube. was my best friend. I followed some of the people who were hiking at the time and my wish became stronger and stronger.

The deeper I dived into planning mode, the more I realized that it might be more complex than I had thought. Hiking season of the PCT does not follow German holidays and leaving the school (depending on the permit I would get) in the middle of exams did not sit right with me. I am just too German in that respect. And I am a planer, through and through. At times I might be overthinking but having a plan gives you more flexibility to situations you had not thought of. Sounds contradictory to you, well ponder on it a bit you will see what I mean.

At some stage I thought: “Why only taking 9 months off? Why not a whole school year?” That thought opened up a completely new itinerary. So back to the drawing board and re-organizing my plans.

In my mind everything could work out perfectly if I took my sabbatical from July 24 -September 25 being able to hike a few trails along the way and then diving into the PCT full on, basically stepping out of the plane into the classroom again. I had done that before, why not then.

But the story does not end there… Though being busy with all kinds of things, one being the renovation of an apartment that I had bough a couple of years before, I still followed a few new hikers on YouTube. Young, energetic, determined, tough people. And they gave up…some of them twice…What had happened? Fire closures!

As some of you might know the PCT for a long stretch is in California and every year the risk and the reality of wild fires increases. Hardly anyone these days can hike the PCT without dropping out for a stretch in order to escape these fires…In my mind hiking the PCT meant to HIKE the PCT in full. Taking six months out of my life in order achieve that is not a small thing at my age.

Reconsider, regroup, change of plans.

And again I started thinking, finally thinking out of the box and at some stage, for many different reasons, the PCT no longer was part of my plan. Letting go of it, as so often in life when you do, opened up many new possibilities.

The new route as it presented itself in summer 2023 was England – Japan- New Zealand -USA – Canada -Tanzania – South Africa. Hence the name of this blog “one year- five continents”. Flights were booked, trails looked at, vaccinations thought of. Until February 2024 came and changed everything, yet again.

My trip is my trip, which does not mean that I am not sharing it with people who are dear to me. One of them my partner, who is not able to take a year off but was supposed to meet and spend time with me in a couple of places during my travels.

At the end of February 2024 he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma or in one word: cancer. It did not take me more than 5 seconds after his doctor had given us the news, to postpone my trip for a year. Which I did the same day, canceling flights, reorganizing, focusing on what was really important: The chemo therapy that started only a few days later and took about four months, and becoming knowledgeable of what was to be expected.

We are blessed, as at this point the chemo therapy worked. As this cancer cannot be cured there will always be an alerted awareness of the possibility of it coming back. However, right now it is in “hibernation” as his doctor described it quite nicely, and may stay there for many more years to come. If you are interested in learning more about it I highly recommend his blog “Indolent“.

You might ask yourself “Are we done now with changing plans?” No, we are not. After the elections in November, the USA are no longer a place I want to go to. There might be one short exception, as I had promised to spend time with my goddaughter on Hawaii, we will see.

Having said that, long distance hike I wanted to do in England I actually hiked this summer, so right now this is what I am thinking of from July 21st 2025:

Sweden – Kungsleden / Japan – Michinoku / New Zealand – Te Araoa (South Island) / USA -Hawaii /Canada / Tanzania / South Africa

If you want to learn more about the joy of making plans, and subsequent changes while enjoying the process of it, as well being taken to new places, subscribe. I would love to have you as a traveling companion even if only from distance.