Sonja
Co-driver, navigator, cook
… turned her life as a bank employee upside down in 2006 and went back to school. After about 5 years of training, she became a TCM therapist and has been treating people since the end of 2010, recognized by health insurance companies. Her main focus is acupuncture treatment.
…loves traveling. Originally more focused on Asia, Central and South America, her love for Africa developed at second glance. Botswana lit the fire in 2013 and the flame has been burning ever since.
Guido
Driver, photographer, cook
… discovered photography for himself in 2007. After an intensive period of self-taught learning, he became fascinated by photographing people in such a way that the mask falls and the true face is revealed. Added to this is his love of telling stories in pictures. In 2011, Guido turned his life upside down, turned his passion into his profession and has been photographing weddings full-time ever since.
…loves traveling. After Central and South America, the Africa virus took hold of him in 2007 and never let go. Botswana and Zimbabwe are among his favorite destinations.
Bilbo (2018-2019)
Home, pack mule, protector
… is a Toyota Land Cruiser of the J7 series (HZJ 76). It is a station wagon, has 4 doors and runs on diesel.
Its 131 hp engine is legendary. Due to its sluggishness, it is often referred to as a “shifting dune”, but with good care it is indestructible and rewards the driver and passengers with extremely high reliability. In Africa, they call the J7 models “The Beast”. Bilbo took us safely and reliably through southern Africa from October 2018 to May 2019. For us, it is a perfect touring car with one small flaw: it doesn’t offer any protected space inside.
After our trip, we very quickly found an extremely friendly German couple who took Bilbo on and are experiencing new adventures in Africa with him. All the best to the three of you 🙂
Manni (2020-2023 )
new home, pack mule, protector
… is also a Land Cruiser from the J7 series (GRJ 78). Manni is a “Troopie”, i.e. it is longer than Bilbo, but has only 2 doors and is about 10 cm higher inside. This variant can be easily converted into a touring car with a lounge inside. Manni has a pop-up roof and is designed to be completely self-sufficient. In contrast to Bilbo, Manni prefers unleaded and has 272 hp at his disposal. This does not affect the reliability.
Manni belongs to a type of vehicle that is disappearing in Europe, which was one reason for the name (do you know “Ice Age”?). Unless an accident separates us, Manni will remain a member of the family until death do us part. We especially love elephants and well, mammoths are very similar 😉
Contrary to our original intention, we unexpectedly sold Manni in 2023. There was a “buyer dynamic” that we couldn’t resist!
The Donkey (2022-today)
Comfort home, pack mule, protector
… is also a Land Cruiser from the J7 series (HZJ 79). The donkey is a pickup with 2 doors and a long loading area. It has the same engine as Bilbo. We had a comfortable but lightweight living cabin built. This was permanently mounted on our donkey and offers us a level of comfort that we had never experienced before. The Donkey is now unbeatable, especially in bad weather conditions. At the same time, it has lost none of its off-road capability.
The vehicles clearly demonstrate the ever-growing desire for more comfort when traveling 🙂