Focus on: Gunther Holtorf

Friday, October 10, 2014

Focus on: Gunther Holtorf

Google Image Search: Gunther Holtorf

It's good to reflect on those anonymous overlanders who silently travels the world without the hype of social media and travelogue updates... one person who has managed to keep under the internet radar is Gunther Holtorf. Although, a quick Google image search reveals that many magazines and internet websites have published articles on this silent overlander.

His Mercedes Benz G-Wagen 300GD, named 'Otto', has been his faithful companion for the whole journey and will soon be featured in the Guiness book of records.

The BBC reports:

Scanning the list of 193 UN member states, plus Taiwan and the Vatican – which together make up the 195 countries recognised by Guinness World Records – one finds only 16 countries missing from Otto’s itinerary.
Three of them – Chad, Somalia and South Sudan - were not safe enough to visit when Otto was in the vicinity. (South Sudan, of course, only came into existence in 2011.)
Holtorf says logistical reasons, principally time and cost, prevented him reaching three others - the Bahamas, Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe - while the Caribbean state of Antigua and Barbuda, refused entry.

Source: BBC - 09 October 2014 - photo3b - map

The remaining nine countries, from the Comoros Islands to Tuvalu, are tiny atolls with barely any roads, so there would have been little point visiting in a car. Source: BBC 09 October 2014

The BBC has reported on his remarkable journey on a number of occasions. The first was on 23 July 2012 and featured the following video:

In October 2014, the BBC News Magazine published the following:
"How a man met a woman and then started an epic global journey in one amazing unbreakable car"

The BBC News Magazine article is lengthy and detailed and features a few videos (worth watching). The article is inspirational and highlights the possible and achievable dreams.