About

Since 2016, I have been living a rather unusual life: working temporary jobs only, to earn enough money in order to go on long solo hiking trips all over the world. 

I should explain how this came about: 

Already in 2004/05, working and travelling in New Zealand, I got the travel bug and learned, that an alternate lifestyles to the usual ”7 to 5 working week” is possible. With a simple lifestyle, I was able to shift the balance between working and travelling faaaar towards travelling. 

However, I studied Agricultural Biology and Soil Sciences afterwards, heading towards a life, I did not wanted to live. In order to do some practical things after my graduation, I went to Nepal in 2014/15, to help in an agroforestry project. Just before flying back to Germany, Nepal was hit by a big erthquake, me being in the middle of it. I was not hurt in any way, but it showed me, that life can be VERY short.

It took me another year of working and thinking, to change my life. What do I want to do in my life? In Nepal, every morning before breakfast, I walked up a little hill behind my house and watched the sunrise over the mountains. I also manage to go hiking for some days in the Himalaya. During my studies in Ecuador, I woke up one hour before breakfast time to walk up into the montane rain forest and used lots of my spare time to walk up the closest mountain. During my summer school holidays, I have been doing some hiking with groups in Europe, hiking even with donkeys in the Cevennes one time. I have always been happy when hiking!

Thus, in 2016, I wanted to know, if hiking is “my thing”. I had seen a documentary about the Appalachian Trail in the US, but decided to hike the longer Pacific Crest Trail. It is a hiking trail, over 4000 km between Mexico and Canada, following the Sierra Nevada. I decided, if I still like hiking after all these kilometres and months, this is what I am going to do the rest of my life. As I came to the end of the trail after more than 4 months, I did not want to stop and continued hiking to the Pacific. I just loved hiking and was totally in my element. Thus, my trail name become “Element”.

Coming back to 2021: With corona, live seems fragile again. I have long dreamt about hiking from my home in Stuttgart, all the way to Nepal. It seemed like a big endeavour and thus, I put it somewhere in the back of my head, thinking I want to do it “some day”. But “some day” might never come! Thus I decided, to at least start my trip now. I know it is not the perfect situation and I’m not even sure, if I will be able to enter some of the countries that I want to hike through, but I don’t want to put off my dream any longer.

I have been asked so many times by people I met, if I write a blog. And there were tons of questions about how I do it, what tent, which apps, if I’m not afraid of bears, if I really go alone etc. Thus I decided to write a blog, to give you an idea of my hiking life and answer some of these questions. You can follow me, ask me questions and maybe even head out yourself!  

I called my blog “Follow the Mountains”, cause that’s what I've done a lot so far, and what I intend to do on this trip. I want to hike to Nepal, following the mountain chains, starting this summer with the Carpathians. I just love the mountains, their wilderness, views, clear water, challenges and open spaces. However, I also learned in Sweden last year, that I should be prepared for snow. So I will see, what my solution for the winter time will be: working, travelling somewhere else, hiking along the coast, …??? Life is full of possibilities ;)

Update September 2021: Abandoning my dream

I abandoned my dream of hiking a continues hike to Nepal. 

After being attacked by shepberd dogs in Romania, it seems to dangerous and stressfull to continue a hike alone through Romanias mountains. I really tried.

Of course I could walk Romanias lowland, but that's not what I want to do, especially since it would mean ending up in Bulgarias mountains close to winter. I decided to use the last nice autumn days to hike in Bulgarias mountains, which I had planned to do anyways. But skipping Romania, it seems to me like my dream failed as all the parts that I don't find that exciting on my route to Nepal, suddenly don't make sense anymore, when it's not a continues hike. Why hike parts, that don't interest me very much, when I skipped a part, which was even an interesting one? I'm still grieving over my dream and have really no idea, what I will do in about a month, when I will hopefully end my hike successfully at the coast of the Black Sea. I can do other short hikes, but I was really looking forward to a VERY long hike...

But I'm sure I will continue to hike different mountains of this world and report about my adventures on this blog!