Documenting the Adventure of a Lifetime: A New Film by Daniel Rintz and Josephine Flohr

Living a life in full is a conversation you always wanted to have with that person who gave an amazing TED Talk or the author of one of your favorite books, or that inspirational Olympian you always wanted to know more about. It's graduate level conversations with those making a difference in the world and in the lives of others. This show brings you new ideas and approaches so that you can live a life in full. I'm your host, Dr. Chris Stout and I hope you enjoy this episode. This episode is brought to you by the nonprofit I founded, the center for Global Initiatives. The center is an all volunteer organization so there are no salaries and thus all tax deductible donations can go to the work. While our key country partner is in Tanzania, our work is global and generally focused in the areas of education and healthcare. We also help others to get their nonprofits started or augment others project based initiatives. It's our goal to open source humanitarian intervention and to help make it easier for others to do more good in the world. We are proud to have been ranked a great nonprofit every year since 2011 and to have achieved a Platinum level rating by Guidestar Links. In this episode's show, Notes will take you to published articles on our outcomes, a number of helpful tools, and downloadable resources which are all free always. Please Visit us at CenterForGlobalInitiatives.org and be sure to watch our video at Patreon.com DrChrisStout to learn more. Thanks. Welcome to another episode of Living a Life in Full. I'm your host, Dr. Chris Stout. I am so proud to have two very famous and accomplished celebrities back onto the show from generally all over the world, but currently or maybe temporarily from somewhere in Germany, I'm guessing. I don't know if it's Dresden or Berlin, we'll find out. Today we've got Daniel Rince and Joey Fluor. Longtime listeners will not be surprised to have the chance to learn from both of these intrepid travelers as we've had three other motorcyclists, one of whom is actually a friend of theirs and mine who's also a world traveler on two wheels, Glenn Hegstad and I think in one of the early edits I I think we got to see him in their upcoming documentary. Another is a land speed record holder on a vintage BMW, Rebecca Bernick and Guinness world record holder Leslie Porterfield, also on a motorcycle and speaking going around the world. Past president of the Circumnavigators Club, David Mink has been a guest and Amy Scott talked about learning how to be location independent, which I think has a lot of parallels with a lot of the work that Daniel and Joey have done. And Matt Bailey gave listeners a great tip, a set of great tips for travel hacking. So, Daniel, Joey, welcome back to the show.

Thanks for having us.

Yeah, thank you.

So I know, I think, I know you're somewhere in Germany. Is it Berlin? Dresden? Where are you guys these days?

We're in Dresden right now.

All right, great. Well, to start, let's go back to your first trip, Daniel, that was the basis of an award winning documentary called Somewhere Else Tomorrow, which I think is pretty available on a variety of streaming platforms or certainly perch purchasable as a dvd. What spurred that trip and how long was it and where did you go? Tell us about that. Just as a refresher for people that might not have heard that episode.

I think the boredom spurred that trip in a way. Basically, I've traveled extensively in my early 20s and then I went back to study and at university I made a lot of friends and one of them kept asking me about my adventures. And eventually, you know, one night where we were working through the whole night because we had so much homework to do and we working on a project for university, he just said, well, if, if all of this is done, let's just travel around the world. What do you think? You have the experience, you know how it goes. And I want to, you know, I can, I want to, I want to experience it. And I said yes, no problem. I didn't need any convincing. So that's how it started. And it lasted almost three years. My buddy had a great time, but it was the first time for him to be outside Europe and it was too much because obviously we came out of university, didn't have, didn't have any savings. So we tried to work along the way. And after six months it became too much for him, the uncertainty and the money trouble and everything. So he turned around, went back home and I continued on my own.

Wow. So at some point in time, I think you referred to it, I love this term. Two wheels, one world and zero money. Yeah, yeah, I thought that was great. So. And that was sort of an homage to the fact that to be able to do something like this, basically, you know, a bit of kit and a decent enough bike, but not necessarily having to wait like a year's worth of time to have savings or something like that, that you have sort of technical skills as well as labor to be able to kind of, you know, make the funds that you needed and to Be able to travel relatively inexpensive. Was that the idea then?

Well, two wheels, one world, zero money. That's the most basic way of saying how naive we were. A lot of people come up to me and say, what an amazing story. You must be very brave. And I always say, I'm not brave. I'm just naive. I didn't know what I would get myself into, so that helped do it.

Yes, I think that can be very beneficial.

So. But yes, basically all the skills that we had acquired beforehand and, you know, the wisdom about how life works would help on an adventure like that. But definitely our skills increased as we went along.

Can imagine. So, Joey, you too, kind of in parallel, were a world traveler. You didn't start off on two wheels. Tell us a little bit more about your travel experience and your background.

Well, after I finished school, high school, traveling became very important for me. I went on my first long trip to Central America. I spent just short of a year traveling around backpacking. And it was a very important, transformative trip for me, a very important time for my personal development as well. And after coming back, I knew that was not the last trip I did and, well, got bit by the travel bug and I knew I'd always be traveling and I decided to study geography. And, yeah, that was always a great excuse to get away with travel because, you know, to understand the world, you have to see it, right?

So then.

But I was. I was never interested in, like, using my own vehicle to travel because I thought that just too much work, take care of it. And when I break down, I have to have to do something about it. And on public transportation, it's just so much easier. It seemed a lot easier to me. Just get on the next bus and go.

So was it. Was it Australia? New Zealand? Where were you two that you happened upon one another?

That was Thailand.

Thailand. Okay. And how did. How did that happen?

Basically, my sister knew Josephine from university. She went in the same course, but in the same school or something?

Yes, same group of friends. And that's how we met.

My sister or you? My sister were talking about your next trip?

Yeah, I was planning a trip to Southeast Asia. And she said, oh, you know what? My brother's in Asia as well right now. You should email him.

So Joey emailed me saying something along the lines of, do you want to meet for a coffee or something? And I remember, yeah, okay, I know, I know this girl. Let's meet for a coffee. I just didn't know whether I could actually make it to Thailand. By the time she would get there. It was like a couple of months before you flew out. Right. But I said, why not? Let's try. And then I was stuck in Nepal, actually, at the time, but I found a way to travel through China and Tibet on my motorcycle by joining a group. And I actually made it to Bangkok in time. But Joey didn't show up. Yeah, so I went back to the hotel. I was gonna pick her up from the airport. I went back online and tried to talk to her. And it turned out that there was a volcano in Iceland. Oh, I remember 2009, 2010. And the volcano erupted and stopped all the traffic in all of Europe. No airplanes. So we had, like a couple of days time to kill. I was in Bangkok, not because of anything. I just wanted to meet her. And she was stuck because she couldn't fly. So we were like, in this. In this vacuum, basically, and we were chatting on Skype for days, you know, just talking. What do you want to do when you get to Asia? Where. When you. What do you want to go next? What's your adventure like, how's motorcycling? Some stuff like that. And that's how we. Yeah, by the time you flew in about a week later, we knew each other pretty well, you know, and there was not much more talk needed. Everything just happened without any discussions. I dropped some luggage so she had some space on the bike. And then we kept riding through Southeast Asia together for all the time that Joey had for her trip.

Wow, that is so cool. You would think that the delay would have created all this havoc and stuff, but the fact that you weren't, you know, stuck to some itinerary, Daniel, then allowed to this. Have these deep conversations and. And then just get things going when she was able to arrive there. That's so cool. Oh, gosh.

Yeah.

Wow. So I'm. For a conversation, I'm going to, you know, I apologize to the. The listeners in the audience in advance. I'm probably going to be kind of hopscotching all over the place here. But I want to talk about the documentary. I want to talk about some of the nuts and bolts. I want to talk about some of the overview of it and things like that. But I guess maybe to kind of. To tee off this conversation is to talk about the travel that you guys have done through the Americas and Africa. And I was just tickled to see an early version. Director's cut, so to speak, of the documentary. Is there an official title yet? I know there was a working title. I don't want to give away Any spoilers? So I'm not going to say anything that I think I know or may know incorrectly, but is there an official title? Is it okay Us? If there is, is it okay to share that or kind of catch us up?

Yeah, it's okay to communicate it. We have an official title. We've used it in film. When I promote the film when I'm going to cinemas all over Europe this winter, actually starting in a couple of weeks, I try to not state the title as often as I can because I kind of like the surprise. Okay, cinema. You know, we kind of say Somewhere Else Tomorrow, Part two, and then we cross out two and then we state the right title. But it's not a secret. It's easy enough to find out what the new title is. We called it Somewhere Else Together.

That's so cool.

Yeah, that's so cool.

And I think way back when I had Glenn on the show, he and I were talking about, you know, your doctor documentary and like, the coolness of the, you know, how you would come up with that title for that. So it just, it's so fitting. So, so thanks and. And listeners maybe get a. An early scoop on this. So. So is it. Are you done with editing? Is it. Is it now out for public consumption or catch us up with distribution and how people might be able to. To see it or when they might be able to. To see it coming to a theater near them,

the editing is basically done. Since the version you've watched, I've put a lot of effort and time into making it better and shorter. It was a very long version and now it's just under two hours. And it works on many levels. It works better. It's a bit more tight, it has better momentum. It leaves out some of the scenes that we like. But for the general audience who isn't like. Who hasn't, like, read every word on our travel blog, it's better, you know, because you're not distracted with all these little side stories and had a few scenes in the movie which are only relevant if you have seen the first movie. So once you've seen the first, you kind of can relate to the people we meet again on the second trip, we talk to them again. So we've cut out that as well. And now it's kind of a very digestible length of just two. Just under two hours.

Do you measure in days of footage? Because you. I mean, this. How long was the trip in total from. Do you even know? It seems so. Such. So epic.

So this attempt to circumnavigate the motorcycle. Not the motorcycle, the world by motorcycles. So the attempt to circumnavigate the world by motorcycle took six years, three years each trip. It's a long time.

That's a lot of footage.

So basically, to answer your question, the editing is done more or less. I mean, every day I find some small bits and pieces that I can make a little better, but it doesn't change the overall story. And the next steps are to go through cinemas in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, maybe the Netherlands, who knows? And I'm working with an agency and I've signed away the rights, which means I cannot release the DVD or video on demand before the summer 2020.

Okay.

But for all Europeans who are listening to your podcast, they're more than welcome to check out my website. And they will find the cinema nearby, I'm sure.

Great. Well, we'll put that. Send me the links and stuff when available, and then we'll put all that stuff into the show. Notes and people can do that. I'll also see if we can off, you know, offline. Let's coordinate this. So I'll have the show, this episode come out hopefully close to the time that you'll be making your European splash. So we can coordinate that and keep in touch with it too. We can update folks as well too, so. So let's. Thank you for the overview. Now let's start to dig a little deeper. What were there certain kinds of things that. That you guys learned from travel or from motorcycling together on one bike, or Daniel, your time independently, Tips or ideas or experiences that you learned that. That you applied then to this second trip, Right.

Well, the first part of the question is like endless.

This will be a real long form episode.

Yeah. Second part of the question about what was different in the second trip rather than the first. Well, let's see. The first trip was. Protagonist, me, basically, what can you. What happens to you when you travel places you've never been, you have no idea about, and what does it do to you? Especially not knowing how to make it, because I didn't have the money for it. So I had to consistently find jobs and work and meet people and network and just deal with all kinds of challenges and hurdles. So that is what the first film is about. Can you travel around the world without money? Is it possible? Is it dangerous? What has happened to you? That is the first film. The second film is a little different because, you know, once you've been around the world of a couple of years and you've experienced different cultures, and you felt completely alone somewhere far away from home, right? You've already experienced this. It's not. It's not that. That you'll be that green to maneuver yourself into really outrageous situations anymore. You know, you kind of have this sense when someone says, hey, let's do this. Let's go up this volcano and take a photograph or something. You already kind of know what could happen or what the dangerous parts could be. You know, you have an understanding more than you know before you've gone anywhere. Right? So the second trip is not about how to. Or not as much. You know, obviously we faced challenges, we had difficult times, you know, things we didn't expect. Of course, you know, that always happens, right? But not to the extent that we were like, completely overwhelmed and did something completely stupid, you know, that, you know, that could have happened to us in the first trip. So the second part is more like, you know, once you have understood the actual freedom of our generation, you know, you have understood that you can create your life, you can do with your life what you want, you know, and where you want it. So with that understanding, what do you do? How do you actually grasp that freedom? Do you suffer that freedom? Because there's a lot of people, I mean, including me in earlier times, maybe even some days today, when I. When I say, well, you know, there's so many options, what do I do? I can't choose. It's too much. And then I stagnate because it's too much.

Right.

So these questions, you know, what do you do? How do you accomplish following your dream? How do you do it? And, yeah, and what steps are necessary? What are the thoughts that are. That are coming with. With that idea? So that's. That's what the second film is, you know, using the experiences that you have on the way, the encounters to people you meet, the things that happen to. To understand what you want and what you don't want.

So with that, it just seems so. I mean, just to hear you say, like, six years and. And, you know, I've. I've done, like, not anything that even comes close other than the fact that it's in a different country and on a motorcycle, you know, little touring and stuff like that, and know, sort of like how discombobulating. I had. I had done a thing with my wife on the Isle of Man. I wanted to ride the same course as the Isle of Man. TT and I tell you, just feeling like a total idiot at roundabouts and feeling, you know, and the Isle of Man is very Small and very easy to get around. And I think there's, like, basically four roads around it, and. And I just felt like it was so easy to get lost. I would be, like, totally befuddled. I'd be, like, doing laps around roundabouts because I couldn't figure out, you know, how to not get hit by a car because I was, you know, disoriented to being what to me was the wrong side of the road. I can't.

Yeah.

I can't imagine then what it was, you know, what it's like for you guys with looking at, you know, maps and plans and, you know, trying to have these plans, but the logistics and those aspects. Can you share a little bit about that? Because I would imagine there's a general plan to get from point A to B, but then oftentimes things go sideways and you have to improvise. Tell us, how do you handle that technically and how do you handle that emotionally to not be like me and get freaked out about it?

I think the answer to that question is inside your question, actually.

Okay.

Because you say, how do you. How do you handle this emotionally? And I think that's the whole. The whole point. We had, you know, we had. Initially we planned to travel the Americas, right from Alaska all the way down to Argentina. And only then we realized it wasn't enough. We needed. We weren't finished. We weren't. You know, we needed more, and we traveled through Africa. So it's a lot of kilometers, a lot of miles, a lot of time. And you can't possibly sit down beforehand and create an Excel spreadsheet and put in kilometers per day and all that. It's impossible. And we never attempted that. So we had this general, general idea, this very tentative route, and we would just take it as it comes. And I think the. Trick is to not be emotionally attached to the plan panning out in a certain way. So if you let life plan out the exact route for you and you'll be happy with it, then it's very, very easy to arrive at your destination.

That's great.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, that's very philosophical. I get that. I get nervous when people say, oh, get away from the spreadsheet, but I totally understand what you mean. So balancing that, having the comfort to kind of let life unfold and let the road, you know, take you where it leads, there's still aspects of. And. And I know you talk about this in the. The director's cut of, like, getting through checkpoints and borders. There's things of, like, visas like there's, you know, like, immunizations and stuff like that. I mean, I've done like a. A fair amount of humanitarian medical work where you sort of have to have this proof of immunization. Otherwise they give you a shot with a syringe that looks like it's been used 10 times before. So do you. Is that also sort of just kind of take it as it comes or. There are certain kinds of things that you did have to, you know, like plan in advance so that a date would be available for a visa. And if you did have to do that, how did you do that?

Sure. There are certain things that. That are important to do beforehand. There's some planning that life isn't going to do for you. You know, it's just. You just have to be smart enough to understand which one is that.

Right.

You know, what's like.

Bureaucracy is very good at squashing plans and freedom. So. Yeah, I know what you mean.

Yeah. So, I mean, visas for the Americas, it's fairly straightforward. You get all the visas at the border, at least for. I think it is true for North Americans and for Europeans. Right. There's some countries, some passport holders who have it a little bit more difficult, but generally the Pan American route is fairly straightforward as far as visas goes.

Okay.

But having said that, there is certain vaccinations which are required to enter. Brazil, for example. And I remember we were kind of being laid back about it. Which one was it that was sold out? Yellow fever. What country?

Well, we first thought about it in the States and it was just super expensive, and we decided to. To just get it later on. And then in Mexico and Guatemala, I think.

What country did we need it for? I think we needed it for Colombia.

For Colombia.

Colombia, yeah. Yeah.

And then it was sold out everywhere because they had the football World cup in. Where was it?

Brazil.

In Brazil.

And all America was going to Brazil. Yeah.

People traveling there, they all needed the vaccination and it was just sold out everywhere. And it was only in El Salvador that we got lucky.

Yes. Honduras.

Honduras.

Honduras. Yeah. That's. That was. That was funny. Per person, I think even more or even more.

200.

And so, you know, if. And that is what I mean, life is going to plan for you a little bit. You know, if we had kind of said, we have to have it, we have to have it, damn, it's difficult, you know, we would have stressed about it, but we didn't. So we tried in Mexico, didn't work. We tried in Guatemala, didn't work. And then In Honduras, we got it for free, didn't we?

Yeah. We met someone and he said, oh, I know a clinic where you get it for free.

Yeah, you can't plan for that.

So that's.

That's very cool.

Yeah. But a couple of countries later, it would have been tough to get again. You know, it's kind of. You have to be lucky as well.

Yeah.

What else? As far as planning goes, Visas, vaccinations. There's a lot of tricky bits, but if you. If you keep your eyes open and your ears open, you collect all the relevant and important information. Rather much easier than going online because you talk to people, you talk to other travelers that come your way or travel the same way. For example, what happened on a regular basis in Peru that the Peruvian customs officers, they didn't stamp your motorcycle or vehicle, whatever, you were traveling on the same way that they gave you the visa. So you got a visa for 90 days in Peru, but it's all in Spanish. Right. But they stamped your bike in and out for 10 days or something, and then you. You want to leave the country 90 days later, and they say you have. Your bike has overstayed. We have to take it from you. What's the word? Confiscated. Oh, my God. We've heard of this before. Guys had their bikes confiscated and it didn't ever get it back.

Oh, my gosh.

It could be the end of the trip.

No kidding. Wow. So how do you manage when. So that happened to you that they said that you've. Your bike has expired, it gone beyond.

No, we heard about it.

Oh, I see.

So that's what you do as a traveler. You know, that's what automatically happens to you when you travel. Your antennas, your senses, they get sharpened. You know, you listen to everything and you talk to everybody. You're open, you're not judgmental. You kind of, you know, you take stuff up and it'll help you.

Wow. Wow. Yeah, that's kind of the kind of things that you don't really tend to see on a State Department website or something like that. So it. How do you. I guess this is probably going to be a very naive question, but, like, I remember when I had Amy Scott on, she talked about a service that she had that could sort of read her mail because I think she kept an apartment or something, so she would still have, like, you know, utility bills come to her that, you know, that she made arrangements to get, you know, debited out of her checking account and stuff. I'm guessing that didn't apply to you guys, is that right? Or like how would you pay for certain, like cell phone bills or something like that? Was that just like auto debit, debited or how did you manage expenses that like happen automatically?

We, we made sure that all the contracts we had were terminated. So both of us, we were registered to our parents address. So if something came from the state or whatever, they would send us an email. But we didn't have any cell phone contract, any. Anything that would have any, anything that forced us to keep one leg in Germany right at home and kind of check and see what's going on. We didn't have any of that. So we let go of everything. So the cell phone contract, for example, we bought prepaid SIM cards in each of the countries and we would just throw them away when we were done or give them to other travelers who were going the other way so we could really actually fully concentrate on the trip itself if it wasn't for the work that we still had to do along the way. It was. Yeah.

And so let's, let's, let's. That's a good segue. Let's talk about that. So were you doing, were either of you doing like freelance stuff that could be kind of like the proverbial digital nomad? I know that you also did like some labor and stuff. Did, did it not matter to not like have like, you know, green cards or, or work visas and stuff like that because it was international or because you was just sort of small agricultural stuff or. Tell us about the work you did and how you found it and how that turned out.

Sure. We did some work on the ground in various places that we came through. And mostly it happened through people who know about us. I think the first film helped a lot. Recommended to me somebody's friend or something. And a lot of the work that we did was over the Internet. So I kept freelancing for some clients all over the world. You know, some in Germany, some who knows, Australia, Laos, us all over the place. London, you know, uk. You know, over the years you have so many contacts and at some point they remember you and ask you if you can do something. You could call us a digital nomads. I think that would be applicable. Although the way we did it was quite stressful and I wouldn't recommend it. I wouldn't do it again this way. It gave us a lot of freedom in a way, but it also became stressful at times because when you're in the middle of nowhere. I remember in Namibia, we were traveling, the landscape was Amazing. And I was doing a job and I had to keep deadlines. And then you get quite, you know, stressed when you realize it's four days to the next WI Fi.

Gosh, sure.

And you just received your very slow 3G iPhone connection. The client wants change. That means you have to, you know, fire up your computer and render whatever hours of footage. I don't know, it's. It's quite. It's stressful. And also, I think because we were on motorcycles, every time we sat down to work, we had to find something that everybody takes for granted. Because you show up in the office and you work, it takes you. It takes you two minutes to hang your coat, sit down. But we had to find the whole setup in a third world country. It was not a given that in any hotel room you would have a chair. And if there was power, then chances were good that your plug wouldn't fit. And if it fit, then it would be so loose because it's so old, would fall out of the wall every two hours. The WI FI was really horrible and would cut out more often than it was on and super hot. And there was a construction site next door which was really noisy. And then it was sandstorm going over your keyboard and make sounds when you type. And, you know, it's just. I wouldn't recommend it. If you're traveling in a van, you can have your own setup with everything, you know, she work. That is fantastic. You know, but motorcycle, it is. It was tricky at times.

Yeah, you need to have like a gag reel, too.

What? You just.

I could just envision all these things that you just described. It's like, oh, my God. So, so, so speaking that. Of that, then you, you. You're teeing up very good segues for me. So in terms of like, gear and equipment and things like that, you shot like, I, I think, correct me if I have my facts wrong, but. And let's talk about what you chose and why you chose it. Like, you had, you shot footage with the Canon and with Sony's and with GoPros and, and even iPhones and. And that kind of equipment. Is that correct?

Yeah. As we were tight on budget, we used what we could. We started with the Canon 5D Mark II that I bought for the first trip. We used this in the beginning of the second trip, but we updated it fairly early on after a couple of months. Right. You've been using it longer until Panama something. Because the technology got better, you know, the cameras became smaller, lighter, cheaper. So we updated to Sony's. I used the Sony A7s, which was great for low light situations. Good footage. We were given some GoPros. All the ones we used for a while. Sony sponsored us to action cams, which was good for a while. We used. And we were also given a drone by a fantastic company called 3Dr. They don't exist anymore, but they were really, really cool. Based in San Francisco. Said, look, I'm not sure somewhere in

the US the first, the second one in Columbia.

I mean, the company Woody were based. I think they had. It doesn't matter. They don't exist anymore. But they were really cool. They were very helpful. They posted us extra batteries so we could fly or send them better or more footage.

Wow.

And all of it's for free. But it meant that we were stuck in Lima, Peru for a week and paid like $200 of taxes and a lot of negotiations just to get batteries out of the customs office. Really?

Oh my gosh. Wow.

Yeah, we could. We used. We used what we had our hands and tried to make the most of it with the cameras. We also had audio recorders and the helmet cameras. Helmet cameras, Sena. That was also very nice of them. I think they were the first ever company to create a helmet camera which was a combination out of an intercom.

Huh.

In the camera so you could actually voice activate the camera.

Wow.

It's very cool.

I. I just assumed those were GoPros. That. That is very cool. Gosh, that must have been super helpful because I mean, the, the drone footage is beautiful and amazing. I'm so glad those folks, you know, helped support that. And then it's just you really do have a point of view of what it was like for the two of you on the bikes. And you know, and even some of the stills that you sent me of, you know, like looking down these, like what looks like a road, but you see this thing? It looks like a hole, but it's like a crevasse, you know, it's like, oh my gosh. I mean, you just really sends chills down your spine of what it was like to, to have. And I'm sure still there, you know, there's a certain abstraction that, you know, by virtue of footage versus reality is. Is much. But I tell you, the visceral feelings of seeing the things that you guys have shared is just amazing. So. But, but please, go ahead. So,

yeah, I think the only point I wanted to make in regards to all the cameras and everything is, you know, we had all these cameras and we used, you know, in the situation, what we had. Even if we just had our phones in our pockets, we used that. But looking at our equipment as a whole, it is crazy to see what it takes to do it properly, you know, I mean, it's not just. You have several cameras. All the cameras come with charging cables and chargers. Different ones you have, you know, you have, you don't have just one laptop, you have two. Because when you have time to sit down and work, what is the other person gonna do? You know, you have two. So you work on a laptop, then you have laptops, have charger, then you have backup hard drives and cables.

10 or 15.

A lot of hard drives, hard readers and so much technology. So if I was to travel just, just for me and my personal enjoyment, without taking any photo, any anything, maybe writing a book, see, then I would. I'd be able to buy a 250 and travel faster.

Yeah,

I agree. It was like 50% was wow equipment and the other half was personal stuff. I would say that it's pretty much on. On to the point. Yeah.

Wow. So you also. Speaking of this in the equipment, tell us about your rule of seven.

What is the rule of seven? Did I say that

I read that somewhere? So I think it was along the lines of like camera, like angles or perspective, point of view.

Yeah, yeah, I know. It just came to me. I know what you mean. It's not that I came up with it. Someone said at some film school, I don't know, I picked it up on the site. Basically, the rule of seven is a. The rule of seven is if you want to capture any scene, it is good to keep in mind that you have seven angles to the one story. For example, let's. Let's take a very simple example. Someone sells bananas on the street. And the bananas are magical because they make you fly. I don't know. So seven is the rule of seven. Means you start with it with a, with a total means with a wide shot. So you have a wide shot of the guy selling the bananas. So, you know, so the audience knows the bearings, you know, where, where is it, you know, what kind of situation is it, you know, and then you have six further shots. Like a close up of the bananas, maybe a close up of the guy selling it, and then maybe a medium white shirt of you eating the banana and then another one of you flying. Because they're magical, stuff like that, you know, Just make sure you have seven shots. The one story that is, that is the rule. Okay, but I didn't always follow it.

Well, there's I mean, there's obviously such spontaneity in some of the things, you know, like, okay, Joey's saying, Daniel, now dump the bike one more time.

Exactly.

The lighting was off. I forgot to hit record. So. Well, let's shift a little bit into maybe the other big supporting actors in this was, was the bike. So Joey, I think, and again, you guys correct me if I get any of my tech and equipment wrong, but I think you wrote a 1982 BMW R80GS and Daniel, you were on a 2007 BMW R 1200GS, is that right?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes. Except my bike is from 91, not from 82. Daniel's first bike.

Oh, okay.

Thank you. But it's the same, it's the same model.

Same models back in that day. I don't remember if you remember, Chris, you know, they built cars for a long time. The same one. They didn't update it every, every year.

Yeah, yep, I do remember.

Yeah.

It just might be a slightly little teeny weeny different tweak or something. You know, a taillight might be a little different. But generally every, everything else was just, you know, if it worked, it continued to work. So, so in terms you've talked about on the blog about, like the consideration of a decision saying, well, maybe an older bike is simpler and less, less electronics, less sophistication, less tech in it. So if we had a breakdown, it would be easier to, to, to rig it and to find a part for it and to, you know, to get it back on the road. And the other argument, counter argument is to say, well, no, a newer bike maybe is more robust and, and has better technology in it and can do some things that the older bike can't do. But the trade off is that maybe there's some tricky esoteric part that might fail and might be very expensive to fix or might be weeks to get a replacement. So you guys kind of put, put those two theories to test. What's, what's your, your outcome of that? What, what do you, what was your experience and what would you advise for someone wanting to make a decision between an older versus a newer bike?

Well, we didn't know beforehand whether, which, which one would be the better option, but we have a very clear winner.

Okay.

I mean, we're, we're only one example in the world. Right? You can have 10 couples traveling around the world, one with the new bike and the other one with an old bike, and you had different, a different result each time, I guess.

Sure.

But for us it was very clear basically between the version that you've watched and now the cinema version, the recent version. I have cut out so many bike failures of Joey's autobike because so many people, I mean, it wasn't so many, but quite a few people said, how many times can. I was so bored of this bike breaking down all the time. I want to see something else in the movie except you under the bike with dirty hands. And I didn't even show all the time.

That was an edit.

Yeah. So to summarize it, the older bike, it didn't break like, like an unusual amount. We were like, right, three years and it had already 100, 000 kilometers on the clock.

Wow.

And we put another thousand kilometers on it. So it wasn't like unusual, but it broke down quite frequently. But let's say, you know, once every two months. I would say something was something, but something major. Not all the time, but the gearbox, alternator, battery, I don't know, switches here, every part possible.

So, Joe, you had a new bike by the time the trip is over. So,

so, but it was fine, you know, and that is the trade off. It's fine because you can, you can fix it. It's, it's simple.

Yeah.

And. But here's my recommendation. If someone doesn't know how to work on a bike or on the vehicle. Well, it's not that easy to say. I have to kind of slip in another episode. Always, always just. It was just me who worked on the bike. Not because I didn't trust anybody, but because we did save money. I just worked on the bike and it didn't cost us anything. But one time we traded a presentation for a service. And the presentation went well, and the service went well, but we took the bike out. And from that moment on, we had a lot of problems. I mean, the first thing they did, they adjusted the gas cables, but they need some play because when the engine warms up, it changes. And because it's a boxer engine, both sides, they have to be perfectly synchronized. And he just tightened it because they said, well, why is there play? Let's not have play. And then, you know, we were driving through the city in the middle of the night and just out of the garage, and then we had to stop at a gas station and by ear, I had to re synchronize the engine again because Joey was like standing on a red light, revving. I mean, not touching the handlebar, but the engine revved up to 3,3000 or something. Oh, my gosh, nothing worked anymore. And then they put the Wrong. Oil in. They had this old bike only. It only uses mineral oil because the mineral oil has different qualities. And the seals that are used, if they get in synthetic oil, they start to leak. We had to change a lot of seals all the way down, you know, along the way. And there was this one when we were paying, I don't know, $200 for a part that cost $5, but our, our parents send it to us with the fastest option possible. They also taxed us on the amount that it cost to send the part down. So it was crazy.

Yeah.

So my point is, if you can't work on your own vehicle, it's going to be tricky. You can, you definitely can. And I encourage you to travel the world. You definitely can. You will find people who will help you, but whether they can help you properly is the question. My experience is that technology and cars and motorcycles get very sophisticated the newer they are. And I find that there is a, there's a gap between those people who engineer the bikes and those who can fix them. Right. Every, every year, new bike comes out. And even if you go to a big city and try to get it fixed, they may not be able to. They don't know how to fix it because it's so advanced. So it's tricky. Take a newer bike. A newer bike definitely will not break as often. But when it breaks because it's so sophisticated, it might be tricky to get fixed. So to summarize it, Joey's bike broke a lot of times, but I could help it. And my bike never, never broke. The whole three years. Nothing. Every morning I switched it on and I ran. I just put tires, oil, air filters in. Nothing. I did. Not a thing. Except one night I. The GPS on the board, charger system. And then a couple days later when we packed up, it wouldn't start because the battery was dead by then.

Wow.

I exchanged the battery. This was the only thing where it left me.

And that was. And we're talking in relative terms because that was still a 10 year old bike, right? Or 8 year old.

Well, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah. So I, I guess I was lucky.

Yeah, it's. Well, I, Yeah, I mean, and you guys, I obviously don't, don't abuse your bikes. I mean, there's enough abuse that just happens in the natural scheme of things of, you know, going across country and countries and the, the ruggedness. And I think there's also. I don't know if it'll be in the cinema version, but I, I remember that. I think it was Colombia that you guys experienced a flood, you know, and tell us about that because you also. Not just mechanical kinds of things, but you had some sticky situations with politics and war zones and floods and I don't know if you any famines and pestilence, but you had, you know, quite a, quite a few apocalyptic kinds of things going on. Tell us about that.

Well, the flood spoken about that was kind of funny in a way until we found out how serious it was. So we were driving from Cartagena in Colombia to Barranquilla, which is all the way along the coast. And we were only going to Barranquilla because we tried to pick up some spare parts from someone who offered to bring it to us. So we didn't know the person, we just knew him from Facebook and we just posted we need spare parts. Who can. Who's flying from Germany to Colombia in this month, basically. Wow.

Wow.

So we were only going this way because of our spare parts and it was raining a little bit. And then we entered the city and the rain kind of picked up and you know, it was gradual. At one red light, we put the feet, our feet down and we had like ankle height water on the, on the road, you know. You know, I mean that sometimes, sometimes happens, you know, I wasn't worried about it too much. And the next red light was like almost under up to our knees.

Wow.

And then something's wrong. And then we looked at the people around us and they were motioning us, waving at us. Get off the street. You know, what are you doing? Wow. We didn't know what's going on. But apparently to all the people who live in Barranquilla, it's very clear that you get off the road when it rains because they have this design flaw in the city where they didn't calculate for the sewer system. Oh no, it's so bad. So it's all concrete. So bad that, you know, on a regular basis the cars are spilled down in the ocean. We have seen footage on YouTube later on, the whole buses float in the street, on the streets.

Oh, gosh.

We kind of, we. Nothing really bad happened. But Joey's motorcycle was in danger for a few minutes. She just got stuck.

Yeah, I got stuck on a crossroad

divider or something, wasn't it?

Yeah, I couldn't see what it was, but I got stuck. The engine turned off and I had a really hard time like holding the bike up because there was like a road coming down from the side and it was just like one river flowing into another river. And I'm trying to. And then Daniel came running and helping me out. Pretty critical.

Yeah. Golly.

Oh, the water, like all the camera stuff and whatever I had in my bags would have been.

Yeah, we weren't like prepared. It's just rain. We know. We have, you know, waterproof bags, but you can't go dive with them.

Not submersible, so. And everything survived pretty well. People and equipment.

Yeah, Joey had some, some water in her air filter box, so it could have been really bad. But the engine, I don't know, was just okay. We cleaned it out, the engine kept running, so it was all good. The camera stayed dry. So we were lucky.

That's great.

Yeah.

Well, and the fact too that here you are in this kind of chaotic circumstance and nevertheless you're still able to get some footage too. That's also pretty amazing filmmaking. So bravo to that. So speaking of sticky situations, you guys also, you know, there's no predicting politics and no predicting, you know, people's behaviors, but you had some kind of dicey border crossings and you've. In Africa, on that stint of it, you ran into some child soldiers. Tell us, tell us a little bit about that.

When we decided to not stop traveling once we reached Ushuaia in Argentina, we shipped our bikes to South Africa and decided to travel up along the west coast up to Morocco and then cross over to Spain and make our way home to Germany. Obviously this whole continent we didn't plan to do from the beginning, so. So we were kind of. We had to do it with what we had. You know, our bikes were too big for the adventure, but we couldn't afford other ones. And our equipment, you know, I mean, some of the things we send home because you don't need a big jacket. And in Africa it's all warm or hot even most of the time. And climate is very different. And so, so we were kind of facing all. I would say it's one of the. It's the wildest continent left. So we were facing this after a two year trip, basically, and there were a lot of difficulties. Language was more difficult because in Latin America it's all Spanish. Joey speaks Spanish really well in Africa. Western Africa is mostly French, which is a little bit difficult for us, not as fluent. And visas was a big problem. You can get visas, but they're very, very, very expensive in most of the countries. And it's very difficult to get for most countries. You have to give them a lot of information. You have to. I remember in Nigeria, for example, just to get in, we had A friend sent his passport copy and work details and bank balance sheet and all these very sensitive information to us. So we can present it to the embassy and say, look, we have this friend in the country. We have an invitation letter, we have hotels booked and everything else that they wanted us to show just in order to get in. They still do not keep giving us the visa because they know it's a dangerous place. And if an international tourist gets whatever, kidnapped or mugged or, you know, robbed, and then it'll be bad press, right?

Sure.

They're really reluctant. And also in most countries, you cannot get the visa in the neighboring country, so you have to keep your ear to the ground and talk to every traveler. And there are not many in Africa to find out where you get the visa for any of the 20, however, how many was it? 18 different countries that we went through. So in Congo, Brusselsville, we found out where we get the. The visa for Ghana, which was only five countries up and like that. And then, you know, and you exchange names and phone numbers of those people who know. And it also changes in Africa. Things change on a daily basis. So this is a bit of a hurdle. The visa, the money. It's one of the most expensive places I ever traveled. Africa.

Yeah. We spend like a thousand dollars per person for all the visas going through Africa.

No kidding. Oh, my gosh. Wow.

Wasn't it thousand per person?

Per person? Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, it's a few thousand dollars.

Gosh.

Yeah.

So. And yeah, so in that process then, I mean, again, talk about creativity and stuff, because I. I've done a fair amount of travel, not. Not overland. I remember I tried to get from Ghana to. To. And just got turned away at the border because I had an issue that I was again, too naive to know that they were expecting some extra little fees for me to get across. And I didn't understand, you know, what the subcontext was. And I semi recently went to Nigeria and it was by virtue of a friend that had invited me over and he, like, I was supposed to get interviewed in the United States. States. I live in Chicago. I was supposed to fly to Washington to have my interview to get my visa to go to Nigeria. And it was like, what? So, so I. I can. To me, that was just. And I had to fill out all these forms probably similar to you, and I had to like, give a description if I had any scars or tattoos and proof of funds and all these kinds of things. And that was, you know, sitting in, you know, comfortable Chicago. I can't Imagine on a motorcycle, you know, with bad WI FI connectivity of trying to stitch together, you know, thousands of dollars worth of visas and border crossings. So, so that's chaotic and probably nerve wracking enough. But then you also, you know, you were in some war zone areas and, and you know, had some. In some areas where there was some. And I know also, at least in the, the, the version of the, the film I saw, there was some, you had some intel from some people to avoid certain places or certain points because they were starting to flare up. Tell us, share that story with us or those incidences,

the border crossings and the war zones. Yeah, okay. The Congos. There's two Congos actually. Why are there two Congos? Do you know?

Yeah, yeah. Democratic Republic and.

Right, yeah, yeah, that's the Republic of Congo and that's the Democratic Republic of Congo. And apparently the Democratic Republic of Congo isn't at all democratic. That's what we've learned. But we chose the western route to go up Africa because that was basically the only option without cheating. We could have gone the eastern route, which would have been a little bit more touristy, maybe a little bit more easy as far as the road goes. But then we would have gotten stuck in Egypt because from Egypt you can neither go to the left, which is west, because what's that there? Libya. Libya, still dicey, is a no go. It's very difficult since they killed the Gaddafi. It's a mess. So you can't go there. Can't go. Right, which is east. So because the whole conflict with Israel and the peninsula, what's it called, my geography. I've been to too many places, I

think, or I don't know, Sinai.

Well, okay, you get stuck in Egypt and that's it.

Yeah, that's it, you're done. Ship the bike. Ship the bike.

You can, you can edit this, right?

Yeah.

So in Egypt you can't go anywhere. You can even, not even take a ferry or anything. There's no ferry service. You can't go to Europe. So you're stuck. It's a dead end. So we took the western route which would take us to Morocco and then we could take a ferry. There's a ferry every day. The western route also meant going through a couple of countries which were not all that safe. So the Democratic Republic of Congo was one of them. So we did some research and according to the Internet, like it's quite something. Right, so civil war, as you said, they have child soldiers in jungle somewhere. I think Joseph Kony is also active in that country, and it's a huge conflict and people are poor, very poor, desperate and desperate people are capable of doing the wildest things. So we weren't particularly looking forward to going through. But you know, we didn't want to be prejudiced, so we just chose a route to go through and it was fine. Actually, all the people we met, they were really, really friendly. Even the checkpoints were really open and happy and they wanted to make sure we had good experience in their country. But by the time we got there, we were really, really exhausted by a few things. First of all, we had to be riding a lot of kilometers the previous day before we got into Congo, because in Angola, it was a huge country and we were only given a five day transit visa. And Joey's bike broke down. So we had delays and we were riding 12 hours in 40 degrees heat, which was at 105 Fahrenheit, something like this, and it's very humid. And so we were stressed. And then we came in this country and we knew it's dangerous or we thought it would be dangerous, so we hasted through that place. And then because Joey's motorcycle was limping, we chose a different route. We chose a route to stay closer to the main road, which was easier to drive. But that meant we had to ship between the two capitals, Kinshasa. And they don't officially have any ferry service or any exchange because the two countries are not talking to each other on a political terms. So we had to find something. Right. And it turned out to be a bit nerve wracking. It took us a lot of hours. The whole day? Pretty much, yeah. It took us the whole day. We showed up in the morning and right in front of the gate where the border used to be, there were a bunch of jobless, basically jobless customs offices, because there was no trade going on. They had nothing to do. And there were a lot of people who tried to be our fixers and make some money off us, obviously. So after dealing with partially official and partially inofficial services, we were let on the harbor area and the River Congo is about 3km wide at that point. And so they found a little boat for us. And obviously the boat, yeah, I mean, we were like negotiating all day. And then our fixer said, look, it's $300 and no hidden cost. I stressed on that because I've been, you know, people tried to try things on me on every board. I know what's happening. And he was doing his best. And I mean, the situation itself maybe wasn't altogether that dangerous, but because we were so exhausted at the time. Yeah, we were especially sensitive. Right. So we were at this one point standing, Joey and I, we were super exhausted standing there. And There were about 50 to 60 workers around us, like big muscled workers around us. And they all wanted to help us carry our motorcycles on this little makeshift boat which was like 10 meters below us. Like, there was this. This edge, you know, and the cranes were supposed to load and unload the big cargo ships. They. They weren't used. They didn't work anymore.

Wow.

So it was like just harbor workers and us and the bikes. And then they tried to. I don't know, it looked very dangerous. And I was, in my mind, I was like, oh, my God, the motorcycle is going to go underwater and then the trip is over. I won't ever make it home.

Oh, no,

Stuff like that. And then. And then you have, you know, these, these people, they're also very desperate. It's super hot. They haven't maybe, I don't know, they haven't eaten that day. And they want to bring some money home to their families. And they expect us to pay 60 people to carry two bikes. I don't know. And then without us wanting it, we were in the situation of choosing, you know, six people out of the crowd. And that caused another whole, oh, gosh, fight between them, you know, take me, take me. This guy is drunk and this guy is on drugs. And Josephine was like, don't use this guy. He's like, I don't know, he's on drugs. And all this noise and depends on and the people yelling and almost hitting each other. And Fixo wanted all this over so you could get his money. And then the police wanted this situation to be, you know, low profile and don't make any fuss. And everyone wanted something. And by the time we had our bikes on this little boat and we're leaving the harbor, we were like, so done. It was like sun setting.

Oh, gosh.

Like, we didn't. We couldn't talk for the rest of the day. We just went across the custom on the other side and just fell asleep in the tent.

Wow. Wow. Yeah, that's. That is quite a story. I remember. Did a lot of that make it into the cinema version? Because I remember as you described that, that the dangerousness of that really came across in the director's cut. It's like, oh, my gosh.

Yeah, it's still in the movie. Still in the movie. I think it's an important part. I mean, part of it Psychological, as I said, we were really tired. But I think escalated also, you know, because you have these people and they're desperate. They want their basic needs met.

Yeah.

So they want bucks. And who knows, it could have been that someone grabs one of our bags and runs away. What do you do, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's. Thank you for sharing that. And again, it's. It's just the surviving of that and the thinking on your feet and, you know, thank goodness it had a good outcome, I think is really instructive and I guess from a different perspective, but maybe to your point about human needs and what dire circumstances, I think, Daniel, you started off way back when with humanitarian media, Huma tv, and you were a part of that team and did that because I also know I want us to spend some time, maybe in the time we have remaining about the orphanage that you're involved with in Nepal and the Guatemalan foundation, that sort of thing. But tell us about your humanitarian roots and the work that you did there and the current work that you're involved with.

Okay. Well, I'm not. I wouldn't call myself a humanitarian per se. I'm not someone who goes around trying to help the world. I feel like I can barely, you know, survive myself.

Joey, we'll talk about this later. Joey offline.

I mean, I don't see myself as someone who has to give a lot of things or a lot of. I don't know, I don't know. I'm just trying to get through this life with least amount of friction and tension. So I'm trying to walk this earth sensibly. But having said that, it keeps occurring to me or to us again and again that we meet someone or we come into a situation where it's very clear that this person or this group of people need help. And in this moment, I feel. Or we feel that we can help and then we don't talk about it, we do help. And that's how I think I got involved with Huma TV and with the orphanage in Nepal and also with the Christian community in a Muslim country in Pakistan and also the Jackal Heart foundation in Gotamana. So there are some groups and some individuals which we try to help as much as we can. Today is actually the last day of a project that I started a couple months ago. Josie and I, we went to Nepal this summer and we revisited the orphanage in Nepal after pretty much exactly 10 years. Wow. And back then it was 25 kids or something that I met and we did a video and we Asked our blog readers if they could maybe send a little bit of money because this orphanage is about to go under. They have problems with the rent. So a lot of our fans did that so we could make them a fantastic Christmas present. And it was really fantastic. The kids were happy, and they remember me. There's a couple of kids still at the orphanage, and they remember me. They were really small back then, 10 and 11 years. And so, you know, I didn't plan this. I didn't want to be looked up to or anything. I just said, well, let's do something. What can we do? How about we create a calendar? We have, you know, we have so many photos from our trip. We make calendar. And you guys, you kids, you contribute something to the calendar and we sell it. And whatever we make, you can have for food and housing. So what we did is we showed them our new movie, which is actually kind of illegal because it was like the first proper audience. Wow. A little shed with a tin roof and about 30 kids, one of the, you know, the older ones. And we showed them the director's cut, the extended cut that you've watched. And then we answered some questions to the film about the film. And then the kids sat down. We brought them paper, pencils, brushes, palettes, and paint so they could paint, make a painting, make. Make art. And it was very interesting to see. Each kid, you know, had a very completely different image and idea. And what stuck with them, you know, what aspect of the movie or what scene of the movie stuck with them. Every kid was different. So we took photographs of all these artworks and we put them in a calendar and a little story underneath it, you know, about the kid and what he liked about the movie. And then we added some. Some photos ourselves from our trip and made this calendar, and we sold it, and we've sold 150 or something. And so we will be able to give the orphanage, I don't know, €1500 or $2000 or something. I don't know what the exchange rate is about that. And that'll keep them afloat for a couple months. It's not. I'm not, you know, I'm not. As I said, I'm not looking for these kind of opportunities. But when it arises, we will act upon it. And when you travel, then it will. It will come up, you know, you will meet people who can actually do with some help. And then we do it.

That's great. I tip my hat to you. That is. That is so wonderful. I've had a similar experience with travels and climbing and just developed relationships that are now probably going on 30 years. So I very much feel what you're saying. I think that's wonderful and hopefully I think inspirational to people too, that you don't necessarily have to make it your full time mission or job or reason for being, but when people see other people that need help and it's, you know, even small kinds, relatively small for the giver, can be huge for the receiver. So that's. That. That is wonderful. We'll put some links into that organization in the show notes as well too. So. So I know we're getting down on the end of time and the both of you have been very generous with your time. I appreciate that. I have a few more questions if you have a little bit more time.

Sure.

I can also keep my answers shorter.

No, no, please don't. That people don't tune in to hear me. So this is great. So I guess maybe again, a natural transition is what's next. I know that. I think. I know, Daniel, I think you've got an India adventure planned, but for the both of you, what's next? And tell us about India.

Well, what's next for us, honey?

I don't know.

Just this morning over breakfast, we. We sat down and we talked about the visitors that we're getting tomorrow or the day after. It's a couple who we met in Costa Rica on motorcycles, also on motorcycles. And they. They're traveling on a 4x4 now because, you know, they want to go through Africa. And I think in our movie it becomes very apparent that motorcycle, motorcycle is not the very best vehicle to adventure in Africa because it's quite restrictive in a way. So they come to visit us here and we were like, oh, when they come here, we might.

So tough.

We might become, you know, very sad and we want to go somewhere. I want to leave and. But I mean, the option and the fantasy to go on the next trip is always there. And I think it will happen at some point. But for right now, there is nothing concrete, nothing we have planned. But it could happen. It could happen the day of tomorrow when they show up here,

ping me and I'll post that on all of our media sites so people can learn about it and help you out if need be. But you also, you've got like a. If it books, it goes trip in India.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's something that someone else talked me into.

I bet it was very difficult to talk you into travel.

No, no, no. But basically a touring operator approached me and said, what's your favorite trip in the world when you want to have a fantastic motorcycle ride. And it took me 2 seconds, 1 second to be thinking, well, that's outrageous. How can you ask me this question? I've been so many places, how can I possibly pick one? And the second place, the second second I spent with, of course, it's northern India, the Himalayas, the Ladakh region. How could I ever waver about this? This is what it is. So, yeah, it was actually one of the very most exciting places for motorcycle riding up there with the highest mountains in the world. And so they said, well, if that's your favorite place to ride, why don't we try to make a tour out of it? And we offer it to a bunch of people. And we've started booking process a couple months ago and so far we have about four or five people who have booked and we have another four or five seats open. And I don't know what it's going to be like to be a tour guide. I'm excited to show people the experience I had in that place, which was quite spiritual actually, right there with all the monks and monasteries and the very remoteness and the wide open valleys and the humongous mountains and diplomats, sunsets and the clear sky and everything was just so incredibly. It's just something else. It's the landscape and everything. So I'm hoping I can make people who book this experience what I have experienced back then.

So what are the dates for it, do you know, off the top of your head?

It's all through August next year, start of first August.

Okay.

Fly from Frankfurt to Delhi together. So the flights, basically everything is included. So you show up in Frankfurt with your helmet and your riding jacket and boots and you can lean back. Everything else I'll do. Accommodation permits, flights, food, fuel, bikes, spare parts, repairs, everything.

So is it Royal Enfields? What will people be riding?

Yes, we thought about it for a while, what we could use and we could use newer bikes and whatever. Everything is available now in India. But we think the Royal Enfield will be the perfect companion with that experience. You know, it's a bike who can do everything, but it won't, you know, you can't race on it. So we don't want people to race. We want people to be there, be in the moment, enjoy what is in front of them. So we think that the Royal Enfields will be perfect for that.

Yeah, that's, that's, that is a perfect homage to, to tour on a bike like that and its history and stuff and having that in India. That makes perfect sense. How is it two weeks, three weeks? I looked it up. I just can't remember off the top of my head.

It's from the 1st of August till the 30th.

Oh, the whole month. Great. Okay, good. We'll put that, links to that in the show notes as well. What's the maximum? Is it 10 people or do. What's the limit?

Yeah, we'll max out at 10. 10 people. I think we'll see what, what we, what we, how many bookings we get. But if you think 5, 6, 7 will be, will be good. We don't want too many people. So each one of the guests will have a fantastic experience and will have all the attention that they deserve.

That's very cool. Well, good. We'll, we'll put links in the show notes for that too. So how can people that have listened today and haven't already been aware of your stories, how can they connect with you or follow you or see your work or help with the charities that you support?

I think the best jump off point is my website, which is www.open-explorers.com. there it takes you to, you know, you can send me a message via email, you can follow me on Instagram or Facebook or whatever, social media. But yeah, the website will be the easiest jump off point.

Okay, good. And I really do encourage people to go there and spend some time. I mean I have done so and the photography is great. The blogging is fantastic. The stories and the behind the scenes are just super. So just thanks to you both Daniel and Joey. I appreciate the time that you've taken to do this and being so generous with that.

The blog is actually Joey's work which was fantastic to have to be with her on the second leg of the trip because I could focus on the jobs and Josephine, even though she wasn't like entirely excited about it, she could post so many photographs and write a little bit about our experience. And I think the blog compared to the movie gives another whole completely. I mean it's more in detail, a whole more insight to our journeys.

Maybe a bit of a different perspective as well.

Yeah, because you wrote it, because I wrote it and because I made the movie.

Yeah, they're, they're perfect. They are a perfect like the two of you, a perfect complement to each other. You're each other's yin and yang.

Oh yeah.

So yeah, I, and again, I really do just if someone sees the movie, don't feel like you, you don't need to go to the website. And if you go to the website, don't feel like you don't need to see the movies because they are, they are, they're a rich tapestry of the experiences that you've had. And the storylines of Josie's blogging and the visuals with the stills as well as being able to watch the movies are just truly impactful and I think, and inspirational and I think from you both, very honest. You know, there's not a. Because I know you guys, I mean, it's, it's, as I saw the, the director's cut, I felt, you know, that, that the honesty of the who the two of you are as people and it's, it's just to be a little sappy. It's also very sweet to see the two of you as a couple. So, so it's, it's, it's, it just, I feel like it hits all the high notes and just, you know, I, I feel like, you know, there does seem to be this, you know, at least if you look at Netflix, these long form movies like the Irishman, you know, has come out, you know, it's whatever, almost three and a half hours. I feel like, you know, you guys, there may be a niche for the full, full director's cut, you know, being made available at some point. So don't, don't just put it in a can and forget about it. So it may have its opportunity too. So I'm just, I'm very excited to see the, the final version because it's just again, the both of you are just, just, you know, such wonderful people and such, you know, inspirations and just, it's a pleasure to have you back on the show and I wish you all the best of luck and we'll keep in touch, we'll post on our Facebook site and other social media sites not only about this episode, but also kind of, you know, what's cooking and what's coming up in the future for you both so people can have this as part of the community as well too. So thanks, thanks for your time. Thanks for all that you've done and looking forward to what comes next.

Thank you. It was a pleasure to talk to you.

Thank you.

Bye bye.

Thank you.

Bye.

Living a Life in Full is a production of Stout Media, a subsidiary of Gordian Knot LS LLC assistant producer Gracie Wong Music Dan O' Brien executive producer and host Dr. Chris Stout to learn more, stop by our website at lifeinfull for show notes and please recommend us to your friends and subscribe on your favorite platform and as for the obligatory disclaimer, this podcast is for general information uses only and does not constitute the practice of psychology, medicine, nutrition or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical or psychological advice. No doctor patient relationship is formed. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I take conflicts of interest seriously. For all of my disclosures as well as show notes, please see livingalifeinfull.org podcast and my LinkedIn profile. Thanks and until next time.