Joy shared is joy immeasurable!

It is already early afternoon when I turn the ignition key of the Terra Love. The engine starts and we cruise on through the picture-perfect Black Forest. At an altitude of over 1000 meters, we enjoy the sight of the small farms, in front of which large piles of wood are sometimes piled up in preparation for the winter. Some of the green mountain meadows are covered with a touch of snow. “Shall we give Birgit a call?” asks Tanja. “You mean the author Birgit-Cathrin Duval?” “Yes, she lives in the Black Forest. Maybe she has time spontaneously and we can meet up,” Tanja ponders. “Why not? We’re in the flow,” I reply with a laugh.

“Oh, I’m pleased to hear from you. What do you think about meeting up on the Hochblauen?” we hear Birgit’s voice through the cell phone. “What is the Hochblauen?” I ask. “The Hochblauen or Blauen is a 1165-metre-high mountain with views. You’ll love it. There shouldn’t be many visitors up there at this time of year. If you want, I can drive up to you,” Birgit suggests. “Great idea. We look forward to meeting you in person,” Tanja replies as I steer the Terra over a strip of asphalt glistening in the sunlight. We cross the 1277 meter high Feldberg and talk about skiing. “When I first met you, you were a real ski ace,” Tanja remembers. “That’s right, I was better at skiing than walking,” I reply with a laugh. “You were also a ballet skier.” “Flips and all kinds of crazy jumps were my thing.” “And then you injured yourself badly.” “That’s right,” I reply, remembering that I played American football for the Nürnberg Rams in the First Bundesliga straight after the army and got badly injured. “Your knee was twisted 180 degrees,” Tanja interjects. “Torn cruciate and collateral ligaments and torn meniscus. That was a bad time and the abrupt end of my budding sports career. Ultimately, I’m grateful for the accident today because it made me travel,” I say thoughtfully as we drive past one of the ski lifts. “Sometimes supposedly negative experiences and accidents lead to something good,” says Tanja. “Absolutely, it was definitely the same for me.” “It was certainly the right decision for both of us to stop skiing back then, wasn’t it?” “I think so. After it became increasingly clear that traveling was our destiny, we didn’t want to jeopardize this vocation by having an accident in our free time. It was challenging and dangerous enough what we risked during our expeditions. Just thinking about the fact that we walked 7000 km through Australia with our camels or crossed Pakistan with camels.” “Or riding our horses through Mongolia for a total of 2 ½ years,” adds Tanja cheerfully. “Yes, there have been many expeditions and a great and exciting life so far. So the accident back then was a stroke of luck.” “I agree,” Tanja agrees, capturing the white-powdered mountain world around us in a video on her iPhone.

“Whatever,” I break our silence after a few minutes of reflection. “At this moment, I’m the happiest person in the world. We are traveling to Morocco and taking our time. Every meter we drive is beautiful. It doesn’t matter whether we’re driving on a wonderful country road like this one or on the highway, whether we stop at a service station or shop in a supermarket.

I like everything at this moment. Above all, I’m very grateful that you’re by my side and that you’ve done and are doing everything with me. That you tick just like me and enjoy being out and about with me to discover the world. As a team, we are unbeatable. Just thinking about the fact that you’ve already saved my life a few times.” “Hopefully that’s no longer necessary. We’ve done away with incidents like that by now,” Tanja laughs, interrupting my flow of words. “I really hope so, but you’re not in it,” I reply confidently, despite all my experiences, that I won’t end up in a life-threatening situation again in the future. “But I’m not thinking about the one or other challenging situation, but mainly about the wonderful experiences we were both able to enjoy together. The fantastic sunrises and sunsets, the exposed places we lived in, the exotic countries we visited, the wonderful people we met, the friends we made. Being able to share all this and a thousand times more with you is the greatest gift. Our experiences increase massively through our togetherness. Shared joy is immeasurably great. Of course, things will continue to go up and down in the future. To mountains and valleys, but we know that without valleys there are no mountains and without mountains there are no valleys. Highs and lows are interdependent, so to speak. A metaphor that can be applied to life. Maybe that’s why I find it so beautiful that I’m enjoying driving so much right now. It’s just fun because we’re in the cab together, we’re healthy and nothing hurts.

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