REVscene Automotive Forum - Otto, the car that literally traveled the world

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Otto, the car that literally traveled the world

A story that was posted on Gizmodo caught my eye. It's about how a man traveled with his wife for 26years throughout the world (177 countries over a 884,000KM journey) with his Benz G class.

Then someone posted the article from BBC detailing the couple's journey. It gave my both goosebumps and tears about a person's determination and most importantly passion about his car.

The BBC article is a bit long, but worth EVERY second you'd spend reading. A must read IMHO for any car/travel enthusiast.

Quote:

Gunther Holtorf spent the last 26 years on a road trip around the globe with Christine, a total stranger who met him in Africa after he published ad asking for a companion in a German magazine. His journey includes 177 countries, 549,000 miles (884,000 kilometers) and loads of pictures taken from his old Leica.

According to Deusche Welle, he started his trip in 1989 with his wife and Otto, the name he gave to his Mercedes G Wagon. After some months in Africa, his wife decided to leave him and return home. Gunther placed an ad in the personals section of German weekly Die Zeit. Christine, a 34-year-old from Dresden, replied and joined him on his trip.

What's going to be a short trip turned then into a 26-year long trip around the world. Four years ago, Christine passed away after battling cancer. Just months before dying, they finally married. She asked him to continue the trip in her memory, which he did for four more years. Now, Gunther has returned to Berlin after the trip of a lifetime.

The article on BBC

I read through the whole article. Epic trip.

But I can see how he was on his 5th wife by the end of the trip.
I'd think my marriage would last one year the way he travelled. Ok, maybe one month.

In fairness, his third wife left him basically at the beginning of his travels. His fourth wife died of cancer after years of travelling with him. His fifth wife is still with him.

So really, during his travels, he didn't actually have any wives leave him.

This story has been around for a long time (obviously, since he has been travelling for so long). An independent photographer did a nice Youtube short that I saw last year that I thought was great:

5 wives? wth i thought he had 1 wife and did all the travelling with her

IMO it really takes some amazing amount of determination to do the journey they did.

They basically stick with the absolute minimum in term of comfort. I can understand why wife would leave him. A journey like this requires a lot of passion, without it, you get tired within a month or two.

What a story. Speaks volumes of the G Wagon and it's build quality. It's so sad that todays cars will never live up to this..

Incredible.

Wow incredible article, gave me something to read on my hour commute :) :thumbsup: