You have found a strong place in the community of female adventure riders and all riders for that matter. Do you see yourself as just another adventure rider or do you find that being a women creates different challenges for your journey?

There are indeed different challenges when traveling as a woman on a motorbike through the countries I have been though. Some of those countries are very patriarchal and the culture makes it much more difficult for traveling women to adapt, because there are many more rules about how to behave than there are for men. I mostly had very positive experiences though and people are especially helpful when they realize that you are a solo-traveling female because they want to protect you. And even countries that I was a bit suspicious about, like India, convinced me of the theory that most of the human beings on this planet are good.

The motorcycle community is very male dominated and when traveling I mostly met other guys and only a few other couples going on longer trips. In general I experienced other motorcyclist as very helpful and supportive and I am very proud of that. But there are as well incidents that would not have happened if I was a man. Once I drove with a guy that couldn’t keep up with me as soon as we hit some curves (I am never driving super fast, so it was probably because I had tens of thousands more kilometers of experience than him). When we stopped he accused me to drive irresponsible and having my bike not under control. And yes, he wasn’t joking. When I crossed Kazakhstan I drove with a very inexperienced Russian motorcyclist who couldn’t let his fingers off my bike, even though he knew that I was probably better informed about my bike. He tried to maintain it all the time without asking me and he checked my luggage to be tied to the bike properly every morning while he lost all his things constantly while driving. I several times asked him kindly to leave my bike alone because he kept on messing up all my settings whenever he touched it. I guess he wanted to be helpful and I am sure he was acting without any ill will – but like many other women I don’t need a stranger to take care about my belongings because I can handle that myself. When I offered my help and some straps to him to make sure he doesn’t lose the tires he was carrying with him again he of course refused. Sometimes it seems to be really hard for some men who drive motorcycles to even consider a woman’s advice.

As long as people are still surprised when you take off your helmet and they realize you are a woman and as long as it’s still something unusual to see women on bikes traveling alone I think every female adventure rider counts.

Being originally from Germany, what values do you think your home instilled in you that you take on the road and bring to your trips? 

I am very German. Always on time, I like planning and of course I am very prudent. ;). I don’t know if it’s German values or if it’s just me: I really like to plan things from time to time. That doesn’t mean that I have to book a hotel in advance every night or know where I will stop or what to have for dinner and lunch. But if I made a plan I am very happy when everything works out like I wanted.
Do you see yourself as somebody who took a leap of faith to live in an unconventional way or do you think it kind of just happened? 

I don’t feel too much like living in an unconventional way. It’s more that I feel very lucky and a bit proud that I was able to go on this journey and that I had the courage to take this decision. For me it didn’t just happen. I had to convince myself of doing this – but I never regretted it.
Where do you want to go next?

Right now I am in Myanmar – next I go to Thailand, to Malaysia, fly with my bike to Australia and from there to South America and go all the way up to USA.