The Idea

Since I was a boy I always wanted to travel and see the world. When I was 16 years old I rode all by myself by bicycle from Vienna to England and home again and thought it was a perfect way to see the world and to learn to know people and their cultures.

The following year I emigrated to Sweden and soon I got four children and had other things to think about. I worked as a teacher in mainly biology, geography and ecology and found out that it was either cheap or easy to travel with a big family.

When my eldest daughter was 23 (spring 2007), I recalled my dreams I had when I was young and decided to travel away as soon as my youngest had finished school. This should happen in summer 2012. I decided to fulfill my youth's dream and cycle around the world.

In the meantime, (the last five years), I pursued another youth's dream: I built a house. This project I finished before I left Sweden June 2012 (if you want, you can read more about it click here).

Why not travelling more convenient?

For me it was nearby to choose cycling as transport. Not only because I want to come close to people and landscape, but especially considering the greenhouse effect and other environmental impact all other ways of travelling cause. 
Today people travel more and more by plane. They proudly tell you that they have been to Paris over one weekend or that they have been to Thailand for two weeks with the whole family. If you try to talk with them about the emissions of carbon dioxide they defend themselves by saying it was so cheap they could not resist.

Why is it so cheap to fly? Why do so many people choose to fly although they know that travelling by aeroplane causes most emissions per kilometer?

Something must be wrong in the system!

At the same time I have noticed that more and more people have understood that the only way to come to a sustainable society is that that each of us voluntarily refrains from unnecessary luxury. There are different movements that are gaining more and more publicity. For example, "Voluntary simplicity" whose members encourage each other to work less so that they have more time to consume less. Or the concept of “Permaculture”, which not only includes sustainable development in agriculture (permanent agriculture) but also ecological house building, energy storage, recycling, health and spiritual well-being and so on. Sustainability of society and culture in all fronts.

I decided to dedicate my journey to permaculture. To investigate inspiring projects on the way and spread the impulse by telling people about these projects. I was particularly interested in how people grow their crops, how they build their houses and how they take care of their wastes in an ecological way.

I decided to try to make as little impact as possible to the landscapes I go passed. Especially I wanted to avoid emissions of carbon dioxide. That's why I rode my bicycle instead of taking an aircraft.
But from the beginning I was aware that all sorts travelling has some kind of emissions. Somebody told me it actually makes less emissions when you travel with a Swedish train (that uses quite clean electricity) than if you take your bicycle. This is because you eat much more and burn the food to carbon-dioxide.I do not know if that is true but on the other hand I am not fanatic. Before I left Sweden I decided that if I get tired or sick I will take the train, if I am offered a lift by a car that should have taken the same way even without me I will possibly accept and if something dramatically happens with me or my family I will may be even take a flight home. 
And if I have to cross a sea I will take a boat of course (which is much better than an aeroplane).

The name of the site I chose because I wanted to make people to become more aware about that there are different  ways to see the world. You do not always have to travel by aeroplane!

I also wanted to prove that it is not necessary to have a luxury equipment to travel around the world. I thought the only thing you need is a strong will and enough time...