Mountains
When hiking, all I need is in my backpack and the only things I care about are food, pee, and sleep. Hence, I forget the world below. Whenever I feel unsettled, I retreat to the mountains. Life is so simple up there that my brain switches off and my batteries recharge. It is where my thoughts calm down and my mind finds peace. What really matters becomes clear and I see my true path ahead of me. In the mountains, I feel balanced, and my heart enjoys a lightness that I never really find elsewhere. This is what I want people to experience that come hiking with me.
My hikes are not about summiting peaks, reaching goals, or setting new records. Yet, they are about experiencing the mountains with all our senses and about connecting with ourselves and with the people around us. Hence, we walk slowly, we take many brakes, and we seize the moment. We chat, when we feel like it and we walk in silence, when we need it. There is space and time for whatever we feel like. My trips throughout the year vary in location and length, comfort, technical difficulty and required fitness, as I aim to address people of different taste, abilities and fitness. Should I still miss something or someone, I am always open for tour suggestions to include them in my portfolio next year.
Traveling
When I was elven years old, my cousin went to the U.S. for a high school exchange programme. That was the moment, when I started to plan my first travel. Five years later, I went to study for a year in Canada. Since then, I have not missed an opportunity to study, work or travel abroad. For me, the end of one adventure only means the beginning of planning the next one. After high school, I volunteered for a year in Guatemala, studied part of my bachelor’s degree in Copenhagen, my master’s degree in Nottingham and worked for six years in London. In between, I lived in Munich and now settled in Bonn, where I work as an economist.
Throughout the years, I travelled to more than 40 countries often alone and for several months. In the beginning, I loved exploring the passion of Latin America, until I got to know the tranquillity of Southeast Asia, to move on to the liveliness of Africa. In 2019, I quit my job to travel the world, yet did not get past the breathtaking Himalaya, where another love affair began with the controversies of South Asia, and especially the extremes of India. The pandemic forced me back to Germany. I based myself in Bonn to work for the German government and start a master’s degree in South Asian studies and Hindi. I also entered the mountain guide training to start sowing the first seeds of my own traveling business. When I was young, I thought that at some point I would want to settle down. Now I know that traveling is my way of life, and I am beyond excited to take it to the next level with Shanti Treks.
I gave an online talk about my travels in India and Nepal in 2019/2020 that are available on YouTube:
