About Desert Patrol
Gasoline in my veins ever since I had first been allowed to drive my father’s Trabant at the age of 12, vacations always had to include some crazy driving experience like crossing the Peruvian Andes in a Hyundai van, drowning engines in the rivers of Iceland, or dune driving in the Rub Al Khali in southern Oman.
Off-road adventure rallies have become an additional passion since I discovered the Budapest-Bamako rally in 2009. In the last years the main destination of the trips was Africa, but driving to Mongolia has been a long time dream which will hopefully come true soon.
The eponymous white Nissan Patrol of 2011 has long gone to the happy hunting grounds, but the Patrol is still my favorite car for offroading.
This blog was launched in 2010 as a platform to keep in touch with my friends and family during my travels. It is one of those websites without any deep purpose, its only aim is to share my adventures.
Trips
2025: Dakar Classic (Saudi Arabia)
Rather unexpectedly, I was invited by my friend Peter to be his co-pilot on the Dakar Classic. Rivals in Africa for many years, now we join forces in a 1990 Mitsubishi Pajero
2024: Mongolia!!!
Finally
2023: Saudi Arabia
Can you believe that there are flights to Saudi for 60EUR? Me neither. But there are and so I decided to visit this pretty unknown country with my colleague Greg.
2022: Sierra Leone
In October 2022 we joined the Budapest Bamako again, that time finishing in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
2021: Iceland
Eighteen years after our first visit we returned to Iceland again, this time with family and friends and two Subaru Foresters.
2020: Mongolia (postponed)
Our 6 week trip from Vienna via Iran, and the -stan countries to Mongolia had to be postponed because of the covid-19 related travel bans. My Iranian visa application is still being processed...
2020: Morocco
Shortly before traveling was banned due to the corona virus, we managed to escape to Marrakech and into the Erg Chebbi.
2019: Georgia
Summer holidays in the Caucasus with two Land Cruisers.
2018: The Gambia
Once again the Budapest-Bamako. The finish line was in Banjul, The Gambia, and we crossed it as runner-up team again.
2015: Montenegro
Summer vacation in the mountains of Montenegro including an illegal border crossing to Serbia.
2015: Mali again
After the armed conflicts and the military coup of 2012/2013 the Budapest-Bamako rally returned to Mali in January 2015. Team Desert Patrol finished second in the 4WD category.
2014: Tunisia (canceled)
My participation in the Saharun rally had to be canceled for work reasons.
2013: Guinea-Bissau
Second Budapest-Bamako rally, this time with two cars and in racing category in a Daihatsu Rocky and a Mitsubishi Pajero.
2012: Malaysia
Malaysia, Singapore, and Borneo.
2011: Mali
In January 2011 I participated in the largest amateur rally of the world, the Budapest-Bamako for the first time.
2010: Thailand
The first trip with our daughter and the only one without our own car. Buses, tuk tuks, and elephants were a lot of fun, however.
2009: Jordan
The first trip after "parental leave". One week only, but long enough for some days in the desert in the south of the country.
2005: New Zealand (canceled)
The longest trip yet had to be canceled due to the arrival of our daughter.
2004: Peru
Four weeks in a Hyundai van with a stowaway in the back seat. In Peru it was not allowed to rent a car without a driver, hence we had a passenger sleeping most of the time in the back seat while I was driving. We climbed to altitudes above 5000m in the Andes and traveled the less-known northern part of the country.
2003: Iceland
Drowning engines in cold rivers and soaking our bodies in hot springs. We criss-crossed the sand and the lava fields in the highlands with a Daihatsu Feroza and (after the Feroza broke down) a Kia Sorento.
2002: Oman
The highlights were trips to Jebel Shams, at that time a restricted military area that could only be entered with a special permit from the Ministry of Defense, and into the Rub' al Khali, the largest sand desert in the world. Of course in a gas guzzling V8 powered Land Cruiser.
2001: US East coast
Had the planes crashed two hours later into the World Trade Center, my wife and I would have been trapped on the rooftop observation deck. September 11 is our second birthday. Traveling the East Coast in the following weeks was an extraordinary experience.
2000: Norway + Sweden
Vienna - Knivskjellodden - Vienna with lots of trekking, surprisingly little rain, and painfully high costs. At least the North Cape was free of charge, we sneaked into the area bypassing the toll gate.
1999: Australia
Eastern and Central Australia in a 4WD camper. It was so much cheaper than in Japan, where we had come from, that we stayed for five weeks.
1998 US West coast
The first trip with my wife, more than 10,000 miles in 4 weeks during the most powerful El Niño of the century.