The man's dream: With 44 PS through Europe - Part 1

The calm is deceptive on this Saturday afternoon in Hamburg-Winterhude. Whilst life unfolds in the approaching winter and the biting cold within the cosily heated cafés, Peter Gebhard is hard at work in the otherwise deserted arthouse cinema ‘Magazin’. The perfectionist wants to leave nothing to chance, working meticulously to achieve the perfect picture and sound. After all, in six hours’ time, he will be recounting an almost unbelievable journey to a packed auditorium. Of curious encounters, self-sacrificing hospitality, incredible life stories and the fear of death on the Norwegian border. Always accompanied by his faithful companion Erwin.

Peter Gebhard, born in 1959, and Erwin, born in 1974 – these two protagonists captivate audiences across Germany. The former stands 1.90 metres tall, his imposing stature emphasised by his slender build. Whilst the luxuriant curls of yesteryear have long since given way to a bald patch, his piercing brown eyes still radiate a youthful thirst for adventure. Erwin is slightly taller and of a more rounded build. Nevertheless, his appearance sparks enthusiasm wherever he goes. This may be down to his healthy complexion – Erwin glows a rich red all year round – but is probably much more due to his cult status. For Erwin is a 44-horsepower Volkswagen T1, known colloquially simply as a ‘Bulli’. And so it is no surprise that Peter simply calls their joint journey from Istanbul to the North Cape ‘The Great Bulli Adventure’.

Just five hours to go until the Hamburg premiere of the multimedia show. Peter feels a cold quietly knocking, but he resolutely keeps the door shut. Almost every day, the trained photographer reports on his experiences in a different city; there’s no time to get sick. He’s actually looking for a warming soup on the menu at Café May. Alternatively, a slice of plum cake and a cappuccino will have to fortify his body. The thought of standing on stage later in front of around 300 people clearly does not make the man in the black-and-white VW bus jumper nervous. The yin and yang symbols can be found on the rims of the recorded vehicle. Peter is at peace with himself. Tonight, the man who exudes a primal sense of trust in conversation is back in his element.

From the care home to the Albanian Alps

When it comes to finding the right job title, Peter doesn’t have to think long. The Paderborn resident by choice calls himself a modern storyteller; the projector casts his digital campfire onto the screen. And it’s meant to crackle: “Germans love adventure, but they don’t want danger,” says the father of two. That’s another reason why his diary is packed to the brim. What began over 30 years ago as a student in Westphalia with a slide projector in a German Red Cross retirement home and six elderly listeners is now his job. A curious twist of fate, given that Peter used to find presentations at school and university “horrifying”.

And the audience – a colourful mix of young adventure-seekers and older visitors, whom one could easily imagine on a Lufthansa flight to the Canary Islands without much mental effort – don’t just want the bare essentials. They want entertainment. So Peter plans his trips to be as entertaining as possible. With Erwin’s 44 hp engine, the tall man made his way from the Turkish capital Istanbul through 15 countries to the far north in 99 days. He crossed potential trouble spots such as Albania and Bosnia. But danger? Not a trace. In Greece, together with tech-savvy monks, he flew his drone, which often makes Erwin look like a toy car. In the Albanian Alps, Peter and his assistant found shelter with a simple farmer, whose daughter had taught herself the language through years of watching German TV channels. In Croatia, he enjoyed homemade plum ice cream made by an Austrian woman who had moved to an abandoned mountain village for love.

Find out why the journey suddenly became really dangerous, where Peter Gebhard’s passion for travel comes from, and why the adventurer is “no masochist” in the second part.