Welcome to Thoughts from the Road. Here’s Cissy and Werner Maritz on making the big decision, hitting the road and following your dreams…
By Cissy and Werner Maritz
aka the Travelling Tortoises
Hi, we are Werner and Cissy, husband and wife, living on the road with our motorbikes “Mouse” and “Buddy”. In September 2022 we sold everything we owned and hit the road. There is no route, plan or end date. For now the plan is to travel as long as our savings allows or until we are tired of it.
There was no proper preparation before we left, Cissy had only a few hours of riding a motorbike under her belt, we never packed the bikes before the big day and we only had our learner licenses. It didn’t matter to us as we would learn as we go.
The open mindset of “lets give it a go” has been our motto since we got married, and for Werner, that has been his motto his whole life. Without it, we wouldn’t be where we are now. There have been so many different jobs for us throughout our lives so far… students, tourism, soldier, corporate, photographer, media, researcher. We had many lives.
Our vague long-term plan is to travel through Africa towards Europe and after that, we will just continue riding, wherever the world takes us. For now, we are exploring South Africa.
We have met so many wonderful people since we left.. people you would normally never meet. But the conversations we have with them has been so rich and meaningful. Travelling really change a person and opens a whole new world. We travel slow and take our time, there is no rush, that is the beauty of having no set route or destination. Nothing to hurry you along.
Follow along with our journey here:
- YouTube: @thetravelingtortoises
- Facebook: The Traveling Tortoises
- Instagram: @thetravelingtortoises
Making the Big Decission
The dream: sell everything and hit the open road to freedom. Nowhere to be, but all the roads to ride.
This is a dream that many of us have, but not something many of us actually do. Now, this ain’t no little decision to make – and we all have different starting blocks. But I think all of us who have done it, can agree that the hardest part is actually making the decision and then committing to it.
If you do make the choice and commit, then everything else will start to just fall into place. Why? Well, it has to! Once we’re in it, we start looking at things differently. We also start making plans and opening doors to keep on the road and to stay committed to the journey.
As with anything in life that’s worth something, it doesn’t come easy and takes some doing, but that is the key word – “doing”.
When we decided to sell it all and hit the road, we didn’t have a plan, a route or a destination… and we still don’t. We decide where we want to go and when and how we want to get there as we go.
Cissy had never even sat on a motorbike before we made the choice, but that didn’t stop her, she took a two-hour course and got 8-10 hours in the saddle before we set off on this journey. What’s the difference in learning to ride at home or on the road? Both of us only had learner licenses when we set off, but why worry about that either?
We made a lot of mistakes like overpacking and taking the wrong gear etc. But you learn from that and can adjust as you go.
The biggest thing we have learned is to not be afraid to make the jump and commit to something “different”. It doesn’t even matter what your version of different is – whether that’s selling toothpicks in the North pole, building sandcastles in the Amazon or selling it all to hit the road on a motorcycle. We all get a shot at life and we need to take it, live that life the way we want to and for ourselves.
Go on the adventures you want and follow your dreams and passions. One day when we’re old, we’ll look back at the fond memories we made and know we tried our best to live our lives the way we wanted to.
So don’t be afraid, the hardest part really is just making that choice and committing yourself to it. Follow your dreams and be who you want to be.
Cissy and Werner Maritz – aka The Traveling Tortoises
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Brilliant read! Thank you guys. Love hearing about people who just say f it and just get out there and do it! Well done and will be following along.
Seconding that, what a great way of looking at travel and life. Keep up the good work.
This is excellent. What an absolutely encouraging read. “We all get a shot at life and we need to take it, live that life the way we want to and for ourselves”… this needs to be printed on my wall! Thank you.