Got room for one more?

Oh, the eternal debate! One or two? And then, One, two or three? Or more? The options and conversations are countless…. I have to admit, it was difficult to put together a story about this subject because not only is it endless, but it’s also because when I wrote down the pros and cons, it just didn’t make sense. There was no direct contrast between the points I had made to a point where even I got confused trying to reach a conclusion. Why? Because the options truly ARE countless, and the following are but a few:

Two’s company:

• When you’re with company, you can split the costs, the chores, the ride... everything that can be split. If there’s something you hate doing, your partner might not hate it, so they can do it instead of you.
• When you’re with company, you can combine your skills—whatever they are—and accomplish something that otherwise neither of you wouldn’t otherwise.
• When you’re with company, you know you have someone who knows you and understands you which is sometimes quite important.
• When you’re with company, you learn how to share and you become more tolerant.
• In matters like crossing borders, booking into an inn, or popping into a shop, one of you can watch the bike while the other takes care of business.

Two’s a crowd:

• When you’re on your own, you’re more flexible. You can do what you want, go wherever you want, schedule your route depending on what YOU and only you want to see/experience.
• When you’re on your own, you’re more open. You talk with people, you don’t hesitate to meet others and make new friends.
• When you’re on your own, if you make a mistake you’re the one that made it and you can’t put the blame on anyone but yourself.
• When you’re on your own, you overcome fears and you get to know yourself better.

See? It doesn’t make sense or balance perfectly, and I assure you that I can contradict with a good argument every single one of these points separately. So, I had to do what I know best: I drew on our experiences, put my thoughts in order and here’s the story of how adding a second person into the “around-the-world-on-a-Vespa” idea gave the whole thing a new perspective. (NOTE: Not necessarily better or worse, just different!)

Back in 2013, Stergios set off towards Africa with a friend and for the first two months they rode together, sharing the experience of riding across the Sahara, until they got to Senegal. There, his friend decided to return home, and for the first time Stergios was alone. Or to put it another way, he wouldn’t be traveling with someone with the same itinerary or the same plan anymore. However, he wasn’t lonely at all. He’d continually met other travelers who’d share segments of the route along with a few beers along the way. And, on the road is where he formed some strong friendships and today, after five years they keep in touch and are even planning future trips together.

When we first met in Lubumbashi, DRC, he told me how much he loved riding all by himself and how this experience changed him. However, there’s another story I learned later when we met again in Johannesburg. As he told me then, he was fed up with traveling solo. And this happened for two main reasons: The first was the repeated pattern of getting to know others, sharing some moments with them and then leaving, etc. He realized that the friendships he’d formed earlier on his trip were the exception and not the rule, and that since then he had nothing but meaningless chats with random people whose names he couldn’t even remember. The second was sharing. Stergios had found himself in amazing situations, he had lived unforgettable moments and apart from his journal no one else knew about them. He’d share them in his blog or social media account, but that was a completely different story. So, believe it or not, when Stergios invited me to travel with him for one month in South Africa, he did it mainly because as he put it, “How worse could it get?”

From that moment back in 2014, Stergios’ trip changed completely. He would never be alone again, and to be honest, the team we progressively managed to make is one of our best achievements. I’m describing it as “achievement” because if you think that two is easier than one, then my answer will be a disappointment for you. And the funny thing is that if you think that one is easier than two, I’ll have to let you down again. Difficulties exist in both cases, but they’re slightly different. For example, now that I’m writing this text, we’re both with fever and all the other dreaded symptoms of the flu. But we’re together and when the one can’t get out of bed to bring a precious ibuprofen, the other can!

Yes, sometimes there are small quarrels about the menu or the route, but they’re nothing compared to being able to work as a team. I’ll pitch the tent while Stergios is filming or making a time-lapse and he’ll do the groceries because that’s not my thing… but traveling together is way more than this. Because apart from the everyday chores, what we also do is to combine our skills, our passions and our creativity. The book, the videos, the articles, the photos... everything we do is the result of teamwork and we’re sure that if we hadn’t met and decided to travel together, we’d also have had achieved a lot separately, but nothing would be the same.

So, I probably don’t have the perfect answer to the best answer of “to solo or not to solo,” because such thing simply doesn’t exist. The ideal picture of a solo traveler standing next to their tent admiring the sunset, may hide loneliness and at the same time, the ideal picture of a couple standing hand-in-hand, may hide misery. Whatever the case, I’m talking about my experience here and every situation is different. For us, traveling together is more than everyday chores, it’s even more than creating films and books. Traveling together is sharing and this is the most important part of it all. Because by traveling with your partner, eventually you learn more about yourself.

Stergios and Alexandra (both Greeks) first met in 2014 in the DRC while he was on his RTW and she was doing Ph.D. fieldwork. Since then, they’ve been traveling together. They write, film, photograph and ride their scooter around the world, combining their passions—and have recently released their first book “Rice & Dirt: Across Africa on a Vespa.” WorldVespa.net