A German couple decided to take their 1988 Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen on an 18-month trip. But as days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months, and months to years, they have ended up being on the road for 21 years. Gunther and Christine Holtorf have traveled over 500,000 miles in their trusty G-Wagen and Gunther plans to call it quits next year.
The couple has journeyed through North and South Korea, the Sahara Desert, the base of Mount Everest, Zimbabwe and many other places. They have visited a total of 200 countries with the Philippines being the 200th. ”Otto” is the name they gave their G-Wagen, a 3.0 liter diesel that has a laden weight of 7,275 pounds. When Otto traveled 60,000 miles, he was taken to a Mercedes Benz dealership in Europe. Every 100,000 miles one of the dealerships would place a different sixth digit next to the original five-digit clock in the gauge cluster.
Sadly, Christine passed away in December 2010. Her wish was for Gunther to continue his journey until its conclusion next year. After the journey is complete next year, Otto will be retired to the Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart.
