BHEJANE

 

My name is Max Heinzelmann (born 1951) my wife’s name is Wilma (born 1954)

It was a dream.

At the age of about 12 years I saw a movie called “Summer Holiday” starring Cliff Richard and his band  “The Shadows” where they altered a London bus into a camper type van with sleeping quarters on the top floor and the lounge etc on the bottom floor.  It was then that my dream was “cultivated” and I said that one day I would build my own campervan.

After numerous rental campervan holidays in Europe, Australia, New Zealand etc.  I had a very good idea what I wanted to build and what my campervan should include internally as well as externally. I spent about 5 years planning my exit from my business and in 2012 bought a Mercedes 4×4 Atego truck.

The planning began and with the help of TravelStar in Knysna,  South Africa we finalised the layout plan and all the detailing.  Building the camper began in October 2012 and BHEJANE (In most African Languages it means RHINO) was completed 13 months later at the end of 2013. I made numerous trips in South Africa during the end of 2013 and 2014/2015 to test the vehicle and the constructed items in the campervan.

1

My dream is to see the world with my campervan without time constraints ie should I find a place that I enjoy I can stay as long as I like taking into account visa requirements etc.

In order to fulfil my dream I have two routes planned namely:

1.  Africa, Europe and Asia (+- 3 years)

2.  The Americas (+- 3 years)

My idea is not to travel during excessive rainy seasons and winter months and to store the vehicle during those times at whatever point I am at that stage.

Plan 1 will take me through Africa along the East Coast and include countries like South Africa,  Namibia,  Zambia,  Zimbabwe,  Malawi,  Tanzania,  Rwanda,  Uganda,  Kenia, Ehtiopia and North Sudan.  I will the have to find a way through to Europe and then travel on to Sweden, Finland, Russia and then on to China,  Vietnam, Thailand and India and then find my way back to Africa in order to ship the vehicle to South America in order to complete plan 2.

Should it not be possible to get to Europe from North Sudan I will have to return to South Africa and ship the vehicle to Europe in order to continue with plan 1.

Plan 1 started on 17 July 2015 from Nelspruit South Africa.