The Mother Of All Road Trips

Dutchman Wiebe Wakker is on a road trip in his electric vehicle from the Netherlands to Australia – and he’s doing it without money.

- Alshaar Khan

“MY GOAL IS to reach Australia in an electric car. I entered Asia through Turkey and then went to Iran, but since I couldn’t get a visa to Pakistan, I took a detour to the UAE, and now I’ve set foot in India, since it was the next most logical step en route to Australia,” said an exhausted Wiebe Wakker, as we attempted to beat the Mumbai heat with some fresh mango ice-cream.

Having set out on this adventure — called the Plug Me In project — in March last year, the Dutchman arrived in India last month. What makes this voyage all the more special is the fact that the 30-year old is driving an electric vehicle and has no money on him - he relies on the kindness of strangers for meals, lodging and electricity to recharge his car’s batteries.

Ask him about how the idea came into being and he fondly recollects his time backpacking in Australia in 2009, and how it became incumbent on him to do something like this. “I was there for one year and read a lot of books about people who travel in unique, crazy ways. And I made up my mind that I want to do something similar in life too. So then I went back home and studied at the University of Arts and learned about marketing, storytelling and creating experiences,” said the tall Dutchman.