Mitchel de Jager (27) and his wife Nadia Pop (26) from Steenbergen both had a nice job and starting a family was only a matter of time. Yet the married couple got stuck and the two drastically changed course. On May 25, 2022, they got on their motorcycle and have been on a world tour ever since. “We are looking for a place where we raise our future children.”
Mitchel and Nadia have now been on the road for nine months with only a tent, clothes and some other essentials. After Southern Europe and the Balkans, the couple from Steenbergen are now exploring the Middle East. Africa beckons, but the adventures are already piling up.
“We experience strange things,” says Mitchel. “For example, we were stuck on the border between Kurdistan and Iraq for six weeks. We were not given a visa and were finally allowed through after a blood test. That makes no sense, but they had to earn money from us.”
“The way in which we were surprised”, Nadia adds. “We didn’t have to deal with corruption, but with civil service. Everything we tried to shove under the counter, we got back with a smile. They didn’t do that,” she says with a smile.
“They come at a hundred kilometers per hour and give a high five while hanging out the window.”
The road that Mitchel and Nadia have covered on their motorcycles is already many kilometers long. They sleep in their tent, but if wild camping doesn’t feel right, they grab a cheap hotel. The greatest danger lies on the road.
“From Albania it gets really dangerous on the bike,” says Nadia. “With Saudi Arabia as the lowest point. They don’t know manhole covers and those holes are so big that your entire front wheel disappears in them. The risks are great, but it almost always ends well.”
That is certainly not due to their fellow road users. “People don’t stay on their own side of the road here,” explains Mitchel. “When they see us foreigners riding on motorcycles, they get very excited. Then they come and give you a high five or boxing at a hundred kilometers per hour, while hanging out of the window. The fact that they drive us completely off the road is secondary. ”
“We walked around a refugee camp in Iraq with tears in our eyes.”
To pay for the trip, the couple from Steenbergen works online. There are also more and more sponsors who support them. That money will come in handy for the charity work they do along the way. For example, in a refugee camp in Iraq.
“Foundations are often active there and then we discuss what we can do,” says Mitchel. “In northern Iraq, for example, we repaired tents. That was very intense and we walked around with tears in our eyes. It is terrible that people cannot feed their children every day.”
Actually, Mitchel and Nadia have only had good experiences so far. Especially the enormous hospitality pleased them like a warm bath. Adventure was the main purpose of the trip, but that has now given way to something else.
“We also look for freedom and the connection with nature,” says Mitchel. “And now also to a place where we can raise our future children and live a relaxed life.”
Perhaps that is the city of Dammam in Saudi Arabia where they are currently staying. In any case, they have already been invited to come and stay. And by the local hairdresser who previously cut Mitchel’s hair. Or that’s not an adventure.
