Close to the border with Argentina is the Salar de Atacama, with an area of about 3000 square kilometers the largest salt lake in Chile. To the east the lake is bordered by the Andes with their active volcanoes. Only a few streets from firmly-baked salt cut through these sheer endless open areas. They are used by the trucks carrying the mined raw materials such as lithium and borax.

Seemingly endless the Savannah Way cuts through the tropical northern Australia on its 3500 km long journey from Broome, on the Western Australian coast, to Cairns. Countless eucalyptus forests, scrubland and slow drying billabongs, filled with water from the rainy season, dot the landscape along the way. The open and wide sky and the straight red strip of road, which extends over the horizon, lets you feel the seclusion of the Australian North.

Less a road but rather only a path is the Mount Everest Trek, a 62km long supply and walking trail that leads from Lukla, a market town and the starting point of almost every Everest expeditions, up to the Everest Base Camp at the foot of the Khumbu Glacier. It is futile to look after any kind of wheels on this track. At this height, goods are mostly transported by yaks or indigenous Sherpas. Many of them carrying loads of 50kg and more up to the Base Camp, located at an altitude of approximately 5400 m.

Only Acacia cast a slight shadow on the path that follows the Algerian border in southern Morocco. Thousands of years ago a green branch of the Draa River followed the valley where nowadays the path winds in a barren stony desert. Yet, there is life here.  At night when it gets cooler, the North African desert fox, called Fennec fox, hunts for insects, lizards and small mammals.

Somewhere in nowhere crosses the Highway 96, also known as Buntine Highway, the border between the Australian states of Northern Territory and Western Australia. There are still about 150 km towards the west from here to Halls Creek, a small town with about 1500 residents. If you follow the highway in the opposite direction, there are about 250 km to Top Springs, a remote roadhouse with a supermarket, pub and simple accommodations for tourists and the drivers of the road trains.

Between Swakopmund and Walfisbay runs bolt upright, the D1984 , a side road that follows the foothills of the Namib Desert. Directly behind the dunes lies the South Atlantic which is with its steady cold flow not only responsible for the dry but also for the in these latitudes very cool climate. Not infrequently the endless view disappears in an impenetrable fog, which dissolves only by the midday sun.

The Manali Leh Highway in northern India connects the Ladakh region in Kashmir with the city of Manali in the Himachal Pradesh district. On its 477 km long journey it climbs over several of the highest motorable passes of this earth. Its highest point is the Taglang La Pass with an altitude of 5325 meters. Its passage is possible only from June to mid-September. However, even at this time it may happen that the road becomes impassable after heavy rains and landslides for days.

Shortly before sunrise, a cold air lies above the Lüneburg Heath Nature Reserve and lets the morning dew fall on the heather. Now, at the end of the August, the heather is in full bloom. Tranquil paths lead through the purple-colored parts of the 234 square kilometer area which is part of one of the largest continuous heathland in Europe and invite for hiking.

In the far north of Chile, about five kilometers east of Putre, the A23 begins, a dusty unsealed road that leads through a spectacular region of Altiplano. The road initially winds around the slopes of the volcano Taapacá up to the highest point at 5242 meters before it starts to follow a slightly declining plateau. About 15 kilometers further, the road crosses in a deep valley the Rio Lluta.

In the northwest of Tasmania spreads the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, a nature reserve protected by the UNESCO. The protected area covers about one fifth of the total territory of the Tasmanian island. A large part of this terrain is covered by an impenetrable temperate rainforest. Few paths lead into this area and even fewer lead out.

In the south of Chile a dusty gravel road, named Route 9, leads from the port of Punta Arenas to the north towards  the border of the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. Here in the Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena region you can feel the proximity of the Antarctic Sea. Cold gale winds with rain and snow alternate with short periods of blue sky and sunshine. Only grasses and bushes can survive in this inhabitable part of Chilean Patagonia.

During the night a polar cold front has moved over central Europe and has hit the Hunsrück, a low mountain range in the western of Germany. With heavy snowfall it has covered the scenery under a white blanket. However, at dawn, the bad weather has moved on and the rising sun in the clear sky brings the forests of the Hunsrück into the light of a brilliant winter landscape.

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