Remigius Kirchmaier planned a total of two months for his journey from Eggenthal in Bavaria to the Baltic Sea. In the end, his vintage tractor needed 50 days, covering an average of 60 km per day. The 28 km/h tractor covered the distance using country roads, yet for this pensioner from the Allgäu, this all added to the charm of the trip: “It was really lovely to be chugging along country roads every day, and to be able to drive through small villages and tree-covered tracks along the way. People who just drive on the motorway with their caravans, see nothing,” jokes Remigius Kirchmaier.
The former school head never doubted for a second that he would have the patience needed to undertake such a trip, but the question was, would the vintage tractor make it to the Baltic? A question which Remigius Kirchmaier became very used to from people he met along the way, and he always gave the same reply: “By the grace of God and Fendt, it’ll make it!”
At the start of the journey, Remigius Kirchmaier also looked forward to making new friends, and he was not disappointed. “The tractor and wagon were the star attractions of course, they were a very good ice breaker,” says the Allgäuer. “Lots of people were interested to know what I was doing, or already knew me from my social media posts. It was always, oh you’re the chap who is driving through Germany on the Fendt.”
The many nice people he met on the way kept him going and brought him a lot of pleasure. “Probably the strangest thing that happened was that someone stopped alongside me halfway through overtaking so that she could get the best angle to take a photo of me and my vehicle from her car window,” says Remigius Kirchmaier with a smile.
The former vocational college head rode almost 1,700 km through Germany. He set off from Eggenthal in the middle of May, travelling via Augsburg, Bamberg, Dresden, Berlin to the Darß, a peninsula on the Baltic Sea, with many stops in between. After 25 stages, his journey came to a close. During his 50-day journey, he visited imposing castles, towns, camp sites, farms, idyllic lake landscapes and forests, and the former East-West border. “My Fendt was always my faithful companion along the route,” says Remigius Kirchmaier. “Even the Thuringian Forest and Franconian Forest national parks with some extremely steep climbs were a piece of cake for the tractor, and nor did the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) pose a problem.” He bought the 1964 tractor from a farmer seven years ago. Since then, the vintage vehicle has proven its worth both as a utility vehicle as well as a road trip vehicle.
Is he planning to take another trip with the Fendt Farmer 2D? Remigius Kirchmaier can certainly imagine doing so. “But perhaps not so long this time,” he accepts. “Two months was really a very long time.” Now he’s just glad to be home. “Setting off, I was full of excitement at what I was about to face, but coming home was all about being back with my lovely family once more.”
(* Photo source: Remigius Kirchmaier private collection)
Choose country or region
Fendt® is a worldwide brand of AGCO. © 2020 AGCO GmbH. All rights reserved.
