“We couldn’t survive being stuck inside all day”: A family on bikepacking adventure
Written by Melanie Gath
They’re “Caro & The Gang.” That’s how they describe themselves on their Instagram channel. The traditional term “family” just doesn’t feel right to them, even though, officially speaking, that’s exactly what they are. Mom Caro, Dad Sebi, the twins Matts and Emil (3 ½), and Toni (11 months) — that’s the “Gang.” “We just don’t see ourselves in the classic father-mother-child way. Everyone in the Gang has needs. We meet each other on eye level. We try to make sure all those needs are met and that no one is left behind,” Caro tells me when we speak in mid-May.
“I really need this trip”
They live in the Allgäu region — that’s their base, where they’re currently building a house. It’s a process their followers can watch unfold on Instagram. They make no secret of the fact that it’s an intense time. Right at the beginning of our conversation, Caro tells me she and Sebi urgently need to get back on their bikes and head off on a bikepacking trip. “I really need this trip,” she confides. She’ll explain why in more detail later.
The word “base” is no coincidence either. Caro says: “We call it our ‘base’ and we’re building a house here. But we don’t want to tie ourselves down. As a family, as a gang, we always want to keep asking ourselves what feels good for us and where our life should take place at this very moment.” Right now, they feel happy there because it gives them everything they need when it comes to sport — whether it’s cycling, mountains, cross-country skiing, etc.
And sport is their lifeblood, their mood booster, their “outlet”, their “couple time”. “Sport is how we met. Through cycling. And we never let go of that,” Caro tells me. The twins were in the trailer pretty much from the beginning. “They grew up in it.” When they’re out together and the kids are having their lunchtime nap — “we use that time to dream again.” For a little while, they can simply block everything else out. “We get back into feeling. We feel our bodies because we’re moving. We’re not just there to meet everyone else’s needs, but our own too. And that’s something we want to model for our kids.”
“… the entire house of cards will collapse eventually”
When I ask Caro what their perfect day looks like, she explains that they’re early birds. “With kids, you must get up early anyway. So, we’re usually heading straight outside, getting some bread rolls and hiking up the mountain — that’s the perfect start of the day for us.” As she continues talking about their mornings, she uses the word “unprogrammed”. She explains that by the evening, you often have so much on your mind. “In the morning, none of that is there yet, and you can fill that space with something that’s good for you.” After that, you can be much more patient with the kids too. It has a positive ripple effect. She says: “I don’t want to sound selfish. I also want my kids to learn self-worth. If you neglect yourself for years and solely focus on your kids’ needs, the entire house of cards will collapse eventually.”
Because I have been following this little gang on Instagram for quite a while, I know their bike setup has had to change a bit over time. Since Toni joined them, they now pull two trailers. One each. “When Toni joined the family, sport definitely became less of a thing for a while,” says Caro. Now, they are only just really getting back into it. “And it will keep changing in the future too,” she says. Their trips may become shorter. The twins’ bikes might be strapped to the trailers in the future so they can at least ride the downhill sections themselves. “Then we might have to divert a little from the classic idea of sport. It becomes more about setting off on an adventure and seeing what you make of it. We have to stay flexible.”
“By nature, we’re doers”
I read in one of their captions that Caro and Sebi do not like “stagnation and boredom”, but they do seek “peace”. That made me curious. What exactly do they mean by that? As someone who lives in a small mountain village myself, far away from the hustle and bustle, I have an idea — but I want to know for sure. “By nature, we’re doers. We always want to be doing something, making something happen, growing, trying things out,” says Caro. “It’s important to accept that this is who we are. We find peace in moments where we have no expectations of what will happen.” They are on the road, they end up somewhere while cycling, they stop for a snack — and then the peace is simply there. Without having planned it.
Seeing the world through children’s eyes. Discovering so much beauty, surprise, colour, strangeness and excitement in places adults often do not even look. Turning sticks into magic wands and stones into lucky charms. Building a cosy home for beetles out of leaves, or a boat for ants out of bark. Time and again, I consciously try to see the world through my daughter’s eyes because she is such a huge source of inspiration to me. I want to know from Caro whether she and Sebi are mainly an inspiration to their kids — or whether it is the other way around. Who inspires whom? And what does it mean to them to see the world through children’s eyes?
“Unprogrammed”
“We consider our kids as a huge inspiration because they are so unprogrammed,” says Caro. “Because they still show us that simplicity we’ve forgotten over the years.” She sometimes loses touch with the child within herself when too much from the outside world comes crashing in. “That’s when we need these bikepacking trips to get back to that minimalism. I need this trip so that we can camp, so that we can sit on the ground with our kids, and so I can see and feel again what they do.”
At the same time, of course, she hopes that they are also an inspiration to their kids. “We want to give them guardrails.” It is not about telling them what to do, but about modelling things “that bring us joy and lightness, so we can pass exactly that feeling on to them.”
“They don’t express who I am, but what I do when I’m wearing them”
In one of Caro’s posts, I came across the phrase: “Out in nature in my all-purpose trousers.” I want to know what she means. What kind of trousers are these, and what feeling is attached to them? Caro laughs when I ask her about it. “They’re an old grey pair of sweatpants. To me, they represent a life where I’m not focused on appearances. I sleep in them. I wake up in them. I go outside in them. Whenever I wear these trousers, I never have any make-up on. I’m not thinking about how I look. I’ve consciously chosen the moment. These all-purpose trousers are a feeling.”
Do you know what she means? Personally, I know exactly what she’s talking about, and I ask whether her kids have a pair of trousers like that too. “The perfect all-purpose trousers for my kids should give them the confidence to not worry about their clothes. They don’t express who I am, but what I do when I’m wearing them. I don’t have to say: ‘Be careful. Don’t get them dirty.’ I don’t have to restrict them. Instead, I can say: ‘GO FOR IT.’ That’s what makes namuk’s all-purpose trousers so special,” she says. She is referring to the Cordura trousers Dash and Scrab. Right now, they love everything with the big owl on it. “namuk is the ‘owl company.’”
At the end, I ask Caro what makes her children “outdoor kids”. What exactly does that mean to her? “That they feel more comfortable outside than inside,” she explains. “We’re outdoor parents too. We feel at home outside — and so do they.” Apparently, Matts and Emil have a lot of energy that they can only really release outdoors. “They need to be active. Typical outdoor kids. They need to go outside, no matter the weather. We wouldn’t survive being stuck inside all day.”
If you would like to find out more about this inspiring family and follow them on their adventures as a gang, you can find their Instagram channel here.
