With 500,000 kilometres on the clock and music blaring, they drive through rivers, cross mud flats and sand dunes, on Russian asphalt, Kazakh steppe highways and Mongolian desert roads, all the way to Vladivostok, where they take the ferry to Japan. The distance totals over 23,000 kilometres, without air conditioning or any real knowledge of car maintenance. The hero of the story is, of course, the Forester, who drags them through deserts, even if there is no road at all, who sometimes splutters during heavy downpours, but otherwise takes all of it on without any problems. Sometimes everything comes together and fortune favours them, as it does upon arrival in the city of Khabarovsk. ‘The weather is mild and sunny, the road is approaching perfection, the rolling countryside is covered in birch forests and there is hardly any traffic. Life smiles at us.’

But there is more at stake. If two people find themselves side by side in the car for days upon end, it provides the opportunity to address long unspoken grievances. In this case, their involuntary childlessness. Dirk Jan’s sorrow has been gnawing away in the background. They did want children, but not at any cost, and gave up after three failed attempts at IVF. They moved on and enjoyed a good life, with travel and interesting jobs. Their circle of friends split, the people with children dropped out, the friends without children remained. On this road trip, they can finally have a long-delayed conversation and address latent regret. The journey not only provides new vistas, but also closure: by bringing home and saying goodbye to their Subaru in Japan, they also bury the trauma of their childlessness.