Yes… where were we ?

Running on this trip has been a treat. Giant Redwood forests, loan highways, pine tree lined fresh water lakes, mountain peak views, quiet ‘little boxes’ Weeds-style neighbourhoods, multi-coloured hills of San Francisco, desert clay (ok I missed the 5km Burning Man run… seeing two naked dudes with their running shoes on jogging around the boundary fence put my running legs there in spirit . What comes next I wonder? Giant canyons, mayan trails, amazonian forest runs perhaps?

If it’s gratitude you hear in my voice it’s for reasons beyond the aesthetic. Janine and I are staying at Foster’s house. I’ve just been chatting to him about all the amazing things he’s done in his life… so far. Bungi jumping out of a hot air balloon, skydiving, surfing, rockclimbing, kyaking, scuba diving, flying planes, skiing… the list goes on. The thing is Foster is a quadriplegic. He’s inspirational to say the very least. And such a great guy to hang around, have a laugh with and get to know the people of Santa Cruz with (a trip to the movies and, with Foster by your side, your likely to meet half the population… he’s somewhat of a humble celebrity in these parts) We saw ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ last night, by the way, and it was a real treat… looking forward to Grrrrrrrrring and running around in circles a lot the next time I’m in the forest. Foster started a not-for-profit a few decades ago called Shared Adventures if you want to check out what they do visit www.sharedadventures.org/

With or without wheels, life is rad (american noona speak for wonderous/choice/wicked/lubblyjubbly/supersweet).

8th-9th Sept San Francisco (California)

10th Sept Mill Valley (CA) 5 min north of Golden Gate Bridge

11th Sept Shasta Lake (CA). The Dam. Childhood memories come to life with this look-alike Logue Brook Dam Australian stylie. The water in all the lakes and dams and hot springs we’ve visited has been so fresh, clean and drinkable.

12th Sept Ashland (Oregon) Great little Oregon artsy/hippy/eco-innovative town… supposedly the Santa Cruz of 20 years ago. The smell of weed crops is thick in this part of Oregon… it turns out it wasn’t the only area… on our 2 week road trip we must have past a dozen crops.

13th-14th Sept Toketee Falls (OR) A good 10 mile trek along the Umpqua River on the Dread and Terror Trail. Mossy rock waterfalls, fast flowing river, the terrain of bears and cougars.

15th-18th Sept Bend (OR) A town for adventure nuts (snow and water skiing, white water rafting and a dozen other things this wee budget traveler looked not to tempt herself with). Bend has got a few good brewery’s (first night out on the town in the trip… our tipsy local – The Silver Moon).

19th Sept Elk Lake (OR) Fresh water lake, butterfly nesting, chille con carne on the shore at sunset, bacon and eggs over the campfire for breakfast at sunrise after a long run and a verrrrrrrrrry chilli (the other kind) swim. Brrrrrrrrrrrr and oh so invigorating.

20th Sept Eugene (OR) Via Sisters, McKenzie Pass, Cougar Dam, Terwillinger Hot Springs, Springfield). Spectacular day. McKenzie Pass involved thick lush forest, the black lava of 13 volcanoes (apparently you can see for hundreds of miles where we stopped for a break but it was too foggy to see past the car in front of you let alone for-as-far-as-the-eye-can-see. Cougar Dam was a mirage of torguoise blue, orange rock and lush pine trees. Terwillinger Hot Springs was as close to heaven in a forest as you can get.

21st Sept Charleston, Coos Bay (OR) Via Reedsport, North Bend. Giant sand dune coast surrounded by thick redwoods on one side of the dunes and expansive sandy coastline on the other. Coos Bay – fishy.

22nd Sept Redwood National Park (CA) Via Creek Road Beach. Creek Road Beach is where we picked up two hitchikers. One was of black foot native american heritage the other was a Polish traveller named Wojtek who ended up staying with us for the next 4 days and then some at the same hostel in San Francisco. One of the joys of being on the road is picking up new friends on the side of the road May the good hitch hiker fairies be on our side for the rest of our RV-less travels. The next day we hiked 18 miles return to the middle of the Redwood National Park. Our destination led us to some of the grandest old reds this planet’s laid soil for. Almost as achy as post marathon, especially in the hip but it was well worth it. The talking trees were something you could only have been there to believe. They all have a different voice… some sound a little like a bear or a big cat growling others like a creaking house. Sitting on a fallen old mossy tree beneath one of the most giant trees I’ve ever laid eyes was quite something too. Crossing the river barefoot as a giant elk walks on by within 40 metres of us, in the middle of the dried up part of the river… that something else.

23rd Sept Bodega Bay (CA) Via Hwy 1, Fort Bragg. A day at the beach – a flippin spectacular beach at that… and the Pacific cold waters were enough to turn your insides to a frostbite green. We had our bikinis on none the less, each of us daring at least 5 minutes in the roaring waves.

24th-27th Sept San Francisco (CA) RV drop off, stay at Green Tortoise Hostel. Started by a hippy and ran like a laid back, backpackers haven.

28th Sept Santa Cruz (CA) Super laid back town, full of 2th and 3rd generation hippies with an education, beautiful beaches, loads of coughing sea lions (the locals say it could be global warming… what isn’t these days?!)

29th Sept – 9th October Felton (CA) Stayed with the super hospitable Michael and his son Cody. Such a warm and beautiful time living it up in Michaels garden in a 5 Star tent (heater, carpet, folder beds and extra blankets). It was a lovely space to get grounded amongst the Redwoods, Eucalyptus trees (Australian weed as they call it here) and a multitude of wild animals making themselves at home outside our tent door (mumma deer and bambi, skunk, mumma racoon and her baby, woodpeckers, possum, baby raccon, bambi).

10th-11th Oct Boulder Creek (CA) Janine and I housesate for a new friend – Yurtie style – in the middle of the forest (compost toilet, no tv, a real bed, a closed in door fire, tea and cookies, and a few pennies to add to our travels… nice one

12th- 14th Oct Felton (CA)

15th-16th Oct Santa Cruz (CA) Staying with the beautious Foster (see next post)

That’s all for now folks. Peace x

So here’s the bits and pieces of the journey so far…

Landing the San Fran of great Ciscos

What a place. The minute you arrive you feel at home, even if home looks on the surface nothing like it. Ultra-friendly (three conversations we had each on the two bus rides from the airport to our Elements hostel in the dodgy end of Mission district… ok so two of these were with a couple of intoxicated locals but they were friendly none the less), colourful (literally on the architectural front and symbolically on the cultural front with so much happening all the time) and planet lovin’ (for a veggie fanatic/eco enthusiast like myself the hippie-ville streets of Haight and Ashbury are a scrumptious delight to the senses).

Noona note: making close contacts with clued up culture kids* in a city where you want to revisit is a must. Thankfully we’ve already had the gracious helping hand of three amazing San Franciscans (David, Anna, Stacey… muchas gracias) and been able to crash at theirs and pick their brains for the best spots to eat, visit, gig, hang with the locals, check emails, stock up on fresh food, buy crazy Burning Man outfits etc etc. *I call groups of more than two people, aged over 21 ‘kids’… because it feels childishly mad.

PS Cisco is a North American freshwater fish… I believe I wrote this title because it sounded good not because San Fran is like a great white fish… it may just be because my mind is a little frayed after the two locally brewed Bend (quaint wee organic-ified town in Oregon) beers I drank last night.

…back on track…

San Fran landing was just what we needed to ground ourselves after the madness that was packing-up-life-and-sailing-away-for-a-7-month-stint departure from London. Yes, just what we needed before we embarked on the madness that is Burning Man.

The original itinerary (as all solid itineraries do) diverted somewhat as it unraveled. This is where we’ve really been thus far…

25th-28th August San Francisco (California)

29th Aug Reno (Nevada)

30th Aug Sparks (NV)

31st Aug – 6th September Burning Man, Black Rock City (NV)

7th Sept Sparks (NV)

8th-9th Sept San Francisco (California)

10th Sept Mill Valley (CA) 5 min north of Golden Gate Bridge

11th Sept Shasta Lake (CA)

12th Sept Ashland (Oregon)

13th-14th Sept Toketee Falls (OR)

15th-18th Sept Bend (OR)

19th Sept Elk Lake (OR)

20th Sept Eugene (OR) Via Sisters, McKenzie Pass, Cougar Dam, Terwillinger Hot Springs, Springfield)

21st Sept Charleston, Coos Bay (OR) Via Reedsport, North Bend

22nd Sept Redwood National Park (CA) Via Creek Road Beach

23rd Sept Bodega Bay (CA) Via Hwy 1, Fort Bragg

24th-27th Sept San Francisco (CA) Campervan drop off, stay at Green Tortoise Hostel

28th Sept Santa Cruz (CA)

29th Sept – 9th October Felton (CA)

10th-11th Oct Boulder Creek (CA) Yurt stylie

12th- Present Oct Felton (CA)

The plan to come is still pretty much follows the original itinerary… but we shall see huh? So far tis been all about the flow… not-so-coincidincy coincidences have been leading us on a magical journey, I shall not expect them to stop now!

View from beneath the Evolution man

Wow. Another fascinating experience had… and utterly different from the first one we went to in ‘07. This year’s theme was Evolution. Can you imagine?! Three Aquarian witchies starting out their 7 month healing/adventure/self-realization trip at a progressive (in all sense of the word) arts festival in the middle of the Nevada desert and the theme is Evolution… it could be nothing but a mad trip into this new phase of our life. Evolution was apt.

For a background on Burning Man… here’s what I posted on the So Organic blog I write for…

“Now may be a good time to bring up the-man-that-burns part of Burning Man. A man does indeed burn but tis of the woody structural kind rather than the flesh and bones variety. At the end of this week-long festival the great man, which stands at the centre of the desert camp, is lit up as a symbol of release (emotional, spiritual or whatever you’d like it to represent).

Each year at the end of August a community of 45,000 artists, musicians, eco-warriors, children, bankers, drag queens, inventors, locksmiths, bakers, candlestick makers (anyone with a heart to share and spirit to play), descends on a quiet Nevada playa* to build Black Rock City… and then tear it down 1 week later (*a playa is the desert earth we doeth tread; a prehistoric alkaline lake bed to be precise).

The Black Rock Desert of Nevada, USA is where my six-month travelling odyssey down the Americas begins. Why Nevada? Why the desert? Two words: Burning Man – the global mother of all festivals.

Now the name doesn’t do wonders for witches or those with a rampant fear of fire, I agree, but let me tell you, when I hear those two words I’m filled with utter joy and a comforting bliss no other place on earth has done for me yet. It’s a reminder of home, a place where money has no value and running free is the name of the game. Art installations spotted around a fairly barren desert landscape take you both back to your childhood and into the future at the same time. The thing is, trying to describe this festival is somewhat of a futile endeavor; anyone who’s ever been has sprouted the words ‘it’s hard to explain’ and almost as many have said ‘it’s a life changing’ experience. Burning Man is just one of those magical places that you have to see and live, in order to believe and appreciate.

The spirit of Burning Man lies in its gifting economy; participation and volunteering are a part of your every day play. Cash doesn’t count here. You have got to bring your week long supplies of food and water if you want to survive. It has been said if you were to walk into the Nevada Desert with nothing more than the hair on your head near the end of August you will come out trumps from the generosity and survival skills of ‘burners’ – people ‘dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance’.

This is my second Burning Man so I know something of what I’m in for. Two years ago I went to the 2007 Burning Man where the art theme the year was ‘The Green Man’ (a big incentive for me to attend in itself). That year the community delved into exploring the self-sustaining ethos and eco credentials of Burning Man – which, as you may have gathered, is a burning, carbon-emitting event.

One word – MOOP – gives you an idea of the ecological ideals of this festival. Matter Out Of Place is everyone’s responsibility – reuse it, recycle it, as a last resort, bin it. But you won’t find bins scattered all over this desert. No, this is truly the Nevada Desert, not some theme-park-the-cleaners-will-deal-with-later place. Burning Man is a Leave No Trace Event and everyone is expected to clean up their own act. It can be a hard reality of sustainable living – dealing with your own… errr… rubbish. Here, every little bit of scrap you create or bring you must also take home! After a week of desert shenanigans the potential to take home a trailer load is possible if you don’t plan well.

Of course, as the burning of things does require, burning a giant man also releases a whole lot of carbon into the atmosphere.

This festival/community/city is perhaps not yet a model for green living but it does provide a very real and experimental arena to educate yourself on how to improve and sustain certain aspects of your life in your ‘other home’.

We cannot escape climate change any longer. Changes of another kind must happen if we are to improve our planets potentially dire affair. Which is why, perhaps, the Burning Man school of eco education may be about to get a whole lot greener… in a philosophical kind of way, that is. The theme of this year’s burn is Evolution. Here, as the Burning Man web team puts forward to us, is the concept behind this theme.

Nature never made a plan, nor does it seem to copy very well. No living thing is ever quite the same as others of its kind. Charles Darwin called this Natural Variation. There is a kind of subtle chaos, a supple element of chance and change, residing at the core of living things. Our theme this year prompts three related questions: What are we as human beings, where have we come from, and how may we adapt to meet an ever-changing world? ”

So what was it like at the year of Evolution?

Besides the general bramble on the bikes across the playa to play on all the art pieces this burn was all about the workshops… and a whole heap of them I attended too. The list includes:

Monkey Chant at Centre Camp (Baraka style)

Didgeridoo and Sounding Bowl Shamanic Journey

Technomadic Lifestyle Workshop

Extinguishing Anger with the Arts

Burners Without Borders Volunteer Talk

Evolution of the Conscious Mind

Conscious Community daily talks

…and those were just a few!

A utterly unique experience once again…. even from the previous year I’d been. The highlight for me (other than the amazing daily Conscious Community talks was the temple burn on the Sunday night (the night after the releasing night of the burning man.) It’s quite something else. The temple is designed differently every year (this year it was like a giant lotus shape). People go to the temple throughout the festival week and scribble sweet words, guilts, regrets, goodbuys… when the temple is burned it’s a chance to let go of these attachments in our being. All those who make the journey to the temple burn do so with a quiet respect… and the temple rewards us with a spectacularly beautiful burn (see image). It’s a powerful and enriching goodbuy to the week long shenanigans. A simple paradox to complete the wilderness of burning man.

Well… our excuse is there’s a lot to do when going in and out of the desert for 10 days (a huge food, water and survival supply shop, costume buying, campervan pick up {which takes most of your first day hire with Apollo campers}, petrol refuel, bike renting and general jet lag faffing about town). Truck stops (which double as casinos in the legal gambling state of Nevada) are actually the savior in the story. They give you a free place to park your RV arse in transit, a diner with all-you-can-eat good hearty food to fill up bellies pre desert body listlessness, and a free shower.

Noona note: Get free shower pass when you fill up $50 or more in petrol (if you’re a budget traveler, hoping to avoid the stench an RV can accumulate over a few days of showering and excreting large fries and donuts (us health nut witchies noooooooooo you’ll very muchly appreciate free showers.

Oh, we also adopted a stray car park cat. All three of us have lost a feline friend in the last year so the wee kitty cat added comfort to our Sparks (a town just outside of Reno en route to Black Rock Desert aka Burning Man location) car park home.

25th August 2009 Leave London for San Francisco (California)

29th August Reno (Nevada)

30th August Burning Man, Black Rock City (Nevada)

8th September Lake Tahoe (Nevada)

21st September Drop off Campervan in San Francisco (California)

25-27th September Earth Dance Festival, Laytonville (California)

28th Sept – 7th October Hawaii or Picking in San Francisco (California)

7 – 18th October Picking in San Francisco (California) or Hawaii

19th October Santa Cruz (California)

24th October Los Angeles (California)

25 – 28th October Flagstaff, Grand Canyon & Sedona (Arizona)

29  October Phoenix (Arizona)

30th October Leon (Mexico)

13th November Cancun (Mexico) – Havana (Cuba)

21st November Havana (Cuba) – Guatemala City (Guatemala)

11th December Guatemala City (Guatemala) – Quito (Ecuador)

3/4th January 2010 Leave (Ecuador) for (Peru)

25th January Leave (Peru) for Bolivia)

8th February Leave (Bolivia) for (Brazil)

12–19th February Rio Carnivale, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

19th February Leave Rio for Salvador (Brazil)

3rd March Arrive Sao Paulo (Brazil)

7th March Leave Sao Paulo (Brazil) for London