Annahavil was my destination, even though the journey always goes on...
I arrived on the 20th of July as planned. It was about 8pm and everyone was ready to retreat to bed as you can see by the robes. Ada and James, our niece and nephew, were excitingly waiting for me for an hour before I actually arrived... I was excited too, and so was Emma, Rosemary and James, one of Emma's brothers. Louise, the mother of these beautiful two is arriving today and on Friday more family arrives to gather, celebrate the date of the anniversary of Emma's parents wedding and the following week the anniversary of Aunt Margaret's passing... Many motives to gather as a family who will come from nearby and far.
It's quite exciting as I haven't seen anyone since John's wedding, around 10 years ago. Well, except those who went to visit us at the Mount of Oaks once. James and Louise before children, John, the youngest brother, and Ciara before children too and cousin Catherine most recently, aunt Patricia's daughter who has been living in Vietnam for many years as a teacher.
This was one of the reasons for us to take a sabbatical year too, to visit family and friends who live far away.
I have a lot to share since the crossing into the big Island as I haven't got the time to type or enough energy to spare on my phone.
One and a half week waiting in Calais meant that I had to cycle a bit more each day to get here on time, and I had 2 visits on my way where I spent a day to catch up with dear friends. I wished I had more time then, but it was a time well spent.
After crossing from Calais to Dover as soon as I got my passport on the post, I got a train and arrived just before it got dark at St. Pancras station in London. I set up my bike and off I went cycling through London's traffic until the old London bridge over the Thames. I found the address of our dear friend Sayen who is also a guardian of a piece of land near Mount of Oaks, but is now in England more often to sort out serious health issues. I had a lovely welcoming into her home where I stayed for 2 nights, catching up with the news, getting to know her favourite parks around her flat and getting to know her past and present better.
Early morning on Friday I was meeting Isik and Craig for breakfast. This was the best spot at 7.30am to meet them. Julie, another dear friend, also joined our "pirate's" breakfast. Isik's bike is even cooler than mine. She carries her mum in the back she said. I could totally see that.
Isik and Craig just recently bought a piece of land 10 minutes walking from us and are gathering funds to buy anoyher bigger piece of land next to theirs to become a common forest and rural art school, a dream and vision they have for many years. They still need a lot of money to achieve the goal and finalise this purchase, and you can find out more about it Here .
Julie who lives in Lancaster also happened to be in London at the time and it worked perfectly to meet at the pirate ship for breakfast. We didn't meet in any of the nice parks in the area as they are all closed with gates until 9am.
Here it started my realisation that it wouldn't be easy to find accessible wild places on my way in this Island... But I did find a few magical places, a bit too close to public walking paths, but at least they are used by other wilderness lovers, so I often encountered sympathetic and supportive people.
I did have to break some rules, but hey, I'm an Anarchist afterall. I do get the reason for some rules in society, especially when humans are getting more and more detached from knowing how to respect our natural resources. I consider myself a respectful citizen, so I didn't even blink when I saw the sign saying "no swimming". It even gave me a certain pleasure knowing I was at the Windsor Forest and just passed the polo field. I would not miss this opportunity. Besides, the place was indeed very beautiful and it was a really hot day after cycling a lot since central London. I felt I had a lot of pollution to wash off. It took me 2 hours to get out of the urban development.
Another sad thing I was realising was the amount of rubbish on the side of the roads. On both Islands, the big one and Ireland too, people just seem to not have much consciousness about the things they throw off their car window. Those things will not decompose for a few hundred years, some things up to a thousand years. They do not simply disappear but only break down, either with the UV rays or a little help from council workers and their strimmers, into miniscule particles that end up in our water and food. I thought there would be enough education about this in so called "developed" countries, but it doesn't seem so.
I was determined to sleep by the Thames and swim in it, but it required some challenges.
I was so pleased to see some real "pirates", possibly some Anarchists too, who live in boats in the river. Very cool long boats.
I passed the city of Reading that has a really nice walking and biking trail along the river, but I didn't feel it was private enough for me.
I was almost surrendering to the fact that I might not be able to find a nice private spot to spend the night. I also needed to pee and as I was going to a hiding place I saw a car coming. "Shit. Now it would definitely not be possible for me to ignore the "no trespass" sign", I thought. I hoped I would not be in trouble. But I was wrong and I almost cried with gratitude. The car approached and it was a woman, pressing her nose with her hand and asking me if I wanted to pass. I was surprised and immediately said "yes, I would love to cross". I realised she was bleeding from her nose and offered her some toilet paper for which she was very grateful for. She was coming to ride her horse, and she was very pleased to open the gate for me to pass and go to the river. I couldn't believe the "coincidence" and the timing of it all. I was in.
Further along and after meeting some more cool pirates in their cool boats, I found the perfect spot, with a tiny private beach by the water and a nice coppiced Alder with 5 trunks to choose from to hang my hammock.
There were swans, geese and ducks everywhere, I mean, hundreds of them, so I did wake up early to their loud noise, but it amused me too, and reminded me of ours at home. I'm glad I started early because I had 100km ahead to reach an old friend just before Bristol.
This was a very precious re-connection with Heidi and I'm sure our paths will cross again and again after this. It is part of this sabbatical year too, to thread the connections that have meaning at this stage of our lives and strengthen the bonds between those who live in the same frequency as we do. We might be a minority trying to live in more sustainable ways and trying to reduce our waste while rising the production of the things we most need. We are definitely stronger when we are linked and supportive of one another.
Her husband Saul only came back on Sunday as he was working, but I'm already looking forward to host them at our place and continue to develop this precious relationship. They also have a puppy like ours, a Serra da Estrela, super beautiful and intelligent dog. I loved him of course.
I could have stayed for days just chatting about all my favourite subjects : permaculture and sustainable living, food production and transformation, community resilience, the sad and traumatic trajectory of human societies, capitalism and Christianity and also some good theology which is often ignored, the future of our species and our planet and how can we play our part to make it better.
I was also given this precious tool, a "hori-hori". I got so thrilled about it. It's amazing! Japanese, of course, and a very versatile garden trowel, with a saw on one side to get rid of difficult roots and another hedge that could be sharpened and used as a machete. I loved it and it already came out handy a few times.
Unfortunately I had to hit the road to reach Annahavil on time.
This was by far the most challenging experience of the whole trip... Crossing the river Severn on the bridge with it's name, also known as the Bristol bridge I think... honestly, I ve never experienced such a strong wind, and I had to drag a bike... 1.6km on a very high bridge with the Motorway on my left side and the strong wind coming from the other side... As I got there I was not sure it would even be possible to do it on foot and as the maintenance crew was passing by I asked if it was ok. They said it was, so I trusted. I took my hat out to store it well and even my glasses as I honestly felt they could fly at any moment. Even lifting my feet to walk, I had to hold my flip-flops tight as I had the feeling they could go too... It was hilarious! It must have taken me almost an hour I don't know. I only took the phone out to take a picture in one of the sheltered spots in the middle of it.
I did it of course. I was in Wales and got to follow really nice biking trails through parks and canals after that.
At the end of my day, after more than 80km cycling, I found a nice spot in a not so used track along the Sirhowy River, between Risca and Wattsville. The stones were black and looked volcanic, like the ones we use in our sweat lodges at home, but now I know they are not. They are carboniferous sedimentary rocks formed around 300 million years ago. Way older than the volcanic rocks from the Lizandro River we use in our sweat lodges.
Next day I was heading to the "Black Mountains". I would only stay at the hedge as I wouldn't want to cycle many hills anymore. The cycling tracks were quite good and not so many hills. A few difficult bike passages, too narrow for my bike, but I only had to remove my side extensions.
I found a few things on the way that came out to be very handy on my trip...
A new mirror for the bike that I could use on the right side and ride safer on the roads. The one I brought initially was actually useless, so I thought I would leave it behind and give it at least a good use...
I secured it on a rail in one of the trails and wrote " you are beautiful and loved. And so is this place." At least I hope it makes some people smile and love themselves more.
The other find was a bit more odd and exaggerated, but also came out to be very handy. I had only a bit left of toilet paper from the caravan place I rented in Calais. I didn't use paper often as I usually would use water to clean myself, but for my surprise it was getting more and more difficult to access water in the Islands, so I had to use more paper, to clean myself and even to clean dishes and save on drinking water that was always more of a the priority to keep and save. But the roll I found was an exaggeration. The biggest paper kitchen towels I've seen. I found it on a dual carriageway and it must have fallen off a truck or something. I took a bit and later I left it outside a market for someone else who could make a good use of it.
And finally another practical find. A new pair of gloves. The ones I got from Portugal, the builders' ones were already too worn out and my left hand was getting numb sometimes. I found these yellow pair with more padding and I was so happy. The odd thing about it was that they were both for the right hand. I couldn't even make up a good story to explain that, but I made it work. I cut the tip of the finger parts as I did with the previous ones, and I made an extra opening for my thumb on the left hand. It worked, but it was not really perfect, so later on I found a nice pair that I'm now using.
I said I wanted to avoid big hills, right? Well. That didn't happen. If you can see the houses from a town at the bottom of this picture, that's where I came pedaling from. It was nice to pass through the forested bit, but there was no real access to it. The top of the hills are barren, and not that exciting, so I was not so impressed with that part of the "Black Mountains"... I was heading to a small village called "Trap" and I definitely felt I was biking into a trap... There was nowhere I could access not only the forest, but also the rivers I could see in the map. It was all private property, fenced fields or big houses with big gates. I couldn't see where I would spend the night and I didn't want to go further into the "Trap"... I did find a small access to a stream next to the road where I just washed my feet and arms and refreshed myself. I almost considered staying there but then something told me that had to be somewhere better than this. I went a bit back on the same road I came from and noticed a track that didn't seem to be used for a while. I heard no car coming and quickly went up that lane through the grass and next to an abandoned house there was a potential spot with some Hazel bushes. You can see how thin the Hazel on the right side was, so I had to reinforce that side staking a rope down in order to strengthen the tree to tie the hammock, and it worked fine thankfully. I also used the tarp to cover the brambles on the sides and underneath so I wouldn't get scratched.
At least it was nice and quiet and I could still hear the water flowing down at the stream. Some wild animal passed in the middle of the night which made me smile too.
Next morning I made my coffee and went straight to Pembroke ferry harbour, almost 90km away.
I was glad to arrive early enough to enjoy the Daugleddau River at Pembroke, together with the local families whose children were having lots of fun jumping in the river and playing at the end of the day while the adults would catch up in their conversations with their homemade picnics. I also brought out my picnic and went for a swim on my clothes which got a wash at the same time.
I went to the dock and found out I had a ferry at 2.35am and could go there after 10pm... As you can imagine, my night was not that great, but it was also exciting.
I will leave Ireland for the next post as this one is already too long.
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