Careless Freedom

'Envy not for once, my noble friend, my careless freedom. Satisfaction can be got wherever there is heart's peace.' Ryokan


We spent an enjoyable afternoon hanging out with Adi, and Mello from Switzerland..

Doing nothing..

"The coming of day promises a change; it is only when the day has fully arrived that the watcher suspects it is the same day returned once again.." Paul Bowles

'Summer of (Family) Love' - A Film by Kirsten Dirksen

You may have come across Kirsten Dirksen before on Youtube, especially if you are regularly taking a look at the latest van living videos. Her posts on the 'tiny house movement' often come up alongside them because of the crossover with living in a smaller space, and the ties with simplicity and sustainability. Well her latest feature length documentary is well worth watching. Kirsten and her partner Nicholas Boullosa have filmed their experiences travelling and living in a 1981 VW Westfalia camper van for a summer with their three children. Here's the trailer:

Iain McKell - 'The New Gypsies' photography

While we are all spending time upgrading and preparing our camper vans for the next trip, there are some who have decided to abandon their motorised homes on wheels for a much more old fashioned or you might say 'traditional' way of living on the road.

A while ago I posted about new age travellers in the 90's and shared a video of an old 'World in Action' documentary about their lifestyle, and the conflicts taking place between travellers, local residents, and the police in England at that time.

Well, photographer Iain McKell has been putting together a project on a group of new age travellers, who have made the choice of 'returning' to the horse drawn gypsy caravan as their dwelling place. This smaller group are somehow managing to live in todays world in this old and simple way. Take a look at the photos – I'm sure you'll agree that Iain has captured some of the magic and beauty of that simple way of living.

Scotland Tour 2013 - iPhone clips and photos - Living in a Hiace Camper Van

I've got stranded on Scoraig and can get over due to wind and waves on the loch, so I've taken a bit of time to look through my iPhone photo album and piece together a couple of short videos, from the video clips and photos there from the past few months. Its all the random shots I pulled out the phone to take, as most of my photography was done on another camera, but as I'm sure you've found out for yourself, looking through your mobile phone photos tells a story, and takes you on a journey through the weeks and months, reliving your memories...

Part I -
Ferry crossing, entering the highlands, Glencoe, Loch Carron, Isle of Lewis, Skye, John Muir Trust, Lindisfarne (England), Scarborough Fair, North Yorkshire Dales..

Alone

“God has to nearly kill us sometimes, to teach us lessons.”
― John Muir

I discovered this video recently, and although its quite long (the entire season is in one video), its well worth watching start to finish if you're interested in the harsh reality of trying to survive alone in the wild. This gives one the chance to become more immersed in the adventurer's world as he struggles to survive, and find enough food, in an environment that we might expect to find  natural sustenance in abundance. Cooking my simple dinner on my propane stove that evening, just after watching this, I appreciated it more than ever, and considered the time, and hardships I may have had to endure to obtain my meal if I were in a survival situation..

More camping videos..

“The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls. ”
― John Muir

Here are a few videos from the camping trip. It was a quiet time, just sitting around the fire, watching the sun go down, and then the amazing moon and stars, the smoke drifting through the trees.. I’ll let the pictures do the talking..

A look at the camping spot 

After dark 

Tending the fire

Moonlight

…through the trees

Star gazing

This is a video of the track that we had to go up to get to the camping spot. I shot this the next day as we went back down the track in the rain, though it had been a beautiful sunny day on the way up. There were a lot of ruts and rocks in the track, and I was really quite amazed how easily the van climbed the steep sections, it was pretty much a smooth ride too. Its great to be able to get to places that are inaccessible in a car or 2wd van, more peace and quiet and its fun getting there too.

Rest & Recovery

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.”
― John Muir

I’ve just finished a run of night shifts at work, and I’m pretty tired, on top of that I’ve managed to catch a nasty cold. So not to be deterred I found a great place to park up until I’m recovered:

It’s so peaceful up here, and it’s been pleasantly sunny all afternoon. I’ve just been wandering around here, and relaxing, watching the giant dragonflies which are in abundance here.

Walk a short way in one direction and there is a view over the valley and out to the Irish sea, and in the other the rocky mountain summits can be seen.

I think I’ll just lay here and watch the sun go down through the trees… A good evening to all!

If you’d like something interesting to watch, there is a great documentary on iplayer about John Muir hosted by none other than the noble Scotsman, Neil Oliver. Saw it last night. Enjoy!

Black Jesus, by Simone Felice

So today was a pretty quiet day. I just finished a run of night shifts, so after breakfast this morning I went to bed in a car park, and slept right through until about 2pm : ) After getting up I went to use a cafe bathroom, and bumped into an old school friend I hadn’t seen in at least 15 years and had a burger with him, and a great time catching up – that was nice. It turned out he also has a camper now, though being married with a young child, and another on the way (in about a weeks time!) obviously they just use it for camping trips. Still this guy was my best friend in school for a number of years, and we still got along great : )

I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing off Simone Felice’s novel ‘Black Jesus‘ – a great read. Back in April I was at his gig and he signed the book for me when we bought it after the gig. I’ve really enjoyed it, but had got out of the way of reading for a while, so got back to it last night. Anyway, I can highly recommend it, thanks Simone.

‘Reaching for what?
Maybe for the thing we’re all reaching for. That big feeling. The one we can’t put our finger on, can’t say its name.
Joy.
Love.
A clean conscience.
A cure for emptiness.
A warm putty to fill in all the holes that gape.
These things might approach it. But we reach for more. Its got to be out there. It just has to be.’

Simone Felice

from, Black Jesus