Winds of Change

"Only when the last tree has fallen,
the last river polluted,
will we realise you can't eat money"


Small natural landscape completed this week

This quote is from an ancient Indian poem. Not untrue eh?
I have got itchy feet.
Frequent trips in the camper relieve them temporarily, we will visit the Roman towns between Seviila and Cordoba in a couple of weeks for three or four days.
I feel I am attached to the Algarve by my umbilical cord - and a badly expired passport. Time to go further afield. January and February are normally quiet. Always lots to do on the farm, plenty of firewood to burn, projects to finish, friends to see, wine and dine. But it is time to fly again. It is ten years since I left Europe, two years since I flew at all.
Time to crush myself in row 26, knees jammed probably tighter than ever in cattle third class, politely refusing year old plastic food, dehydrating gins, boring films, Tracy and Wayne, pee strewn loos, long airport queues.
All for a quick veggie Vindaloo or two. We are off to Goa for five weeks in January and February.
Gina of Solseta(www.solseta.com) has been brilliant and arranged the flights, mainly with British Airways (No Tracy and Wayne or Sacha and Marie but more likely university educated Gillian and Henry).


Faro Airport police pursue the silly Brits who leave cars outside the designated parking areas - runways are not the best place lads...

And congratulations, Bin Laden Obama, the only President to win a Nobel Peace Prize whilst waging two illegal wars at the same time. Apparently he replied to one of those Nigerian e mails and it turned out to be true.. If you would like to check the award is solid gold, try sending it to Goldforyou.com. - these guys seem really genuine, just like those nice Nigerian businessmen..

Make Jam From The North Side of The Tree

Guess who's back??

Three weeks in the saddle (or camper) followed by three weeks on my digger and the next thing I managed to do was to accidentally delete virtually all my holiday photos and reformat the new laptop to make sure I can't retrive them.

A few nights ago, it finally happened. The moon climbed over the tipi and shone straight through the smoke hole waking me with astounding results:-

1.) I am now 1000 years younger

2.) My disco stick is considerably longer

3.) I am back into making lists

4.) I am no longer in love with Lady Gaga (helped by the News of the World claiming she has a disco stick of her own!!)

We set off late August and headed to Cadiz. Cadiz was full. So full the car parks charge by the minute.. If I'm going to pay by the minute, come back Home Secretary. Heading down the coast we escaped the heat under a shady tree in Conil de la Fronteira, quite a nice town. It was one of those campsites where wrinklys swept the leaves off their pristine groundsheets and I wished I had my leaf blower and Bruno and a video camera. 

The Med is... well the Med, clearer, warmer and miles prettier than Portugal - and that's just the women. 

We called in to see Clive and Sue and little Sam, who run www.wildsideholidays.com, promoting eco tourism and had a great night and left with several tonnes of pumpkins, courgetes and tomatoes. And a hangover too...

Clive and a barbie doll. Screams really realistically!

The heat increased and even parking five metres off high tide in Mojocar didn't help - although it made for spectacular skinny dipping. It is a busy tourist place but is nice and relaxed. A bag of ice and a newspaper every morning, cheap menu de dia, live music, free showers. We will be back.

Mojocar is cool!!

One of the highlights of our trip was a stay at Los Gazquez above the picturesque village of Velez Blanco (www.losgazquez.com). Simon and Donna have spent two years and a shed load of money creating an off grid hotel at 1200 metres altitude. With six double bedrooms on suite, solar and wind power, we arrived as strangers, were treated like kings and left firm friends.

To spend a night with absolutely no light pollution, I fell asleep under the stars (and yes you guessed left with a hangover..)

Around every corner in Spain you can find something different - this was a full blown Aussie Bar in a small village near nowhere -note this is not a Nile crocodile!!

All my photos lost -only got this postcard..

Highlight of the trip was the desert region of Cabo de Gata, a peninsula of the SE corner of Spain and designated as the only desert land of Europe. Filling a 40 year wish, we went to Mini Hollywood and saw the wild west shoot out (and bought the tee shirt and CD!!), saw an earthship (www.earthship.es), and spent a couple of days at Sunseed (www.sunseed.org).

So back home and working hard - just started the tribrid wood cooking station:- bread oven, BBQ and rocket stove all in one unit. The theatre of dreams is finished, summers ending and we have now moved from the tipi to the Owl House. How was your summer? 

Tribrid cooking station , 2048 bottles of Sagres wanted to infill it..