The Wheel

lightfooted ramblers

ahhhh bike lanes…

patch, patch, patch… keep those patches coming

yeooww, into the wind

soak up that sun… few and far between

tulipy terra

hobo!

saddled up… should we wait for a train?

hobo?

The Wheel… cars, trucks, trains, oh trains, scooters, sewing machines, spools, pottery… but by far its best function, I’m learning, is the bicycle. Pedal to the ground, and watch it go round, life floating past at a perfect pace. Wind in your hair, you can get to everywhere…

Riding up a hill you’ll notice the grass pushing up through the pebbles, the cracks forming shapes in the sidewalk. Coming down, the sky never looked so big, the air so fresh, the flight so free. 

I’ve learnt you can get from anywhere to anywhere by bicycle, all it takes is time. Time to think, to learn, to grow and to understand the land. Should you hit water, find a sail and boat across. 

Months ago, I put that seat between my legs and drifted through the lowlands, so known to my heart now. A week ago I set out from Amsterdam, on route to Paris. A few days and nights spent reflecting on my love for the little pocket of place known as The Netherlands, then crossing the border into Belgium. 

Looking at a map of a Holland all i see are faces, connected to stories, linked to my heart beat. My finger drifting over France and it’s a similar feeling. Adventures and roads roads roads, trekked and travelled. I’ve train-hopped in Paris, hitchhiked in Paris and now I’ll cycle in Paris. Staring at the page marked Belgium my temperature neither rises nor falls, my pupils constant, my hands steady. Memories are in the making here though and time will change things. The first, to be remembered for sure, was wondering into a leaf covered forest, pitching the well worn tent and sharing my warmth with Charlie. One of the less cool nights, it was the best sleep I’ve had in a week. 

Now we’re in Brussels and there is a man strumming a guitar in front of me, singing of hobo’s, trains and folk. A musical, ecological and very welcoming ‘Maison a Dormir Debout’ is our roof for now and life is looking as slow and sweet as ever.

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Thoreau and leaves that are green, turn to brown.

“One farmer says to me, “You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with”, and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while behind his oxen, which with vegetable made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plough along in spite of every obstacle.

Some things are really necessaries of life in some circles, the most helpless and diseased, which in others are luxuries merely, and in others still are entirely unknown.” -Henry David Thoreau-

And so by this standard i wish to live. Understanding that most of what I have are indeed luxuries, of which I am capable of doing without. Challenging the status-quo and simplifying religiously.

candle light dreams

where i want to live!

the sun is STILL shining over here… despite what the dutch will tell you

my lief and my love

super lettuce?

no! dumpstered food!

teaching mandy how to use my camera :)

huck the hobo

haha, total 80s nerd

running for the night train

young and freeeeeee

rolling down the rolling hills

excuse me sir, do freights roll by here?

no? well, can i have two beers then?

here’s to dutch rail workers!

and could i have the number to call to get ALL the information i need? Thanks!

thats right folks, just jump right on

hmm… reckon you could ride that?

paris on wednesday eh?

step right up…

A driver looks at me questionably when i speak to her of my diving in dumpsters, wondering if picking me up was such a good idea after all. I wish to make a film, so succinct and well-rounded, that I may hand it to her and open up her world. That she may watch it and immediately understand Thoreau’s (and my own) philosophy, realising that “this spending of the best part of one’s life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it,” is neither rewarding nor rewarded. That I may save my breath while cruising the highways with her, and avoid my verbal blunders in an attempt to convince her of this lifestyle.

The film has yet to be realised but the process has begun. I’ve been collecting footage along my journeys and hope to have a realised product withing a few months.

In the meantime, of which I am most concerned, hours have and will be spent living and loving. Freight trains are rolling over my heart again and cold, dark, windy adventures are plentiful. An auto-rack rumbling around Holland has provided moments of magic, and plans for Slovenia are coming together. Hopefully another will carry us there. By November, Mandy and I will be rolling, riding and rambling southward. There are some big, white, snow-covered mountains awaiting us there and my feet have already begun to itch.

Until then, I can be found down by a silent lake, boiling my own beans by an open fire and watching the sun’s movements from dawn til’ dusk. A little tent and some words on paper to keep me company, I’ll wait there until the loneliness washes over me, filling in the empty pieces to this somewhat jumbled puzzle.

I know that a person is rich only in proportion to the number of things they can afford to let alone, and so it will be that the moon, stars, sunrise, and a few ‘necessities’ will be my only treasures for a little while.

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Hanging up my highway shoes…

… and grabbing a set of wheels. Back on the road again, no one but future friends around me now.

For mum: this is my beauty!

wheels, water and windmills… but check out that blue sky!

another day another bridge..

yeah… really a LOT of water

bit buggered! Or should i say Ik ben moe?

The road is life

resting..

thats all there is to it!

ahh… holland!

getting ready to leave for another day’s road ride..

so much water in this country!

Utrecht! Its so beautiful here!

Bed in Utrecht

Couch kitchen in Utrecht

Finally got my shit together and left Delft, heading south-east. My usual mode of transport mostly only exercises the thumb muscle, so its been a test to set forth from here by bike. One that im well glad to have taken though, as I peddle across canals, green fields and little dutch towns. The berries, apples and farmlands provide a fragrance of freshness as the winds carry them along. Its been nothing but blue skies so far, with the exception of about 30 mins today, where a heavy downpoor reminded me I really was in Holland. Although its a lonely way of travelling, and certainly very different to what im used to, its really nice to have so much space and time to just BE. Think, breath and talk aloud, it’s great to get your head together. Im seeing so much more landscape that I usually would, and even get a chance to check out all the freights that roll by!

Left Delft for Dordrecht, where I surfed in an anti-squat office building… room after room after room for me to stay in. From there headed to Breda, where i spent 4 days living, laughing and drinking! There was a festival in town, Breda Barst, and John Barleycorn reared his head more than once, so that a few days were lost in recovery. Much much fun though, 2 other couchsurfers, one french, one croatian, joining in the adventures too. Mariska, our host, was an absolute delight, and it wasn’t easy leaving on monday morning, another chapter over.

But another just beginning, and into the wind to Gorinchem I rode. Spent the day resting in a park, a night on an air bed, and finished in Utrecht today. Ive been in love with this country since i first set foot in it, but my admiration for its beauty has only grown. Each town I pass by gives me the feeling im missing out on something, and each one I stop in proves to me I am. Utrecht will only provide more stories im sure, two photographers and a theatre actor to pick and choose couches with!

160kms biked so far, many more to come and go, friends to meet, people to see, just busy living life. And it’s looking more remarkable than ever!  x

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