…The area formerly housing the Roman circus was turned into a slaughterhouse, and the catacombs of the amphitheatre were gradually filled with rubbish by the city’s inhabitants, who used them as a convenient refuse dump… We wait a while for a ride out of Callafel, Spain. Finally Nick offers to take us to Lleida. On…
…We settle down on the riverbank in the shade, to eat, and are mobbed by a herd of goats… Juan, a Spanish travelling salesman, picks us up from a servo in France, just north of the border. He is shy at first, but after chatting for a while, we win him over. When he…
Thanks to Pierre’s massive generosity, we are spending 3 amazing days in his beautiful house on the river at Saint-Antoine. Pierre is a sailor, hitchhiker and vagabond himself, and fortunately a very good English speaker, so we have some great chats! (Top: the view from the front yard of Pierre’s house) Saint-Antoine is the…
I’m nerding out. I may go LARP at any moment and start running around with a toy sword screaming battle cries in Tolkien-ese. The bell in the cathedral sounds 11pm as we settle down in our sleeping bags in the moat of Chateaux Ducal de Caen. The moat is dry nowadays, and is dark…
On the road north of Abbeville, Arnould picks us up, and decides to show us Mers-Les-Baines.The beach front is a short stretch of sand, in front of a massively steep shore of smooth, glassy stones. They are uncomfortable to walk on, but heated by the sun, excellent to lie on. No sand in your…
Been working hard for the last few months so it was time for a bit of R+R. Putty Beach, on the New South Wales Central Coast, is the perfect place. I’ve camped here before, and it is a trampers paradise. Beautiful beach, friendly locals, easy hitchhiking, convenient general store for re-supplying, and most importantly,…
Nelson, Australia. A beautiful bay on the mouth of the Glenelg River. In the week since we were last on the southern coast, the weather turned really cold and wet, so after a night sleeping in all our clothes in a gazebo on the river front, we headed north again to chase the warm!…
Last week, Nia and I spent a lovely night in the Albury Botanical Gardens, sleeping under a tree, covered in tiny flowers. It was really like the garden of eden, with tiny petals floating down on us, and the sweet smell of flowers in the night air. Albury Botanical Gardens has a sweet new amenities…
You went to Confest again? Why would you want to get nude with a thousand randoms and play music in the mud for a week..? This is a pretty typical reaction to announcing my intention of attending Australia’s premier weirdo convention. Confest number 3 for me. The first one I went to in 2007…
…Around 1am Brad is deep into a morbid soliloquy about how much he hates his brother, who he claims is an arsonist. He is having conversations with himself, speaking both for himself and his brother, and grappling with his brothers imaginary throat… It’s winter (southern hemisphere) of 2009. Nia (now my wife, then my…
I feel like I am about to vomit. I feel faint, feel like my body is getting smaller, like I am leaving myself and spiraling down…