Category: Biketour experiences

Alltag

Bin schon vor ner Weile am Camp angekommen. Wie R. schon sagte, immer wieder beeindruckend, was die Scouts fuer Orte finden. Diesmal im Garten eines gelben Ferienhauses. Niemand hier, Rollos unten, Rasen frisch gemaeht. Wasserleitung! Menschen tauchen, eine nach der anderen mehr oder weniger erschoepft auf, ihr Rad die letzten steilen holprigen Meter hinaufschiebend. Die altbekannten Gesichter blinzeln in die Sonne und erkunden den Ort. Laden das Essen ab, welches sie in Pappkartons oben auf ihrem Gepaeck festgezurrt haben. Das Cooking-Team nimmt ihnen die Sachen dankend entgegen, sichten, schmieden Menue-Plaene: Alles-was-wir-haben-Suppe mit… Hungrige schnappen sich die matschigen Bananen, fuettern sich…

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Naked dogs, unasked helpful help, blahblah about blahblah and myself

The water, the lake, the rhythm. Breath in and laugh at the world. Precooked plastic sealed quinoa taboulet. Also other food. Thanks dumpster. The beach, the sun, the wind. Pedal up and keep pedaling up. Pedal up and keep pedaling up. Downhill thrill. But we can’t stay here, go on. Although it was a nice place as many others before. Just a constant humming noise from the factory disturbed the beach-lake-cyclist paradise. And maybe that the natural park contains pine and eucalyptus plantations. And windmills. Us, a threat for their well-being. A cow stands next to the windmill, unable to…

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Urniza

Dear reader, An elated time has passed since we left Urniza, and we’ve grown so beautiful that I can barely recall what it was like. It went somewhat like this: Tarara stepped on top of the dog’s shelter and onto the donkeys back, reaching and nibbling at the tree’s leaves. We knew she was a good climber, still we were amazed. Making an effort to remember Urniza my mind slipped a bit and reminisced Martorell instead, my first day in Ecotopia. We were crossing the city when I felt like an organelle in a cell. For a moment I had…

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From Tapia to Ortigueira

The Biketour has been going on for more than 1½ months now (hopefully someone will write some more blog posts about what happened during that time) and has now reached its last stop on the north coast of Spain in Ortigueira, Galicia, and will from here turn south towards Portugal. We are between 45 and 50 people for quite a while now, which is much bigger than in the last years. The size of the pots is just about big enough to make enough food for everyone, and we now have 3 rocket stoves and 4 trailers with us. In…

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the first 2 weeks of a social expieriment

throw a bunch of very different people together in a group, they are all supposed to be free and equal, add some spicing(=cycling, wildcamping,…) and see what they will make out of it… This is the 3rd time I join ecotopia biketour. During the winter, the organizing team had not only worked on planning the practical aspects of this years tour but also a lot on the theoretical bases. We created a detailed procedure how we would deal with conflicts in future. We wanted to be better prepared than last year, where it took us months to act in a…

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Dealing with persistent oppressive behaviour on the Biketour

Every year, a lot of people from a lot of different backgrounds join the Biketour. Like in any group that does not consist exclusively of people, who have already intensively reflected upon power structures, situations happen that are experienced as more or less oppressive by some people. As none of us is perfect, we will make mistakes. That’s okay, because the Biketour aims to be a space that is open. A space where people who have never thought about mechanisms of oppression before can learn about them. Sometimes though, some specifically difficult personalities are joining, who regularly show inappropriate behaviour.…

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The Bure Forest – heart of the Ressistance to Nuclear Power in France

The small village Bure in eastern France in the past years has become the epicentre of the environmental movement against nuclear power. Some Environmentalists from France and Germany settled down here permanently and part time to join forces for the struggle. They bought some land and an old farming house in the village, the “maison de resistance”. Our friends received us with warm hospitality in the lively kitchen, the bawn and the garden where we slept and spend our days during four wonderfully inspiring days. The “maison de resistance” is the permanent base for new and veteran activists that recently…

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Traffic

In this short film the Biketour cycles through Minsk in Belarus, where it is forbidden to ride your bike on the road! Mixed up with the different curiosities that crossed our way, such as a youth-brass-band on the beach or a bison in the polish forest.