The Biketour 2017

“Live the life you’ve imagined. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler” H.D. Thoreau I leave the BikeTour 2017 full of inspiration and motivation. I’ve met extraordinary people, who impressed me with their facilitation, DIY, artistic, relational, or other skills. Everyone had some talents and I had the impression that what united us was the desire to live life meaningfully and to the fullest. I’ve met people who can live without money, some who can repair anything or play all sort of instruments, some who can build houses, others who live in vans, some whose empathy can keep a hungry group together, others who left everything to focus on climate or social issues, some who can fix a bike with their eyes closed, others who are starting ecological projects… Everyone to some extent committed to bring about the real changes we need to overturn the enormous killing machine that surrounds us (a.k.a. the growth economy). We lived together, enjoyed each others company and shared nice experiences in contact with nature. We did learn some stuff from each other and all had the opportunity to experience first hand the joys and the pains (!) of self-organization. Yet, at the same time, I go home with the regret that we could have done more, exchanged more, tried to really make the extra mile to all think as a group, rather than individuals. When there’s so much potential, it’s inevitable that one feels thirsty for more connection. But that’s also a motivation to keep on going to the biketour, to keep improving ourselves so that we can contribute more…

Chronology of a biketour (cens’d version)

Train to the border (Arlon). Pedaling thru Luxembourg then down the Moselle river for 120km. Nice stretches of river and hills. Lots of nasty industrial destruction along the river banks. You can never understand the full extent of the invasivity of power generation, mineral extraction, cement production industries until you’ve cycled alongside their monstrous pipes and steaming buildings. I camp in a field hidden by a small group of trees on the side of the cycling path 20km south of Metz. Big thunderstorm in the night requires me to get up at 1am and pitch my tent more properly. Luckily, lightnings do not get closer and I can stay where I am (just under the tallest tree on the plain). On my way to Nancy I have my first technical problem: loss of a jockey wheel from the derailleur, without even realizing it, right when entering a fast road. My gear system is out of service (problem to give tension to the chain) but I can still cycle on one gear. The show does go on, and I feel the power of the bicycle, a tool with the flexibility to be used even under imperfect conditions. Arrival in Nancy directly at the Dynamo bike workshop. I met directly Candid and his dog Knoedel (who’s now 3 years old, unrecognizable, but who seemed to recognize me. From the odor?). With the help of Michal I change the derailleur with a similar one I found in the workshop and indexed the gears. Back at the camp I meet 2 nice Italian physics PhD student (Luca and Federico), both from Rome, but based respectively in Paris and Eindhoven. Hopefully, new companions for some bike trips in Benelux ? We go to the critical mass but we are 40 min late. Surprisingly, we miss it. I will have to complain to the organizers for leaving with less than 1 hour delay! Party later at the Brasserie. Lots of cool fancy bikes to play around with. I met most of the ecotopians. Really pleased Barrie the Irishman is there! Celebrating with a beer.

Big velorution universelle is nice and colorful, but we cross mainly dead streets. Nice conversations with a few Italians: Antonella and Claudia from Puglia/Rome, Simone, engineer from Rome living in Paris and who now become science teacher after a period on social benefits (similar thinking and life-path as what mine is going to be?), Clara – very talkative mathematician. Party in the evening is nice but a bit empty. I have a few too many beers. Delicious vegan food at the place is cooked by an anarchist collective.

First circle with biketour people about a conflict of the day before. A  queer trio from England complaining that Jo (beardy man from Quebec) was wearing a pink curly wig and refusing to take it off when they told him (apparently quite forcefully) to do so, since that wig was in their opinion cultural appropriation of Afro culture. They were also hurt about Celine and Nico cycling with French flags (although it was intended to be in a sarcastic way). The national flag is a symbol of colonialism, they claimed. They finally blamed the group for not having followed them when they moved away from the official velorution camping (a stadium) and occupied a empty house, in solidarity with some sheep which were in the stadium before us (they made a point about animal exploitation, but I did not fully catch the details). I was translating for Celine, so those claims were even harder to follow. After throwing these arrows in the attempt of “educating” the rest of us, the eccentric trio left the group. After the Sunday ride (outside of the city) we decide to camp on a lake. Some people dumpster-dived some fancy brioches and a famous “Chinese cake”. The camping spot is a bit small, tents are almost overlapping... I get an official intro and welcoming by Flick (nice UK girl with experience in group management and taking part in anti-fracking campaigns in Lancashire, who had read before in the circles some interesting “guidelines for white man in consensus groups –written by a Canadian”). The weather is appalling, a recurrent theme in the biketour. We then make our way to Bure. It’s a long cycle day. I was meant to dumpster dive with Mika and Michael, but I lost them straight at departure, when I lost time in bringing back Knoedel, who was running with us, to Candid. I spend some time trying to catch up with the group and get stressed about this lack of communication. The weather is horrible and the scouts kept getting lost. I end up spending lots of time with Mika (nice Swedish guy who studies dance and rhetoric) and have great discussion about education systems. We camp at a farmer’s place near a river. As we approach Bure we have a circle to decide what to do if we are stopped by the police for a control. Some people are afraid of getting their names on a black list (Fichier S). The police eventually stop us, but we manage to talk them out from taking our IDs. I feel a bit uneasy in my meeting with the police as I am wearing pink lipstick. Don’t ask me why, but I got convinced by Olivia to try that in the morning (new experience which I ticked, but probably not my thing on the long term…). We get to the Maison de la Resistance with no issues. The first day in Bure I am mainly involved with cooking and getting food in collaboration with Texas. We visit the forest occupation and have a never ending meeting in strawbale house full of thicks. I will never forget the heavy air in there and my strong desire to walk out. It’s interesting to see the barricades and the very basic buildings they built and also the wall that the nuclear company put up and that the people took down piece by piece. Full of graffitis, it reminds the Berlin wall. The food we cook is delicious (Barrie gives me direction in making Portuguese-style potatoes). The day after we go to a small demonstration from a musical group (les Bure Haleurs) in front of the laboratory of the nuclear company ANDRA/CIGEO. The place is heavily policed. Their songs are really moving. I have tears in my eyes when hearing about a return to mother earth and an invitation to the police to join us (“in the end we’ll all be together, on the same side). Even the policemen seem moved, but it’s only an impression. Those assholes are unmovable and fine the musical group from blocking the traffic (…and consider we were in an empty parking lot!). Later on I am working on building a dry squatting toilet in the forest. The ground is full of stones so digging a hole is a challenge, but we succeed in our task. In the evening we have an interesting facilitation workshop led by Olivia (really cool UK girl with awesome facilitation skills) and Candid. Obviously (as it’s often the case in Ecotopia) we don’t manage to finish it. The “first” last evening in Bure we have a party in the street (it’s national French day). The police comes to bother us and there are interesting discussions of the type “ If you move the table out of the street, we leave”, “No, if you leave, we move out the tables”. We have great food and drinks and dance the night away in their face. Horrible day. Most people are poisoned by the food (probably old hummus is the main culprit). We lose 1 day. I am one of the worst hit and spend the day with a huge headache. We decide to postpone our departure to the following day. The culprit, Texas and Bet (Catalan girl, always eating, like me) , feel so sorry that’s it’s almost funny to see all their request of merci after the deed. Once we are all back on our feet, the poisoning even will become a recurring joke. On the Sunday we manage to leave Bure in the direction of Friburg. We camp in a forest. The day after is a long stage but I am feeling good and decide to take the food trailer (the heaviest one). My love story with the trailer begins, as I end up taking it for many times later on, considering it a great training tool. Or maybe that was just a mix of machismo and masochism? How defensive was I when someone approached the trailer or simply offered to carry some of the food! I would consider that no less than a sabotaging attempt! How blue in anger was I when had to give up my "baby" trailer for the day to someone else willing to help out with it...:-) We cycle almost 80km. I am supporting the food team, but we decide to shop a bit too early so I need to bike with a really full trailer most of the way. We have a long stop all together near a big river, then continue cycling till quite late. We find Marcus, a guy that offers us to camp at his place, which is however 12km away. He offers to take the food trailer on his car but I refuse on the grounds that it’s not fossil-free transportation. It turns out his place was 16km away and mostly uphill. Somehow I make it and then find myself in a small group of people eating with animal ferocity bread, garlic, butter and olive oil. The next day, it takes us ages to leave the place. We have to cycle when the heat of the day is on so we decide to cook lunch and leave after that. What a brilliant idea to eat those heavy lentils before cycling! They are now coming back up…in no time I have again an upset stomach which will haunt me till after Freiburg. The ride is short but with some climb. We are camping in a small wood nearby a football field in the middle of nowhere. A forest guard comes to check on us and after I reassure him we will not make any open fire, he recommends us to light a fire to keep wild boars away. Cooking dinner is never ending and most of us end up going to sleep before that. We spend the morning lazying around. I have some nice ginger tea at Barrie’s tent (what a somptous reception!). I leave with Lucas, Bet, Texas, Akin, Bertha and several other people when it’s almost 3pm. The road climbs up quite a bit up to a pass, where we stop for lunch. I practice harmonica and discuss a bit with Micheal while “the kids” are playing cards (Texas’s favorite past-time!). Then the afternoon is really cool, full of stops. Swimming in a river. Eating plums and blackberries. Eating some cool pizza breads Lucas found on the way. We arrive super late at the camping place on the Rhine, right on the border between France and Germany. Some people (those juicier than me, apparently) are eaten alive by mosquitoes. I am leaving early to Fribourg. A group is supposed to arrive at 1pm to help out Gartencoop bioveggie producer with some food delivery by electric trailer. The rest should arrive by 3pm for a critical mass in town with a local group. First part is gravel roads on the Rhine, then I get a bit lost and end up cycling mostly on my own till Friburg. I get there late and still with an acid stomach. Have some food at SUSI social housing centre then fly to the cyclo atelier where I find a new saddle: the “Liberator”, literally liberating me from the ass pains I was having with my old saddle. Although it’s apparently a female saddle, it even has a hole in the centre to save my prostate. Could be good for the long term. A guided tour of SUSI and a critical mass in the city follow, but I am practically falling asleep standing. Gabriele, a new Italian guy from Milan joins and we almost lose him at the critical mass. He’s gluten intolerant, so now our level of awareness as a group during meals needs to step up. No more mopping up of the jam from the jar with a piece of bread! In the eve we all cycle further 20km to reach Gartencoop, the collective farm where we sleep and wwooff. After a prompt 7.30am waking up, we start working at 8am (they were very organized and set a demanding schedule for us…which in the end was great) harvesting onions, then after a long breakfast break I join the hay team, unloading and offloading a tractor with hay balls. It’s a tough job but we have fun and also find on the way some unlimited supply of blackberries. Tour of Gartencoop in the afternoon. Very cool collective and impressive project. Saturday is a free morning, then we go to the Agrikulture Festival in Fribourg. We will spend the night there (some of us getting payed for “guarding” the place). The festival was good fun with a female punk group from Merano (Punkakes) being particularly hilarious. They were followed by a Czech folk band. The following morning I cycle with Mika back to Gartencoop. Unfortunately Mika will leave that same day. After a nice meal in Gartencoop (some people dumpster-dived large quantities of chocolate!), we leave in the afternoon for a short stage towards Switzerland. We camp on the Rhine, but the place is very noisy, close to a highway. We get there late and everyone is hungry so there is some friction between those wanting to startup the cooking and those wanting to have a circle straight away. We have a circle but it’s a bit of a disaster, so decide to be more organized and try to arrive earlier in the future. Note: getting the water from a fisherman’s house was quite a task, requiring climbing a high fence. Olivia, who came with me in the morning, found the task quite hilarious. I cycle with Jo and Tobi (the young Romanian) as we are in charge of getting some free food. We get into Basel but cycle in the big city for an hour and unsuccessfully. It’s quite late and we lose a bit the motivation but end up finding lots of eggs in a Denner supermarket on the way. We have a stop in a university park and crash into a coffee break in a theater, where we get plenty of coffee and cakes, mixing ourselves with very smartly dressed people. Only in Switzerland…. The evening we camp chez a guy who’s running a mechanical workshop. The place is not very beautiful but we have running water, electricity and a covered place with lighting to run our evening circle. Bet and I are facilitating for the first time and I experience first hands the difficulty of moderating such a big and disagreeing group…Will have to keep practicing this skill (it can only get better) and avoid repeating mistakes. Lessons: Clearly identify the roles between facilitators, don’t mix it up or do it in 2 (confusing). Split proposal in very small pieces and run separate temperature checks on each. Do good energizers. Be careful to the group energy and take the lead in moving on the discussions. Don’t be afraid to interrupt people sometimes. Barrie joins us again after 2 days on his own. He rescued a toilet bag I had left behind in Fribourg. Hero. It’s 11pm and he’s just in time for biketour supper! Next day, it’s again trailer day up very steep hills. I lost the group and start climbing a very difficult slope, but luckily I turn back and meet again a big group, with which I then cycled for most of the time. A new girl called Nikki is with us (she will attend a coal mine invasion, too). Another girl from Australia who had just joined two days before quits the group, as it was too much cycling for her. This will open another discussion about inclusivity in our following circles, everyone’s a bit sad about what’s happened… The dumpster diving group has a great day and we have plenty of fruits for the evening meal. We stay in the garden of an inhabitant of Solothurn. Warm shower is a perk. We even have dry wood for the rocket stove. The weather is disastrous and the cooking team huddles under a tarp in the darkness heroically keeping the soup going despite the pouring rain. I am scouting with Michal, Jo and Mattis. We forgot the scout phone at the base camp and I need to rush to get it back. The terrain is flat but I am suffering the headwind. We are quite slow and some people catch up with us. We cycle quite a lot, about 70km, past the lake of Biel and right up to the lake of Neuchatel. I am worried that the tail may not make it, but they did. We find a great spot directly on the lake, right between 2 national park and dangerously near an official camping. I keep the relations with the neighbours and miraculously we have no issues whatsoever. There’s plenty of dumpster-dived food for both a random dinner and a random breakfast (both very delicious. Victor names them: Swedish buffets). I had way more papaya then, than in the rest of my life. Great job from both scouting and food provision teams! I cycle mostly alone along the lake and later on the planes to Orbe. Only the last bit is very steep for trailers, but I got to the farm quite early. The cooking of raw polenta in the evening was quite a pain in the ass, but the morning after the polenta was great for breakfast. The local guys were really nice and generous with us. The weight of the food trailer definitely stepped up! Stationary day, working a bit building a platform in the forest with the local guys. Dinner together in the evening. Beers. Cycling to Lausanne reveals harder than expected. I am trailering with Nikki and Efrem and we enjoy the nice day and the cycle path. Lunch with a bigger group in (literally in) a refreshing fountain. Getting lost later on and arriving at the cyclo atelier almost at 5pm. Went dumpster-diving very successfully with Manon at Aldi. More food that we could carry. We spend the evening to a party in another bike workshop then end up sleeping there, after a neverending documentary on bike couriers and then some crazy dancing (DJ Hedwig was on the program). In the morning we have a long breakfast on the beach. The highlight were some stir-fried gnocchi with grana cheese shavings. Bravo Barrie! I leave with a big group very late; the path we took was not the most straightforward one. I end up losing everybody and finding Tobi. We get there when’s dark and a storm’s cooking up. Looks like a horror movie. The camping place on the lake is nice. It’s raining hard but we go dumpster diving and find lots of fancy bread, while the cooking team is heroically performing their task under a piercing rain. The soup they come up with is half cooked, but good enough for us biketour hungry locusts. Some urban cycling was needed to pass posh Geneva. We then went through very nice hills, although I found myself with the trailer in a very hard roller-coasting bike path. Never had I sworn so much against the scouts (even if I know I shouldn’t, since I myself seldom take scouting duties …) Thank God I at least found a great plum tree to plunder on top of the hill. Last part of the journey is more relaxed (and more downhill), passing on quiet roads with open views. After a quick swim in the river, we get into Seyssel for shopping. We camp near an outdoor entertainment area and do an extremely loooong circle in the evening. But there’s fire and candles. All the decisions we take turn out to be useless the day after, because of a misunderstanding with a potential host. Ecotopia’s world… Very nice cycling (although on busy roads) along a lake. We stopped at the first occasion and in no time 15 naked ecotopians were swimming in the clear waters under the eyes of an amused local. Really hot afternoon. We afforded a very ample lunch break in a park, waiting for a storm to clear. I got lost with Victor and took the wrong road with no phone charge. On the bright side: he teaches me all the tricks to catch trains in Europe for free. We eventually found the village, where very nice locals were hosting us in their garden for 2 nights! The rest day was great, plenty of free time. Tobi gave a quite good “theater” workshop to cement the group. Evening having a few “wife-beater” beers with Barrie (his way to say goodbye). Bought some cakes for the group (sigh…my Birthday once again) , which arrived with the shopping/skipping team very late. Still managed to have a decent ceremony around the fire. The Catalan girls even sang a song for me. This old dog couldn’t have asked for more. The day of the farewell. Mattis and I set off at 9.15 to face our way back. We cycle on big roads and are motivated to go fast, crunching 50 km before lunch without even realizing it. Skipping was great, as we found food for 30 people (but forgot were now only 2). The sign we were a bit greedy was an employee coming out after a while to tell us off. My response was great : “On va partir tout-suite” (Ignoring her request to speak to the manager etc…) and we leave with the spoils of war. It was an interesting situation, facing the limit of my comfort zone …and resisting my first urge to comply with her threatening requests. Was if some deep rewiring is happening in my brain and my thinking is finally shifting to a more “unapologetic” mode. What if both my thoughts and actions are becoming driven by my inner values, rather than external pressure…? Failing to find a fountain in the following villages we settle for a small river. Lots of fruits and veggies for lunch and even a (small piece for me of) cake. And goat cheese. Then Jacuzzi time at the outlet of a pipe carrying the water of the river coming from the mountain. Risky but refreshing (or,better, “refreezing”). We set off at 5 and arrive at destination at 830ish. We end up camping on top of some sort of a water storage container at the outskirts of a village. Only a weird guy with a torch and a herd of grunting wild boars interrupt our tranquility. Flashing some lights to the forest and hanging the food on a tree kept the boars away for the whole night. We leave even earlier than on the previous day. The slope is now steadily up. The last 10km before the Moncenisio mountain pass (2100m) in the early afternoon are a good test of our endurance. We’ll be rewarded with a good lunch on the lake! And with an awesome and superlong downhill straight to Susa. Then it’s essentially flat and straight up to Avigliana, where one of my pedals fall off, forcing a stop. Not to worry as we camp on a beautiful lake and go for a delicious pizza in town. Only a few trains separate me from home, but not before a small tour in Torino.