Good afternoon, world!
Like a true blue Rainbow I manifested infinite abundance (yo, bro). And here I am, with a computer on my lap and the whole day just to update this blog. Hurray!
I missed the storytelling a bit - soooooo much amazingness has been happening. I feel like I've just been running and running without any time to catch my breath and write down snippets of it all. I ran to Germany and back, into the fun-filled flurry of the Woodford Folk Festival, hitch hiked to the Rainbow Gathering in Tasmania, road tripped around Tassie afterwards and hiked in the wilderness, just to catch the ferry back to Melbourne. I met more amazing people than I can appreciate, talked more real talk than I can process, all the while buzzing with excitement about the past, present, and future.
It's not giving me a break to wrap my head around it all, haha :D
But don't worry, it's not that I am stressing out. It's just beautiful action, a fulfilling workout, just living the high vibe life, and loving it. It's the most relaxing excitement, if that makes any sense.
I scored some more photos of the Rainbow Gathering in Tasmania - for those of you who don't know what a Rainbow Gathering is, check out the blogpost I wrote about it in June last year!
Also, here is a link to the wonderful pictures Ryland took throughout the Gathering, have a look!
How I met Nils and Passenger
Niiiiiiiiiils! I met Nils one evening at Woodford because he is friends with Pedro - amazing Brazilian Pedro who was fencing with me and also planning on heading to the Rainbow Gathering after Woodford. That evening when we told Nils about Rainbow, we found out that Passenger, one of my favourite singer-songwriters, was at the Woodford Festival, but not as a performer, just as a patron. Anyway, he was going to play an unannounced little gig at Bill's Bar. Imagine my delight when I heard this!!! I love everything about his music, from his voice over his fingerpicking to his genius lyrics, and although I have seen a couple of shows of him, I would always want to see another one, it's amazing, it's only getting better. So I was bouncing with excitement and couldn't believe my luck. With our volunteer wristbands that gave us full access to all backstage areas, we snuck behind Bill's Bar and just hung out there, just in case Passenger might walk by. And guess what, that's what he did!
I walked up to him and reminded myself not to start babbling silly things like last year when I met Nahko Bear (I was so flabbergasted, it was slightly disastrous) - and indeed, I was able to tell Mike aka. Passenger in a civilised manner how much I love and appreciate his art. A chat, a handshake, a hug, and maybe he will even remember it.
The gig was (of course) just so wonderful, and for the rest of the night I was floating on air with fluffy happy clouds in my head and a smile that felt like it would never go away again.
I'd say it was one of my best nights of 2015! What a way to end a year.
Reading over what I just wrote, I feel like I might give the impression of being a crazy fan who glorifies certain musicians in an obsessive way... well, if I am doing that, then I don't think it's such a bad thing. I can hear music with my heart and it makes up one of the most important parts of my life. If your heart has ears, then you know what I mean. If you don't know any music that resonates with you like that, that makes up the soundtrack to your life, that is there for you like a good friend that inspires and empowers you endlessly - then I'm sorry, you're missing out.
And then, a couple of weeks later, I sat in the Welcome centre at the Rainbow Gathering, just playing guitar a bit, when no one but Nils walked in! We ended up camping next to each other and I couldn't help but teasing him all the time because he is a Saarlaender - means he is from the neighbour state of my state in Germany. As it always is, neighbours bicker and "hate" each other, and the vendetta between Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland is ages old.
Now believe this, it's a shame on me, I travel halfway around the world and camp out in the bush of Tasmania, and who is my neighbour? A bloody Saarlaender... But, at least and lucky for him, Nils doesn't speak that dreadful Saarlaender dialect. ;)
There is Juliet, my good old buddy from the Omeo Rainbow Gathering last year. I was so happy to see her again in Tassie and spend more time in her awe-inspiring, wonderfully pretend-to-be grumpy company. She is for sure of of the best friends I have found at Rainbow, and one of the most interesting characters I've ever met. She writes a massive complex Sci-Fi novel, and I was allowed to read a couple of finished chapters of it - can't wait to read the whole thing! Then she is a gifted painter, in other words her paintings are out of this world, she knows all the bush skills and she has an endearingly cynical sense of humour. I love to be grumpy with Juliet! :D
This is Bianca! Credit of these Rainbow photos here goes to her. She is one of those big fish in the billabong... haha. She is one of those people you meet and the more you get to know them, the more you realise that they seem just perfect, like celebrities in the media, only that they are genuine people right there in front of you, not only just looking stunning, but also being crazy talented and having a wonderful soul on top of all that. They're just too good to be true...
And I love love love this shot of us!
This is Pedro, covered in river stones. He went to sleep there, convincing us that sleeping in a rocky riverbed is very comfortable... there is absolutely nothing out there that can make this adventurer lose his positive attitude. He'll just shrug his shoulders and laugh at life :D
I found this photo and I want to share it because I love it so much. Can you believe this girl is called Ray - such a ray of sunshine! <3
After the Rainbow Gathering....
... I went "with the Joe", as I reported in my previous blogpost!
It was Joe, Tessi, Sarah and me, and for a part of the time also Ananda, Justyna and Maria. So much fuuuuuun!
This is us in Hellyer Gorge. Hell yeah!!
Ananda's got a good camera and on Sarah's birthday, I could write my name with a sparkler and long-time exposure.
One day we were joined by some more Rainbow Family and went on a day trip to Tasmania's famous tourist destination number one, Cradle Mountain.
We had such a fun day! We walked around Dove Lake, yelling out Rainbow songs across the water and letting the whole place know that the happy hippies are out and about :D
A bit of mincing and gamboling!
At Liffey Falls with the Honda Jazz fellowship.
SOUTH COAST TRACK
Since I walked the Larapinta Trail last winter, I know that going on long hikes is that thing I want to do, always and everywhere and until I'm old. And hiking in Tasmania was high up on the MUST DO list! The wildness of Tasmania's south west is legendary. There are probably some of the oldest forests in the world that have never been logged, rivers that have never been contaminated, valleys and mountains and lonely bays that have hardly ever been explored. There are no roads, no settlements, hardly any walking trails. It's just left to be how it probably was for thousands of years. It's unspoiled and untouched, it's pristine. It's a vast wayless wild!
And there, in the far south west is actually a hiking trail. Usually, people take a little plane and fly out into the wilderness to a place called Melaleuca, and then walk back to Cockle Creek, an outpost of civilisation, following the south coast of Tasmania.
Tessi - oh my god, I don't know how to describe how amazing she is. A Rainbow sister I met last year at the Omeo Gathering, a gifted writer, with the funniest sense of humour and the best British accent!
She became my hiking buddy - hiking in Tassie with Tessi!
We didn't want to take the plane and fly, so we started our walk in Cockle Creek and walked halfway towards Melaleuca to New River Lagoon, and then turned around and walked back the same way. We took a week for it.
Here is a map for those who don't really know about Tasmania's geography.
At Tasmania's South Cape - we reached the cliffs just in time for the sunset. The furthest south I have ever been in my life, gazing further south than I have ever gazed.
In the enchanted Elf-forest. Giant trees covered in mosses, with intertwined roots covering the wet ground wherever you could see it in the thick, untamed scrub.
The track was beautiful and easy for the first two days, but the deeper we got into the no man's land, the more difficult it became.
We waded through rivers with the water coming up above our knees. We climbed up steep sandy dunes and abseiled ourselves down again on the other side. We carefully made our way down sheer rock walls and boulder hopped between the roaring arctic ocean and the high cliffs. We climbed over fallen giant trees and when we crossed the South Cape Ranges, we took off our shoes and pants and scrambled through the mud and over slippery roots on a steep narrow path. It was such an adventure! Especially the mud section :D
Grandfather Tree.
Tired and thirsty - how delicious is the purest wilderness creek water. Like the juice of life!
On the way back, we knew what we were in for when we set out to cross the Cape ranges again. 9km of mud trail was lying ahead, and there was no way but to pad right through it and make friends with the mud. So we put our war paint on.
Fairies planted a moss garden.
raincoats through a shower
Find a wildflower
Capture it forever while we wait
Pictures on the water
A hare (?) and her daughter
Find hours in centered contemplate
patterns in the sunlight
The air always feels right
Wether it be cold or warm or wet
There'll never be another
Sky to camp out under
The stars haven't shone in this way yet
later when we retire
Dinner on the campfire
Night turns your skin a deepest blue
Tell me a story
Sing to me of glory
Tell me much later if it's true
As we find a path my friend
Over every winding bend
Follow you, I'll get through
Walking - by the Mae Trio. It was in my head alllll the time.
As it seems to be bbecomin a hiking tradition, I had my tin whistle with me, like on the Larapinta. And like Pumpkin taught me "Waltzing Mathilda", I taught Tessi the same song!
Once two jolly swagwomen camped out by the billabong
Under the shade of a Coolibah tree
And they sang as they sat and they waited for their billy to boil
You'll come a-waltzing Mathilda with me...
Having been interacting with people so much and in general living in such a fast pace I really yearned to go on this hike and just have nothing but trees and nature around me. Just silence, or the wind in the trees, or the rumbling of the ocean, and not so much talking and thinking.
Drinking the purest, healthiest water on earth, breathing the freshest air, eating only simple, vegan food, and getting enough exercise to make my body just super super happy, while my mind became calm and clear. Sleeping in our little tent somewhere between the forest and the ocean during the night, feeling very small and yet sheltered. A little bug on Earth's surface, but at one with her. And in the mornings waking up with the simple but fulfilling purpose of just surviving and walking.
I think I've never felt so healthy, strong and at peace before.
And Tessi was just the perfect, blissful company to make this experience happen. We stripped away the unnecessary small talk and took our time. And even without talking much we seemed to become more and more in tune with each other - several times we discovered we thought the same things at the same time.
When I'm out in nature just hiking around, I think that's when I feel like I'm the most "me" and at home.
I dreamed this song a couple of weeks ago and it hasn't left me yet.
I'm just a dreamer but I'm hanging on...
Good night!
