It’s cold and wet

It is said that it is not good to believe in cliches. For this reason we went to check what is said about Scotland. From Edinburgh to Glasgow, we had numerous chances to taste the lovely weather of this amazing country! When it was not raining, we were cycling uphill and downhill over and over again with the wind pushing against our unperturbed smiles. Only to arrive somewhere to cook under the tarp accompanied by the ceaseless choir of millions of midges. We were wondering why last year we were around 40-50 ecotopians and this year we were not more…

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Quest For Rocket Stoves

With the skies above our camping place threatening rain and thunder and with two days left before we were to leave Edinburgh, the heart of the bike tour was missing. The heart of the bike tour is an ugly-mangled thing. We crouch beside it at night, offering up endless twigs and sticks, blowing on it our hopes for hot food. The heart of the bike tour is a rocket stove. It is made from a large oil drum, piping and insulation. We had two vegetable oil drums, found at the back of a restraunt. We still needed to find some…

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10 years Ecotopia Biketour

It was super interesting to join Ecotopia Biketour (EBt) again, after 5 years not taking part and almost have lost contact. I would like to share here some of my thoughts that were eminent during this years tour, my fifth EBt. The first time being in 2008. Joining biketour for the fifth time is not the same as the first experience. The past experiences make that you have memories coming up from other years influencing the feelings, ideas and proposals that you will bring to the group. Luckily some other former EBt friends popped up as well! The year 2018…

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Ecotopia in Lakabe

We arrived in Lakabe the fifth of July after a nice swim in the river just before climbing the hardest and last kilometer. As we enter in this old occupied village , a thunderstorm started rumbling in the valley of Arce. Just in time . We are welcomed by Clara, who lives here in Lakabe since approximately one year and a half, and she used to explain us the main operation way of the place. Letś cook ! The last up hill kilometer, so hard ! So tired are we, that we fall asleep fast , but the next day,…

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Starting in Pamplona

It took us seven days to arrive to Pamplona from Barcelona with all the biketour equipment. We had to cross the desert (Los Monegros) cycling in the crazy Spanish heat. Just one hour after we arrived to the „Gaztetxe” (squatted social center in Basque) Las Maravillas other people started showing up asking for Ecotopia Biketour. Perfect timing! At the end of the day we were already more than ten participants. Las Maravillas has been quite recently squatted (less than one year). It is located in the old town in front of one of the main squares where people gather for…

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Queer Ecotopia Biketour ?

Story behind, problems, critique 2 years ago we decided to put some keywords on the poster and the flyers to describe the biketour in a short way. We put amongst others as well „Queer” because we felt like it is a significant part of our community – that we are explicitly not only Cis*-hetero-people and that we are opposing heteronormative* society norms. We received critique from members of the queer community, who experienced homophobia on Ecotopia Biketour 2015. I am very set up when i read queer on that poster!!! I think it is a lie. On the ecotopia biketour…

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