The Journey
We gave up our professional job search and most of our material possessions. In September 2014, armed only with backpacks, thumbs and a frisbee we set off to cross half the world without flights. Our aim? To study the ways of contributing to making the world a more human-friendly place. Being an ultimate sharing practise, hitchhiking was (and continues to be!) our chosen form of transport for most of the route.
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Starting from Wendy’s Melbourne, we explored alternative communities in East Coast Australia and – one of the most unforgettable experiences on our whole way – visited Aboriginal communities of Queensland. Having hitchhiked through the outback to Darwin, we hitched a sailing boat that brought us to East Timor. In Eastern Indonesia we experienced a bit of traditional, off-grid lifestyle and made life-long friends. After filling our stomachs up in Malaysia, Thailand saw us take an inward step, freediving, doing acro-yoga and meditating on a permaculture farm. After crossing through tribal lands of Laos and strikingly modern neighbouring parts of China, we managed to find pieces of real Tibet in the accessible Sichuan province. We headed on to meet the modern nomads of Western Mongolia. In Russia, we fell in love with the incredible Siberian hospitality and natural food, before getting aboard a third class Soviet carriage of the Trans-Siberian Railway to take us to Europe. From Saint Petersburg, we entered the EU in Estonia, crossing the Baltic states of Latvia and Lithuania. We crossed back into Belarus to learn from the art of resistance and the traditional countryside. And finally, into Jurek’s Poland!