The Plan

We (Rachael & Brian) are going on a tour! For 7 weeks, we will be travelling around southern Europe visiting various Ecovillage settlements in Portugal, Spain and Italy, and who knows what in between.

For those of you who don’t know what an Ecovillage is, you are not alone. The definition is always changing, and each one is unique, so its hard to put words on it. GEN – the Global Ecovillage Network – connects over 10,000 ecovillages across the world and defines an Ecovillage as:

An ecovillage is an intentional or traditional community using local participatory processes to holistically integrate ecological, economic, social, and cultural dimensions of sustainability in order to regenerate social and natural environments

Our goal is to one day live in such a community, and this trip will give us clarity about what type of community we would like to live in and possibly even a future home 😀

Here’s the plan:

Brian drives on the 14th April. From Belfast to Rosslare, boat to Cherbourg, then drives for roughly 20 hours in 2 days to get to Portugal

Rach flies on the 17th. Belfast to Portugal

Tamera,  South Portugal  (17th April – 2nd May)

What attracts us to Tamera is that they are a peace research community. They do a lot of work on inner peace, peace with others, conflict zones and world peace. What most ecovillages quickly find out is that the development of the people, conflict resolution, and ways to live together in community is more important than technological environmental solutions, and that this personal growth can have a huge positive impact on the environment.

You can find out more about Tamera on their website

Sunseed Desert Technologies, South Spain (4th – 19th May)

What attracts us to Sunseed is the more open structure, and they are in an area (Andalucia) that has many ecological settlements and communities. Their focus is on surviving in arid climates. You can find out more about Sunseed on their website

Damanhur, North Italy (22nd – 31st May)

What attracts us to Damanhur is it’s strong foundation on spirituality. This is not about religion, but rather about living life “where every encounter is an opportunity to remember our shared essential divine nature”.

They built the “eighth wonder of the world”, “The Temples of Humankind” (above) which are hand dug underground caves decorated exquisitely and dedicated to awakening the divine spark present in every human being. The tenets Damanhur focus on are of self-refinement through positive thinking, promoting diversity, embracing change and pursuing one’s dreams with a sense of humor and adventure. They also emphasise a strong and deep connection with nature. For me (Rachael), the wonder and majesty of the temples are such a clear manifestation of something powerfully good that I want to soak up!

You can find out more about Damanhur on their website

Rach flies home on the 31st May and Brian drives home, returning 2nd June to Rosslare, visiting a friend in France on the way (hopefully)

Then a busy summer of work, marriage in September, and who know what then?

The Planning Stage

We’ve been talking about this trip for nearly a year, and finally it has come to fruition. A lot of time was spent researching and comparing ecovillages, and then timing when they have their versions of an ‘introduction week’ into one cohesive tour. Initially we thought we would be taking the train and interrailing it all, but with many tight connections and illogical train routes, we decided driving would be the better option for us. It’s gonna work out a little more expensive, but more comfortable.

We know there’s an increasing amount of interest in this type of living, as we’re meeting interested people all the time. If you think someone else would like to read this, link them now!

We recognise that this trip is gong to have a significant carbon footprint, but we’ll be posting on what we can do about that later. For now, we’re excited to hit the road!