Eco-Tour

Our first Friday night (2 days in) saw the leaving party for a guy called Eric with the first ‘sunseed awards’ night. It was themed French, surfer, Hawaiian. All things Eric. So we decided to play it down… Evidently Eric was instrumental in saving sunseed last year, as they were financially on the brink. There were just over 20 different awards ranging from ‘most sustainable’ and ‘the sunseed award’ to ‘best hair’ and ‘best naked body’. Brian’s experience with event management came in handy as he volunteered to coordinate the…

I (Brian) found the Sunseed people to be so encouraging and open to how we could contribute. This gave me space to try out ways to help that  I may not have otherwise tried.   Mens circle After doing the Mankind Project weekend at the end of February I have found incredible value in sharing circles of compassionate men. Being on this trip has meant I have no regular contact with such circles so in Sunseed, I created one. Taking some inspiration from how the Mankind Project run their circles…

The natural landscape of Andalusia, & sunseed locally, is stunning as you can see! But the hidden details are the real gems! The caves & the poza played a big role for me (RACH) & many others here for much needed retreat, adventure, relaxation & rejuvination. On my second day I went for a walk discovering the windey paths, shaded under plant growth alongside the asequia (stream). Later I helped to clear this stream as we had serious water shortage issues. Brian has written about this, but besides that problem,…

Sunseed is a small collective, having access to 4 houses within a small off grid village of about 30 houses in Andalusia, South Spain. The wider village is not a cohesive community as such,  though they meet monthly to discuss things affecting the village   Sunseed Water Along with living off-grid in a semi-arid climate come some water issues. They don’t have manmade lakes as in Tamera so their water supply is dependant on what they collect from the rain, what they get from the local stream, drinking water from…

Community building/connection processes! My (Rachael) biggest interest is CONNECTION. Connection to the environment & all living beings within it. This of course involves humans! In fact if an eco-village is to persist the human foundation, PEOPLE (in permaculture terms) is the most important element. Without this, eco-villages don’t last, no matter how many vegetables you plant! 😉 if ppl aren’t happy things fall apart. My favourite permaculture quote is, “if it’s not fun it’s not sustainable”.   So I got talking to this wondrous & beautiful human called Fran, who…

  We left Tamera on Sunday 1st May & took 3 lovely leisurely days to drive to Sunseed eco-village in the village of Los Molinos Rio Del Agua, Andalusia, Spain. We stopped in a hotel in a city called Heuvla, Portugal, then a roadstop hotel mid Spain, then last night we stayed in an amazing beach side hotel in Mojacar on the south east coast only 30 mins from Sunseed. We really enjoyed being by the sea! 🙂 Upon arrival, we got a speedy intro to Sunseed and started to…

6 days of kitchen duty.  I was on dinner shift,  4-9pm-ish Chilled vibe throughout shift. One head chef directed the shift and gave us (5/6 people) tasks to prepare the meal. We had a break in middle of shift to calm ourselves and check in. Cooking for sometimes 50 and sometimes 190 people. Kitchen group met at 2.30 pm for organisational stuff and chats. One day of  breakfast duty, 630-800am. Ugh… But incredible calm around and mist on Lake pre-dawn, fascinating. Kitchen team had a group session on Thursday, where…

Me & Shalima my horse! It’s Beltane!!! & the last full day at Tamera. I (rach) finished the 4 day “horse course” yesterday. And Brian has spent the week volunteering in the kitchen team.   He’s a little sick 🙁 But we’ve both learned a lot & loved a lot of our experience. The horse course was truly amazing. I couldn’t have imagined I’d learn so much from them how to get “in contact” (which Tamera is all about), not only with them, but of course myself, as they are a…

So Brian & I have been through a whirlwind week at Tamera! There’s so much to soak in. We heard lots of talks from ppl living here on many core topics including water retention (to restore the land) . I know! It sounds so dry (mind the pun – ho ho!) but my eyes were watering (mind the pun again – I’m on fire)  when we heard from this passionate guy talking bout the work he does, restoring the land through simple means, and how it starts to become fertile restored…

As anticipated, things are so busy here it’s  hard to find time to blog. Which is great in a way.   50 people! 50 on the course! Wow that’s big. They usually have 15 or so.  How inspiring to me that so many more are interested in this type of living. Day 1 of the introduction week gave us a great overview of the place, it’s history and principles. From what I gather this whole week will not be enough to get a full picture of the place, let alone…