Sunseeds - the final chapter

Back in the real world Sunseeds seems to be an amazing distant memory. Even as I said goodbye a few final times to other Sunseeders at Almeria Bus Station it seemed as if the adventure was already a world away. After the first week and a half life became a happy routine on the project. I would flit in and out of Garden tasks one day to helping the Alternative Technology and Maintenance Staff the next. Being woken for breakfast by didgerydoos and eating porridge (everyday!) became second nature. I don't think there was an afternoon when the part-time volunteers weren't in the Canya pool or sunbathing after lunch. The reclaimed village and it's way of life did at the time seem so idyllic but it didn't occur to me just how much until I'd returned home and switched on the television.

An advert was on, something about a conditioner for L'oreal. And I just didn't understand what they were saying. I couldn't work out why they were telling me all this, that and the other about this 'super product' because I knew that there was absolutely no need for such an item. I'd been living for a month in dirt, just washing my hair when it needs it, not bothering with brushing, conditioning or straightening and I hadn't died. No one had been offended by my unkempt appearance. I had had absolutely no drawback from living without conditioner at all. So why was L'oreal telling me otherwise. Making it look all super fantastic and necessary. And that's the trick isn't it. L'oreal has the key – that beauty is the goal and to not achieve that is horrendous. But who are they to define beauty?! When we are all different and wonderful in our own rights. In this world everyone panders to that. At sunseeds no one pandered to it. No one believed in it. We were all our own beings livings to our own standards – not one the a company had created to make money from us. My hair is unkempt now, bouncing with curls I've crimped myself. My clothes are old and cheap. And I'm happy.


But back to life at Sunseeds and I'm struggling to remember how my four weeks passed. Highlights included playing football with the locals from the nearest town on one of our activity evenings. Considering our pretty isolated location on a mountainside overlooking a valley we managed, as a group, to get around a bit. One of the first outings I remember (not to the town for football) was being taken to another town to pick up horse manure for the gardens. Usually only a couple of people would help Dara the gardener out with this but the whole group was roped in for this trip for one lovely reason – we were heading onto the beach after. A great little group of us went to to the supermarket to buy food and then had a picnic on the beach. We all had the obligatory swim and then the sun set behind us whilst in away from work chat mode.


The next week we had the opportunity to visit the beach again. This time some of us were in full on party mode as we celebrated Las Fallas with the Spanish with an all night reggae/drum 'n' bass session on the beach. Now I'm not a huge drum 'n' bass fan – I've been know to actually fall asleep at clubs where its been played before. So I was a little nervous about the outing but determined to have a good time anyhow. Oh my god – I was up with the rest of them until the end of the set at 5am! What a night. And then what a great sleep next to a campfire on the sand with my poncho draped over me only being awoken by the morning sun.


Back at the 'ranch' my final week was punctuated by a cob oven building course run by the maintenance staff. Sunseeds runs many an informative course on aspects of Sustainable living and if you visit www.sunseeds.org.uk you can find what they offer along with more information on what they do and how to get involved. On this course I learned how to lay bricks and use mortar. I learned that mortar is mostly alkali. I did some hard ass sawing for the pizza paddle, some stomping of straw into clay for the cob mix. Expert layering of cob mix round a sand dome mold were acquired along with the creative side of all on the course allowed to show as we decorated to outside surfaces with reclaimed broken tiles.

It was a rush to finish the oven in a week as some of us on the course were rather distracted by the fires that were breaking out in the local area. The first was a few miles to the north of us, the next a little bit closer to the west, the next a bit closer still to the south until the village residents worst fears were realised; one broke out the other side of the valley from us. We were aware of the fire as we noticed the helicopters flying with their buckets and as we watched, the fire crept down the mountainside ebbing closer to the canya covering that if lit, would race up our side of the valley and destroy the village. I found it all rather exciting but other villagers were not so amused. The encroaching fire caused a great amount fear in those who'd put their lifesavings into the restoration of their holiday homes and panic in project members who didn't know quite what to make of the situation. What is not clear until you reach the Sunseeds project is that it is very much part of an existing village community. And it was with this fire that the community came together with great haste. We all worked together to fill water and sand buckets, just in case. And were on alert for a call from the police to evacuate. Thankfully the fire was brought under control by what I have to say is an amazing Spanish fire fighting service in the region. However a couple of weeks after I had left, the village was evacuated though I heard that even then the fire was very much under control aswell.


My time at Sunseeds has been one of the most enjoyable and eyeopening experiences of my life. I will always remember the funky solar showers, that “squatting is the way forward”, nighttime poker sessions, making bread, ipod rights in the kitchen, mamouth bike rides up mountain and down valley into town, workshops in the yurt inc. acrobalance, bikes and free-dance. The fires, the village raves, the canya pool, the canya bridge, the canya in general, picking blueberries, beach raves, blue paint, jam sessions with makeshift bongos, homemade didgerydoos and broken guitars, running out of eletricity, loos with a view, Pedro the dog, wild boar and so many other memories that will be stored in the recesses of my mind for years to come.

Sunseeds was my final adventure in Spain and what a fabulous way to end my time there. If you look back at some of my earlier blogs you'll see that after Spain I was hoping to travel Africa overland and onto Australia from South Africa. Unfortunately this wasn't possible and I had to find something else to get me Down Under. Thankfully I did. Its called Ozbus and I'm on it right now.