This blog is on hold, have a look on this one instead, www.circomara.blogspot.com

- Sailing circus adventure from Gothenbuirg going south, somewhere. -

Henry 5 august 2013, KRISTIANSAND

Audience from the premiere of DAY 776, picture taken while making the presentation,  with the same cheap camera i recorded the stuff with. Nice party afterwards..

Gothenburg, Sweden. March 2013

IN MEMORY OF TAYLOR BOOTH

 

 "There's a fire in your heart, cant you feel it?"

Part of poem Taylor showed me in the city of Jember, Java. I dont remember the author, I do remember we slept in an abandoned sportshall the next night,  the grass was long around the building and the door open. Was so dark when we entered at late night. In the morning we saw the size of the hall, even found toilets that were working. We climbed an volcano and I got tired in my legs. On the top we cooked food and added a tomato relish Taylor had gotten from a driver in Australia, "Real man's" tomato relish it read on the label and then the picture of a man with beard who had told a funny story about Mt.Everest. Catching the rides were easy and fun, with a friend waiting between rides is not a problem, time passes so quickly. Taylor always suggested to walk alot and not stand still hitching. I like this style. We had arranged a meeting in the center of a big city. Said we meet in the central square, took us few hours but finally we did. I had not seen him since Australia and months had passed. The days we spent on the island of Java were amazing. Such beautiful memories i'll always keep.

Rest in peace dear friend

Taylors couchsurfing profile

http://www.couchsurfing.org/profile.html?id=KM67VA

Way home throught Russia

After a few days in Omsk I headed west, were lucky the first day, caught a truck going 900 km to Chelyabinsk. It wasnt really my plan to go there at that time but I changed my plan. Spending some days in Chelyabinsk with musicians, streetperformers. I made some busking. Didnt make much. Compared to China atleast. From there my luck ran out and hitchhiking went slow, perhaps first time of the trip I got tired holding my arm up trying to stop cars. waited atleast one hour between every ride, sometimes two. I remembered Russia as an easy country for hitchhiking but this was not the case for me this time. Slowly I made my progress towards Kazan and arrived one evening to this beautiful city where I stayed with couchsurfers for two days. Last bit to Moscow also went slow but made it finally. Fewer days than I planned there, decided to make it fast back to Sweden. I was just to close to home, couldnt stay anywhere more than a day or two..

A friend joined me for the Moscow St. Petersburg hitch and as a girl and a guy we made it alot faster than me alone. Also in St petersburg i didnt stay long. Went one rainy morning for the border of Finland and finally made it across after getting slow short rides the whole day. As i crossed the border it had stopped raining and the sun even peaked out for a bit. Border crossing very smooth. Got an ride to Helsinki that evening, catching cars of the highway, no problem. Got hosted by an friendly couple in Helsinki and made it to Turku the next day. There I were checking out the circus school for a bit and bought some juggling clubs from a friend.

Then the ferry. The last bit to Sweden. The ferry was full of drunken party people ofcourse and I couldnt sleep on my bench, got perhaps 1.5 h sleep and tiredly I entered a sunny Sweden in the early morning hours. Payed an totally insane price of 44kr of the subway of Stockholm and reached the hitchhiking spot close to Hallunda station. Took me an hour to get a 350km+ ride to Skara. Hitched fast some cars to my mothers house outside Ulricehamn. There i surprised my family, them not knowing im coming. Now back in my home in Västra bodarna, close to Gothenburg city.

Some statistics of the trip..(more accurate and more might come later)

Distance and lenght
Lenght: 12 November 2009 - 5 August 2012, (2 years and ~9 months)
Distance travelled: ~70 000 km
Hitchhiking: 41 000 km
Sailing: 25 000 km (13700 NM)
Trains & Buses: ~2500 km
Ferries: 2000 km
Airplane: 2000 km
Cycling: 1300 km
Walking: ??+ km

Longest time on the sea: 28 days (San fransisco- Marquesas), 26 days (Cape verde - Martinique)

Documentation
Photos and videos taken: 7000
Diaries finished: 5

Borders
Countries passed throught: ~30
Most time spent: Australia, Indonesia, China
Least time spent: Brunei, Kazakstan
Smallest country: Niue(260 km²)
Biggest country: Russia (17 075 200 km²)

Problems
Attempted robberys: 1
Successed robberys: 0
Petty theft: less than 5
Lost items: Flashlight, Small knife, Mobile phone
Country of most food poisioning: China
Worst food poisioning: Vietnam

Many nights in tents, many in peoples homes, many in Couchsurfers places. A few few in hotels which were not payed by me.

Tents bought, exchanged or found: 6

Inside my bag

1 Tshirts: 4

2 Long pants: 1

3 Shorts: 2

4 Shirts: 2

5 Juggling balls made with balloons and rice(from sweden)

6 Rain protection (used maybe 5 times in 1 year)

7 sleeping bag cover(used as sleeping bag most of the time)

8 Towel given by indonesian family

9 Bag with art stuff(brushes, sketches, photos, pens)

10 Bag with stuff( strings, screwdriver, screws, stuff)

11 socks

12 books, dictionaries, maps (bought or given in various countries)

13 winter gear (from sweden)

14 diaries

15 chargers and electronic stuff

16 hiking shoes (bought in malaysia)

17 sleeping bag (from sweden, cover from france)

18 tent rolled up in sleeping mat(tent exchanged with friends in china, sleeping mat given by friend)

19 small loudspeaker (china, 10 euros)

20 juggling torches made in china, kerosene

21 juggling clubs bought in finland, balls given in finland, contact ball gift from russia.

To theese things comes also a small bag with cameras, money, passport and so on.

First and last day of the trip.

And now what.

Waiting for cars. Pavlodar, Kazakstan - Russian border

Bishekek to Omsk

So I managed get the Russian visa. Seemed almost impossible for a moment but turned out to be not that difficult in the end. I got a original Letter of Invitation from Stantours, costed me 85$ to get it shipped to Bishkek, took no more than 1 day. With this i went to the embassy and somehow managed to convince the lady to accept my visa application without having an kyrgyz visa that would be valid 1 month after my arrival to Russia(this seem to be the new rules) applied on Thursday and picked up visa on tuesday(52$)

Wanted to make it fast to Omsk and make the most out of my 29 day russian visa that would start the day after I picked it up. I've decided to describe the hitch Bishkek-Omsk in boring statistics this time, here we go:

Kazakstan south to north

Distance: 1 809 km
Time: 51 hours
Number of vehicles: 15

     Cars: 13

     Old Kamaz truck: 1

     Milk truck: 1

Longest ride: 432 km (Karaganda-Pavlodar)

Shortest ride: 1 km ( in city of Karaganda)

Longest wait: ~1 hour (North of Pavlodar towards the border)

Shortest wait: 5 minutes

Average wait: 10 -15 minutes

Number of times police helped me get a ride: 2

Number of rides given by police: 1 (100 km Jambyl province)

Number of nights spent in Police road post: 1 (Pavlodar)

Number of nights spent in abandoned Police road post: 1 (Balkash)

Money spent: 325 Tenge (1.6 EUR)

Money earned: 170 Tenge (0.9 EUR)

Number of times asked if im married: 9

Number of times asked when i'll get married: 6

Number of times asked if i'd like to marry Kazak girl: 4

Number of hours looking out over a flat steppe: Too many

And thats it. Im in Omsk, in few days heading west west west. some cities on the way, dont know which yet, Moskva st petersburg and finland before 9th when my visa ends. Then almost home.

Friendly driver pouring Kymyz, fermented mares milk

This man stopped a truck for me

Henry throught the looking glass