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From the Hague to Almeria The sun is finally shining above the head of Nicola, Raphael and Benjamin. After 10 days of greyness, Locomotive discovered the shiniest place of Europe, Almeria, in the south of Spain. They are now enjoying an early summertime, recharging the batteries of their equipments and their hearts. In two adventurous weeks, they traveled in the most sustainable way, 2442 km in 25 different cars, sharing with people from different nationalities and opinions their idea of the world and the idea behind the project of the Locomotive of Freedom.

They left from The Hague the 19th of January with 3 solar backpacks. Quicker than they thought the first car stopped by and introduced them to an incredible journey that drove them until Almeria. In this trip, they stopped by Rotterdam, Lille, Vienne, Barcelona, Tarragona, meeting about 100 persons before reaching Andalusia. Nicola, Raphael and Benjamin succeeded to eat more or less everyday without using any money: recycling the food from the garbages of the gasoline stations, from the wastes of the markets and restaurants in different cities, and enjoying the generosity of people.

Every night they found a roof to sleep where they dreamt about the journey: in houses of people they encountered, entrances of buildings and grounds of gasoline stations. At the end of the two weeks, one conclusion can be shared: the human nature is good, we just have to do the first step and open ourselves to the others.

From an ecological point of view, Locomotive didn’t practically emitted any CO2, jumping on the cars that were going in the same directions. However, they want to share their CO2 emissions with the drivers of the cars who kindly hosted them , in order to help them to reduce their ecological footprint. In total, the three exploraters did not emitted more than 320kg of CO2 in two weeks, crossing vertically a good part of the West of Europe.

They didn’t buy any food to not encouraged the food industry, that alone emits more than a half of the totality of CO2 emissions in the world. They used just solar energy to recharge the batteries of their cameras, enjoying in these days the beautiful sun of Andalusia to fill them before leaving Europe and traveling to Africa.

During all their encounters, Locomotive discussed with the people about the situation of the world today, the threat of climate change and the actions that are about to be undertaken all around the world. They offered their visions and shared opinions with all the people, in order to understand the general level of consciousness in Europe, about these fundamental topics. In Barcelona and Tarragona, Nicola, Benjamin and Raphael had the chance to discover the particular reality of the “occupied houses”, apartments abandoned by their owners and later on occupied by citizens that, according with the Spanish law, have the possibility to use them to organize active actions for the society. An interesting example of these houses is Kal’Pobre in Tarragona, a huge villa occupied by a group of friends that now offer to their co-citizens free sessions of yoga, capoheira and handcraft. They also organize the collect of vintage clothes that they later on exchange with food for the house.

Locomotive also discovered the “food recycling”, the possibility of getting food for free from bakkeries and restaurants, that would have been thrown away instead. Moreover, they realized how much food the markets of the cities waste every day, especially fruits and vegetables that could be given to the people who really need them. In Andalusia, Locomotive went also to see Andasol, one of the biggest solar plant in the world. They got amazed by this incredible technology that could solve most of humanity’s energy problems. At the end of these two first weeks, we can claim that is possible to travel from the North of Europe to the South in 5 or 6 days, to fill our stomach using what is thrown away by the society and to meet incredible people from ewerywhere in the world, who share this incredible adventure of life. Make the first step and be the change you want to see in the world.

Read more about the adventure: Labels: Europe, journey



