A team of traveling ‘eco-mystics’ cycled from Oliver Tambo airport to Rhodes Park on bicycles made from the branches of trees and an assortment of natural materials, which they brought with them on the 'plane from France. Soon after arriving at the park they set up sleeping arrangements using nets and rope wound round trees beside the lake. The group consisting of Mickael (Mika), 12-year old Axel and two women, Laurence (Lo) and Eileen, are from different eco-communities in the south of France, where they live in houses built from bamboo, mud or ancient stone, and grow their own food.
They met at a festival of ‘New Energy’ and three weeks later made the journey together, inspired by a dream in which Mika was told to take a trip to South Africa in September. Artists, writers, storytellers, healers, they live very simply, close to the Earth, and invite others to travel with them, especially people who are struggling or ill.
After a series of revelations (‘enigma’) over a period of a year, Mika, whose travels include a 13 month journey by bicycle from France to Australia, believes that life on Earth as it exists today will come to an end before long. Indicating with a movement of his hands he says, “The world will turn upside down and the oceans will flood the continents…”
Tony Lopes taught the group how to make a wood gas stove and a local gardener/security guard/Jack of all trades named Albert befriended them and took them to the backroom of the Kensington house where he lives when they were harassed by the police. Albert has no electricity in his room and cooks with paraffin. He made them a pot of pap and asked them if they wanted him to heat some water for a bath but apparently they said, “We will wait for the rain.”I was struck by their practicality, their defiance of the conventional, and their absolute trust that they would end up where they were supposed to be.
We have become accustomed to living in fear in South Africa so this group of people who had no fear brought new hope and energy to the park and to the diverse group of people from the community that felt drawn to them. They left as unexpectedly as they arrived. Albert gave Tony a note from Mika. It read: “We are headed in the direction of Limpopo.”
