Justeun
Rob Joined: July 3rd 2009
Logged in: December 22nd 2010
Logged in: December 22nd 2010
Welcome to my travel blog! 
This is where you can find stories and musings from my travels!
I'm travelling around working in different places in order to learn new skills, meet lots of new people, see lots of beautiful places and have lots of great adventures!
since I left!
Here's a few words about why I'm travelling...
I've wanted to travel for a long time, to learn about different cultures and places from actually being there, to work with different people in different countries and just to live as naturally and creatively as I can. University has ended and so it seems like now is the best time to start.
I guess in most cases the usual path to take out of university is the career path, however if I'm to be completely honest it's a path that just doesn't make sense to me. In fact, I don't really see it as a path at all. Careers seem more like our horribly unnatural motorways; the main aim being to get to your destination as fast as possible, overtaking all of the people who aren't quite as fast. Occasionaly you find yourself stuck, feeling like your wasting your time in the most mind numbing of queues, all the while you wait patiently for the next short break, which you know is more than likely going to look, feel and taste exactly the same as the last. All in all you end up sacrificing an enjoyable, unpredictable and picturesque journey for one of convenience, efficiency, speed and ease.
I don't much enjoy motorway driving so it's with this that I've come to think I wouldn't much enjoy a career path.
It is instead the allure of the less travelled road that I have succumb to. The road on which one can wander freely without time biting at ones heels. The road on which one can just be.
This is why I'm travelling.
Film & music...
Videos from my travels can be found on youtube www.youtube.com/theallureoftheroad
My music can be found at...
www.myspace.com/robrivieres & www.youtube.com/victorysquaremusic
Travel Blog Posts
Hey! This is an update for those of you who are only in contact with me via this blog. If you aren't already aware of what I'm upto these days then I apologise for the delay in informing you! So...let's rewind a little... I returned back to the UK in June because two of my grandparents sadly passed away. Whilst back in the country I took a trip down to Dorset where I volunteered for two weeks at Gaunt's House Summer Gathering. This was a fantastic experience and I am now involved in organising next years gathering arranging music for one of the stages =) Whilst I was at the gathering I met a lovely girl called Georgia =) and after several weeks of deliberation I decided to move down to Brighton where we are now ... read more
The road to the cottage.
the yellow of the buttercup. His pace seemed to quicken with the passing of every tree. It was after midnight and the early hours didn't seem to mind the harsh rainfall as much as he did. The gravel track was spitting up water at him as his feet broke the surface of the impromptu stream that had formed upon it's surface. He knew the cottage wasn't far away but this knowledge didn't seem to relax the intensity of his strides by any means. Before the next turn presented itself in the track an owl swooped down and proceeded to fly just above his head. Of course he was slightly startled by it's abrupt arrival but other than that felt strangely comfortable in it's presence. "Why do you throw your feet so far ahead of yourself?" questioned ... read more
Camel ride with Seefa - the day before I left for Italy!
18/04/10 23.44pm I begin my six hour wait in Genova Piazza train station. I left La Maison yesterday at around 11am and managed to hitch as far as Toulon. La Maison - Tarbes - avec Bex & Andy =) Tarbes - Toulouse - avec Abdul Toulouse - Montpellier - avec Jacques Montpellier - Nimes - avec Claire Nimes - Aix En Provence - avec Pauline Aix En Provence - Toulon - avec Allain * * * Bex and Andy had stayed over the night as Sarah and Paul had organised a big leaving party for me =) Pretty much everyone I had met since arriving at the farm seven months ago was there...Caroline et Jean Pierre who gave me a very posh lighter as a leaving present along with a Rasta keyring and a lemon cake! ... read more
The first-post surgery dressing...
Friday 26th February 2010 * * * Room 120 Floor 4 Tarbes Hospital This is where I spent last Friday night...and as if that wasn't enough...saturday night too! to explain... ...It was a rather pleasant Friday afternoon, the afternoon of the 19th of February to be precise. I was helping to cut some wood for the vegetable garden here at the farm. Oh how little we know about what can happen in an instant... I looked down at my left hand, bending my index finger, only to see the bare tendons flexing over my knuckle. I figured this was a little unusual...and then it dawned on me...ouch! The hatchet style-axe-come-sharp blade-cutting tool-device (maybe which can be imagined more accurately if one pictures something that say an Orc on the Lord of The Rings would choose as ... read more
'Ain't no mic stand when I sing...'
Not long after rememberance day Claude La Barbe visited the farm to ask if I would be interested in playing a half hour acoustic set for this years Telethon (the French equivilant of Children in Need). Of course I said yes, it being for charity and all, plus it seemed like a great oppurtunity to finally play live in front of people for the first time! The few weeks leading upto last Friday (4th) were thus mainly filled with me relentlessly 'thinking' about practicing and worrying about every potential problem that could occur! When the day finally arrived I didn't feel so bad. The venue was a big hall filled with dinner tables and a stage at one end. An hour and a half and 170 people later the hall was full and Claude ushered me ... read more
Bruster Bob...the most adorable alpaca in the west!
Day 55 - 15/11/09 Images that won't be forgotten, That words construed in stories could not depict, That mould ones core into shapes unseen, Raising a glass over conversations of the universe, Smoke rising towards the night sky, This was no sad day, This was a respectful goodbye, An end that buried souls would envy Where the patter of feet was always unseen, The land welcomes this stranger, A deservedly slow process, A goodnight with intentions of a return, For tomorrow you will shine in the sun, For tomorrow you will line each blade of grass, For tomorrow you will be here for the long haul, Indefinately as forever is now * * * Yesterday saw a new arrival to the farm...Bruster Bob, a one and a half year old brown haired alpaca! Hesitant at first ... read more
Tour de Termes d'Armagnac
Day 47 - 7/11/09 Wednesday this week was my day off and as Vivian (Caroline's helpx) was leaving in two days it was decided that we would both go to Biarritz. After a 6.30 get up and 40minutes at the bus stop we somehow managed to miss the bus (I prefer think that it didn't turn up)...however I'm kind of glad we did! Plan B...road trip! We were kindly granted use of the car for the day and so we set out in search of several places including a fort , a lake and forest in Aignan and a lake in Lupiac. Well we found the fort quite easily but it didn't open until two and we found two lakes but they were distinctly unimpressive. As it was only eleven o'clock we drove back to the ... read more
Day 32 - 23/10/09 Yesterday was fun! Sarah's friends Mita and Peter came over in the afternoon and ended up staying for dinner. Mita and Peter are really cool :) They brought some miracle pills for Scamper's that they had got off the vet for Chica, their twelve year old dog who also has arthritus... After a coffee Sarah had to go and run the boys out somewhere so the rest of us decided to go for a walk in the woods. Upon our return to the house Mita noticed that one of the two pills brought for Scampers was missing!! After a small amount of investigating we came to the conclusion that one of the cats must have ripped open the bag whilst we were out and got away with the pill! So the flag ... read more
They all got on really! Scampers, Chuck and Eagle-Eye/Chick
Day 29 - 20/10/09 Last night was a very sad night. Whilst washing up after dinner Sarah called me into the lounge...on the floor in front of us was Chuck with a pool of blood around him. We could only assume that he had once again gone for a little nibble of Scamper's dinner, this time only to find himself not making it out alive...in the wrong place at the wrong time, one accident later, everything changes. I told Sarah I would take him down to the river and so I set off out in the dark. Only a few paces away from the house I just began to cry. It seems silly really as this sort of thing happens on the farm all the time, it's just the way it is...I guess I was just ... read more
Flying!
DAY 27 - 18/10/09 Had a fantastic weekend. Today was pretty chilled, no visitors to the farm so I dug out all of the parsnips and helped the guys with their treehouse. Yesterday, as Paul was back for the weekend, we all went out to the mountains for the day. The Pyrenees national park is just absoloutely breathtaking! On route we passed through the centre of Lourdes, which was somewhere I'd quite fancied visiting but to be honest I'm rather glad I passed through in a car rather than taking time out to visit. Considering this is supposed to be a holy and spiritual place it didn't seem to live up to it's name given it's appearence. Tourism seems to have gotten to the place. It was one of the most commercial, billboard ridden, neon sign ... read more
