Wiggling on the Anchor Chain

The swallows are congregating in joyful swarms, chasing tiny, flying insects, swirling through tight flight curves, chirping happily while my informed memory reveals them as getting ready for their seasonal migration. This transcontinental journey will lead them across the bleak peaks of the European Alps towards their southerly winter grounds in Northern Africa. Our own hold in the steadfast Swiss comfort zone is also starting to crumble. Nomadic instincts have once more taken over and are busy trying to organize the break-down of our tent-bound existence. Furniture is returning to respectful and rightful owners, an amazing slew of senselessly acquired stuff needs proper recycling and suitcases with various destinations line the now empty walls of our apartment. This 3 ½ room flat has given us ample shelter over the last almost almost twelve months. A serious clean-up operation lies ahead with its complementary muscle fitness program. By the end of the month we will hand over the keys to this boxy but cozy sanctuary from the eternal envy of the pubic eye.

Once again a shot from my office window.

What was meant to be a short but furious stint of six months duration turned out to be a long drawn out affair of close to seventeen. It was more than we could ever have hoped for when about a year and a half ago we decided to put our entire monetary possession on the line by converting them into two tickets to monetary paradise, because of these seventeen months I have been working full time for a good ninety percent.

The splendid mountaintops of the Alps, as seen from the Titlis.

I have learned that I am able to be a productive member of society if given the chance. My task here was an extremely interesting and challenging one, rewarding and taxing at the same time, and I believe I completed it to acceptable standards, which is a very refreshing thing for somebody who keeps beating himself up constantly and thoroughly for just about every little mishap committed since birth, while desperately trying to be useful to the world.

Late summer storm paints majestically…

We will now have the opportunity to dedicate our time and our selves to whatever crosses our fancy, a freedom important when on the way to restructure the wayward mayhem of modern corporate economics, which keeps mankind in a lethal stranglehold of applied stupidity. I sincerely hope we will be able to do something a little better than all those cruising folks who sail around the world without seeing a thing. I guess a bright cheesy smiley would bring this silly statement to an appropriate closure…

Lofty view of the Upper Engadin Valley

Dreams can once again be directed towards the future. After our expanded return journey aboard Aluna with short excursions to the Wharrams on the Southwestern tip of still mighty England, a intensive space travel to the Kido Planet, and joyful confections of family matters in Bogotá, Colombia, we will fly to Auckland in mid December with a stopover in Santiago, Chile. Once back amongst the Kiwis a short bus trip should bring us back home aboard our floating sanctuary. We’ve heard from friends who have been keeping a keen eye on Aluna, that she has started to scream for some TLC, so over the austral summer she will want to be returned to her due ship shape. Soon thereafter a not so easy decision is awaiting us. By May 2016 her nomadic instincts will bubble up through her structure and we will have to decide on a route to continue our non-linear circumnavigation, which roughly leads us towards SE Asia. This decision is wiggling in my mind like a flag in the wind, changing daily from pointing towards a Southern route up through the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, the path through the middle touching upon the Philippines and Borneo, or the Northern trek with visits to Micronesia, the Marianas and then heading towards the Empire of the Rising Sun.

Late season crop is growing in the foreground

The fight for dominance amongst these different ideas will eventually fade away and settle. We have found it best to let these kinds of future bound decision grow naturally out of what we encounter along our winding ways. If feels great and it is undoubtedly a massive privilege to be able to have these life altering options laid out open before us like spaces with a thousand instantaneous possibilities where it is impossible to foretell the precise ways destiny will choose and where the gods will create their never-ending plots of earth-shattering thunder and lightning.

Fogs of fall are falling.

Advertisement

Tags: Departure, leaving, new ways, planning, weighing anchor