The seed of their idea was planted in India where they met 12 years ago; Peter, then 52, was a former sheep farmer, arborist and university lecturer, and Miriam, then 22, wanted to see the world. Most men my age are fat and can’t walk for long. They’re envious. Mostly of her While we talked, I realised how, in nature, everything is living: the trees, birds, animals, and even fire and the weather are lively. Everything exists in relation to everything else. A house, on the other hand, with its totally indoors environment, is quite dead by comparison. Mist hung in the tops of the trees, keeping the outside world out. The mountain guarded its tall trees, and any sound suddenly felt like sacrilege. Between the ancient trees grew little sky-blue mushrooms—thousands of them. Their perfect shape and colour turned the forest into a magical place. (c) De cover is precies zoals Miriam op jacht ging. Ze leefden voornamelijk van de dieren, die toch maar gedood worden zonder ze op te eten, omdat Nieuw-Zeeland de dieren van vroeger zonder menselijke inbreng terug willen. I was not doing anything special, but suddenly it felt as if a lightning bolt entered my head, as if the right part of my brain suddenly opened, and with it came an extraordinary clarity. I sat down in wonder, and saw that the whole of reality was in fact moving like a kaleidoscope. I saw that everything, including my own mind, was constantly transforming; I was not really fixed in one place. I saw that this changing reality was an eternal movement in a timeless world. (c)

If you’re going off grid, prepping is key. Miriam and Peter spent months training for that first winter in South Marlborough, New Zealand: long, demanding treks, first-aid courses; reading survival and foraging books – working out by the spoonful exactly how much flour, pulses, tea bags they’d need. They practised seeing in the dark with night walks. Miriam isn’t a conspiracy theorist but she’s proud she has now learned survival skills, in case of Armageddon. This book tells her story, including the very practical aspects of such a life: her difficulties learning to hunt with a bow and arrow, struggles to create a warm environment in which to live, attempts to cross raging rivers safely and find ways through the rugged mountains and dense bush. This is interwoven with her adjustment to a very slow pace of life, her relationship with her much older husband, her thoughtful observations of the few other people they encounter in this time, and her growing awareness of a strong spiritual connection to the natural world.

When the wild horses saw us, they fled like wary deer. Their long manes and tails flew up in the air as they galloped at full speed inland. It was a remarkable sight. Horses are naturally very elegant, but these wild ones were indescribably magnificent. These free horses almost felt like a gift from Ninety Mile Beach. (c) Ze gaan steeds een stapje verder. Eerst leven ze nog lange tijd op één plek, daarna gaan ze trekken als nomaden. Met pijl en boog schiet Lancewood avondeten. Ze leren welke eetbare planten en bessen er zijn. I feel tears well up in my eyes. We are waving at each other, touching each other over a great distance. I am looking at the wilderness and at Peter: the two dearest beings in my heart

The woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, to be nourished there for 1,260 days. Simplicity, clarity, purity. This was a vision I had always kept with me, as it seemed the natural course of things in the world. any action derived from guilt usually just creates more confusion and distortion. It never solves conflict Don’t write it down. … See it for yourself. Words are meaningless compared to direct experience.’ (с) When the falcon rose again, I realised that it was not its strength or size that asserted its dominance; it was its fearlessness. (c)I gobbled up this book and it led me to do a lot of soul searching. What really is the point of climbing the career ladder to earn money to buy things you don’t need? Can I be content with less, or different? What does my soul really long for? Am I brave enough to chase it if it means rejecting social convention? I no longer had any fear because our valley felt like my home. We often slept deeply for 12 hours, and the effect of so much good rest was an increased energy. After three months, I felt more energetic than ever before in my life, and this energy brought with it the delightful feeling of living in a very healthy body. (c) As I drove home, I felt euphoric. My heart was bursting with energy, and I smiled all the way. School was out. I had plenty of savings in the bank, I had New Zealand residency, and I had the freedom to live wherever I wanted. (c) Whilst Miriam’s act of living as a nomad isn’t radical in a global context, for a privileged, middle class, urbanised individual to choose that lifestyle is definitely a radical decision. Amazing feeling, to be so alone in such an isolated place, isn’t it?’ I said. The nearest house was a good three days’ walk from here. At this time of year, in winter, most people left the mountains alone and stayed inside until the spring.

That was the last thing I wanted to do. Nothing meant boredom, the dreaded void, horrible emptiness. Nothing was the unknown and I had discovered I was afraid of it - this was the fear I would have to face in the many weeks to come. We walked to the rhythm of the rolling waves. On our left were endless dunes; on our right the infinite ocean. Our surroundings didn’t change for days on end, yet we were amid the most ancient movement of the earth: the eternal flow of the tides, coming and going with the rhythm of the moon. The wind seemed to drive the salty mist on ahead of us. We could never reach it, yet we were always in it. Nothing ever stopped the sea or the waves, the wind or clouds or beach. None of it had stopped since the beginning of time. It kept moving, and it kept us moving. (c)She says women worry about being eaten by wild animals or being murdered by a mentally unstable predator, like they’ve seen in Nordic noir. Interestingly, the women at her readings in Holland are usually aged between 40 and 50; maybe they are drawn to Miriam’s story because they see hers as the alternative life they could have led if only they’d been bolder and conformed less. Younger women still have the big decisions – and regrets – ahead of them. What do the women who write to her tell her the book inspired them to do? “One woman said: ‘You inspired me to get a divorce.’ If you want to be more content, sometimes you have to change your life completely.” Gah. Still recovering from this book which is very incoherently written and left me very irritated at the woman in wilderness. Both Miriam and Peter justify their lifestyle by contrasting it to city life, which in their eyes is a “self-imposed prison”. For people that value freedom like them, a conventional life with a job in a city is “imprisoning with its blinding, monotonous routine”. According to Peter, the predictability from living in a city “creates a sense of comfort, which in turn created a resistance to stepping into the unknown”. He adds “it is difficult for a mind that has evolved in human civilisation to reconnect with nature”. Miriam also makes compelling arguments for their lifestyle, for instance, “a lot of people work for years to save their money for later, but by the time they have enough to do something different they don’t have the courage for it, then it is too late” says Miriam.

My sister Jammy: Why do you feel the need to fetishise a conventionally attractive white woman who’s chosen to adopt this lifestyle as though it’s radical, when thousands of indigenous people globally have already been doing this since for ever? Except they don’t feel the need to make a big song and dance about it, and actually colonial white supremacist governments continue to socially marginalise and oppress them simply for the act of living this way? Shouldn’t you be paying attention to them instead? For starters, Davidson says, she was young in the late 60s and 70s, when anything seemed possible. “Everything was about freedom and risk and testing and pushing and seeing who you were and who you could be and refusing to accept the restrictions of the time and the past. It was a heady and wonderful time to be young.” She thinks the film suggests that a young woman had to be unstable rather than adventurous to undertake such a challenge. “They made Mia, that darling actress who is still a dear friend, too troubled and grumpy. There’s not enough jokes in the film. Not enough pleasure, I suppose.” Despite her bleakness, she does have a huge sense of fun. Five years into their nomadic life in New Zealand, Miriam decided to write a book about her experiences. The couple have since relocated to Europe, where they’re spending the year walking to Turkey; part two of their life’s dream of never returning to “civilisation”. So here we are in Bulgaria – three hours west of Sofia, upstream from a river where the couple can bathe, sitting around a campfire in a wood (the photographer met up with them earlier in their journey, in Bavaria). I’ve been invited for dinner and Peter is standing over a cast iron pot containing a bubbling bean stew. There are foraged wrinkly plums to start. It’s an exciting occasion for them: they haven’t seen another human being for 11 days. It’s 5pm. What have they been doing all day? “Nothing much. Waiting for you.” In the first few months of their primitive life, Miriam thought she’d go mad with boredom but she soon fell in sync with nature. Half of any given day is spent collecting firewood. They sleep as long as it’s dark. They’ve never had more energy. Miriam and Peter have ample time to reflect on existential issues such as the meaning of life and death, nature of relationships, fear, loneliness and uncertainty. And, of course, how the biodiversity of the natural world informs human existence. I quite enjoyed reading their reflections and ruminations simply because they resonated with me. Peter is deep and mystical (like David Attenborough?) and has the capacity to express himself. His take on life flows in a lyrical fashion. Each time, Miriam is blown away and rushes to capture his every word.We all think we’re getting somewhere, that we’re making progress, but we’re in fact just struggling to keep our spot on the treadmill. People have become like sheep. Sheeple I started to miss the breeze and, above all, the fire. It felt as if I had lost the company of a good friend. The convenience of the heat pump did not match the sparkling beauty and warmth of a fire Er staat een korte voorwoord in. Daarna gewoon het verhaal van hoe ze eerst begonnen tot ze de trail gingen lopen. Daarnaast staan er een paar foto's in en een kaartje van de trail. En aan het einde een kort stukje epiloog. Floortje Dessing heeft een kort stukje meegelopen van de trail en heeft dit gefilmd. De serie heet Floortje Dessing naar het einde van de wereld.