Thoughts
of a Cyclist about Freedom
(notes written during my bike tour through Germany, pictures taken at various Trekking and Biking tours)
On the one hand such a bike tour is associated with many different kinds of freedom, yes, it is the epitome of freedom par excellence. On the other hand, one is very limited in such a tour, e.g. by the weather or natural circumstances (a mountain is better to be avoided), but also by many artificial restrictions., e.g. highways or federal streets, shop opening hours or closing times at campsites. The natural restrictions cannot be completely avoided, yes they make the attraction of a tour. Therefore, the freedom-loving Globetrotter will try to keep civilization restrictions as low as possible: First of all, you do not go on a tour without a tent to avoid being tied to hostels. Secondly, one tries to avoid busy roads and densely populated areas as much as possible, which is quite difficult in Germany. Thirdly, they try to be as independent as possible, which means they take sufficient numbers of water bottles and, of course, a cooker.
But now the problems start: What is compulsory for independence, what is useful and what is pure luxury? From tour to tour you tag more things as luxury, but unfortunately the absolute minimum equipment is so far not yet identified.
But while still looking for that, on the other hand, new restrictions of freedom come up, this time your personal limits: I‘m referring to your own civilization dependence and comfort. Why a campground? Because here you can have a shower and you are protected from nature. Also, the problem of catering falls into this category, as soon as it is 17:00, the panic breaks out, where you get something to eat until the shops close. If you really camp wild or ask some peasants if they let you ("half-wild camping"), after two nights you will not dare to be among other people because you think that they cannot smell you anymore, maybe that's true. You’re confining yourself in your attempt to achieve freedom.
Every new tour and every new destination that you find yourself in, leading you to areas further away from civilization (not just in terms of distance but also and especially in terms of spirit), paradoxically brings you closer to absolute FREEDOM, as I understand it. From all these points of view, it is consequential to leave away most things that are too much civilizatory and memories of home, or at least try to limit the number.
It is clear that your relatives who stayed at home are worried when sitting at home and someone else does not give any notice. I thought it would be a good compromise if I called home every two days. The fact that I once missed it and did not get in touch until the third day did not make me feel terrible, but on my call I had to listen that they nearly died of worry. What followed was the voluntary restriction to call every day, a limitation that is associated with long diversions to the telephone booths, long waiting times in the queue in front of the booth, and also with some financial effort, not to mention the restrictions of freedom implied above.
You may be able to avoid these problems by only going on holidays in those areas (vacations in the sense of „freedom holidays“) where there is no possibility of calling home or taking shelter at campsites. In areas where you are even more directly exposed to nature, you are practically face to face with nature without net and double ground.
I’m again thinking of the remote areas of civilization. It may be that, in order to have such experiences, one must renounce another kind of freedom, namely, having no companion, which automatically forces one to make compromises. As a consequence the single person holiday is only total freedom, even though most people find this step too difficult.
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