Before I left for this hike, I thought I was pretty much done with my book. Then I hiked for two months, read other books, re-read my book and made some minor changes on my book reader. By the end of the hike, I thought I was kind of done with my book. Then I came back to the Med and decided to learn how to write a book :D I read books and blogs about writing books and it turns out that I was doing it all wrong! No, I’m just kidding hehe. I think I did a fairly decent job (considering that I’ve never taken a creative writing class in my life) but now I want to improve it a bit more (and I have a much better idea of how to do that). But it will take some time. No idea how much time, but time it will take...
I’ll try not to lose my mind this time. I promise.
(I think almost every writer goes through this, so don’t worry. I’ll finish it eventually, I promise :) Until then, I’ll be mostly hiding out :D)

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Here is one of my favorite camping spots on the GR11- little Ibon d’Anayet, with Pic du Midi d’Ossau (in France) poking out in the background.

I've mapped out my route across the Pyrenees Mountains and I've also taken note of all of the free mountain huts that are on my way. I found a very cool website that lists all of the refuges (mountain huts) in the Pyrenees- pyrenees-refuges.com/

It has pictures and descriptions of every hut, and also includes comments from people that have recently visited these huts. Unfortunately the website is only in French but the information is pretty straight forward so it's easy to understand with a simple translator.

Some of the free huts are in pretty poor condition, some are newly renovated and look very cool, like this one:

It's amazing to see so many free open shelters- a place that people can just walk into and sleep in with no trades involved. Imagine if people didn't have to slave every day in their bullshit jobs- how much time they could have to improve these types of mountain huts, or even to just visit them and report on their condition.

I think that if people weren't forced to have "jobs" they would contribute to many great and important projects (and they would contribute less towards creating waste, mindless consumption and climate change). This documentary shows a few great projects that people are already contributing to today:
videoneat.com/documentaries/22…
I recommend watching it ;)

This week @Tio and I are moving out of our apartment because we can't afford to pay rent anymore :D sadly. Ironically, this apartment (along with thousands of others in this town) will stay empty for at least 9 or 10 months of the year after we move out. Most apartments in this town are fully equipped but completely empty, as you can see in Aaron's video here: videos.trom.tf/videos/watch/91…

So Tio will go back to his parent's house for now and I will go off into the wilderness :D I'm planning to walk across Spain via the GR11 trail through the Pyrenees Mountains. If I make it all the way to the Atlantic Ocean then maybe I'll walk back via France, maybe not, we'll see how I feel and if I make it. And if all my gear survives :)
I borrowed a tent from a friend and I have most of the gear that I need from that time that I worked as a hiking guide in Siberia, so I didn't need to buy much for this trip (although I bought a cheap solar panel charger, a water filter, and some hiking boots).

When I come back I plan to finish up and publish my book- finally! :D haha. Then we'll figure out some way to make some money and move back out of Tio's parent's house :)

These past few weeks I’ve been preparing for my interview for TROM 2 Documentary. The first part of the interview was about my life- childhood, how I started traveling around the world, university, etc. The second part of the interview was about the state of the natural world- biodiversity loss, ecosystem destruction, climate change, pollution, etc. To get a good overview of what’s happening globally, I read a bunch of reports from the UN, WWF, and a few other organizations, and went through a lot of articles, documentaries, etc.
And of course, we also talked about trade and how trade is at the core of the human society that we’ve developed- and how that’s creating a lot of problems.

Then finally- we recorded 3 days in a row and now we are finally finished with all of the filming for TROM 2! (My interview was the last one). Now Tio has a lot of work on his hands, I hope it’s not too overwhelming. But since Tio managed to make the first TROM Documentary all by himself, I am confident that he’ll be able to make something amazing out of TROM 2 :)

See our updates/progress at tromsite.com/live/

Big thank you to Uwe and Benjamin for continuing to support me on Patreon!
patreon.com/bigworldsmallsasha
Even a little bit each month helps a lot and is very encouraging :)

An update on my book- I’m just about finished with a second draft of the entire book and I also have a (almost) final draft of the first 15 chapters done. The entire book is now about 150,000 words divided into 26 chapters. I don’t think I can make it any shorter than that, so it is what it is… about the same length as Gandhi's autobiography :D

I struggled with this book a lot this year but I finally feel like I’m almost there!

Unfortunately, Tio and I will probably have to move out of our apartment in less than two months, so now I’ll focus on TROM 2 Documentary (bc we’re filming it in this apartment), then I’ll do my best to try to finish a third draft of the entire book before we lose this place. Then, once we move out of the apartment, I’d like to go into the Pyrenees Mountains for a few weeks or months and hike from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean (and maybe back, we’ll see) :D

I want to do this hike alone so that I can have a really long and hard think about everything that I’ve written in my book and everything that I’ve gone through over the years. For me, hiking and being out in nature has always been the best way to reflect and think through anything that may be important. It’s also a good way to step out of the norm, experience something different, and clear your mind. Actually, I think alone-time is extremely underappreciated in our society :)

I have most of the gear that I need so this trip won’t cost much money. I’ll camp or stay in free mountain huts every night so the only thing I’ll need to pay for is food (maybe about €3 per day). The trail itself starts pretty close to where I am now, so it’s not hard to get to.

I’d like to start hiking around June and come back around September (if covid restrictions don’t get in the way). Then, once I come back to the Mediterranean, I’ll be able to have one last look over my book with a fresh mind and make any last changes before I finally publish it. So hopefully the book will be out this fall (let’s see :D).

More detail about the trip later ;)