Boulder Garden

Thursday 21st November

Another 5.45am start saw us out on the trails to join our host Dave on his daily 4 mile hike.  The sky behind us as we headed east was spectacularly streaked with red light and being English we both heeded this as a shepherd's warning, which caused Dave some puzzlement (and probably amusement but he was far too polite/nice to express it!).

After our ridiculously early start we were happy to have a relaxing morning.  Dave had offered to take us to his friend Garth's Boulder Garden later but had some business to take care of first so we spent the morning enjoying the comfort of the cabin, breakfast again spent marveling at the number and variety of birds taking advantage of the bird bath and seed just out side our window.  Yesterday we had seen a couple of chipmunks climb up to the bird bath for a drink, today it was the turn of a plump, well fed rabbit!

The weather, as forecast, had turned cloudy and cool and during the morning it started to rain - the first rain in the area for over 6 weeks.  It was not proper "English" rain but enough to cause a bit of dampness. When Dave knocked on the door to let us know that he and Sacchi were ready to go we arranged that we would cycle over and meet them there - which caused much debate on how long it would take us to get there under pedal power. Martin's estimate was 15 minutes, Dave thought an hour!

We set off sliding and slithering down the steep hill and pretty much coming to a halt as we hit the loose sand at the bottom!  It was an interesting cycle, trying to keep the wheels in an existing tire track, avoid the deep sand, washboard, ruts and rocks and it did take us longer than Martin's estimate.  We turned off at the horse ranch onto another sandy road and started climbing steadily passing some rather strange structures on our right, then the "Magic Garden", then a school bus (which is someone's home) and finally reaching the "Cosmic Castle" - which looks like a pile of rocks but if you look closely you realise that it is actually a "home". (Travel time was 30 minutes......).

We had just paused to debate whether to go on or wait for Dave to arrive when a "window" in the rock opened and a voice greeted us from above. Introducing himself as Jason he kindly offered to show us around.  We explained that we were waiting for someone and continued a little further along the track so as not to disturb him as he was apparently meditating.  We could now see the valley below with Garth's teepee and various other structures and decided to wait here for Dave.

In the mean time Jason arrived, presumably meditation over and gave us each a hug of greeting as he introduced himself properly at ground level. The look on Martin's face was priceless!! He was just about to start us on the tour when Dave arrived so they did a sort of joint tour (Garth was not there) which was really good because Dave knew a lot of the history and background but Jason, having been living there for the last few weeks, knew the most recent developments.

It was a very interesting experience, the permaculture and self sustaining part particularly, but the spiritual, new age theme was a bit overwhelming for us.  I was fascinated by the chickens, an impressive array of varieties in a large structure with an enormous balancing rock as the roof, and the greenhouse was amazing, especially the flowering clematis growing up the outside - in the desert!! and solar powered shower. I'm not sure how much privacy a shower in a greenhouse affords but we were assured that if you wait till midday the water is quite hot!


 There are pools with fish and frogs, a small "swimming" pool carved into the rocks with adjoining sauna and tub in a small hut, vegetables growing in small patches and lots of spiritual areas like the crystal table, tree of life and drum circle. The tour finished at Garth's teepee, surprisingly large and warm inside with a small wood burner and a very large and ancient dog curled up on one of the comfy chairs.

Just as we had decided that it was time to go - Dave had errands to run in town and we were advised to go have a look at some nearby caves whilst we were there - Garth himself arrived back so we got to meet the man himself.  In truth by now I was beginning to feel quite uncomfortable, we declined his kind offer of tea and extricated ourselves (another hug from Jason!) to go and climb up to the rocks and peer into the aforementioned caves.  As we headed back to collect our bikes we could see a rainbow in the sky, a fact which caused great excitement to some other residents who had emerged from.....well, somewhere, I have no idea where.

We cycled back the 3 miles or so of sandy trails marveling at how different people can exist under different circumstances.  People come from far and wide, some like us just to look and wonder, some to live and help with the work of maintaining the place and some to free load and party. Garth apparently welcomes all and only very occasionally asks someone to move on. It felt so far removed from our own rather conventional way of life that it was hard to take in that for some of the people we had met it is a permanent and long standing way of life.

Back in Dave's cabin we enjoyed our creature comforts as we had a late lunch and a lazy afternoon. We went out again later to climb up into the rocks and circle through some amazing boulder strewn valleys.  The light had an amazing quality and it felt like being in the lost world.  We circled back around as darkness began to fall thinking we were heading in the right direction but emerged onto the dirt road about a quarter mile beyond the cabin - so easy to become disorientated when it's impossible to walk in a straight line or see past the next pile of precariously balanced giant rocks.

We had intended to go to Pappy and Harriet's, a "hipster honkytonk barbecue restaurant and music venue" in nearby Pioneertown, a town which began life as a movie set and home to movie actors filming in the desert, but such was the spell that the peace and tranquility of the cabin has woven around us that we neither of us wanted to leave it.  Instead we spent another calming and relaxing evening soaking in the hot tub, listening to music and cooking and eating our meal "at home".