Nomad. Basically means either a pastoral nomad, moving his herd every day in search of food, or a hunter gatherer nomad moving with the wildlife. Bruce Chatwin was forever fascinated by nomadic life and once spent years and years writing a book about his own thesis on ‘the nomadic alternative’. This brick of a book was according to his publisher almost unreadable and Chatwin ended up instead traveling Patagonia and writing ‘In Patagonia’. The rest is history.
I have spent the past 4 months attempting to realise my own Nomadic Alternative. On Monday the 23rd of November dreams become reality as I board my plane to freely travel the world, photograph, experience, write and live! New life. The road is the home. Nomadic Alternative.
I now own basically what I can carry. Well, carry with some help as there is an awful lot of camera gear, laptop, books and clothes. Still, my life and possessions is reduced to a mobile state and I have no home but the world, the road. Nomadic alternative. These are truly exciting times! Complete freedom and total liberation! I do know how lucky people consider me to be and I will live up to it. But I have basically created this situation myself and I believe everyone can do this or parts of this. Most of what tie us down are in our minds!
While I do call it my Nomadic Alternative, like Bruce Chatwin would say, that is a truth and a half. Chatwin liked to say he was travelling with just a notebook and a backpack. In reality he carried a whole home with him, including a ton of books. In reality I will be jumping from base to base as a place to sleep is always quite nice! My first base will be with friends in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. A dear friend from Copenhagen will also join me in Chiang Mai and together we will explore Asia for the next 4 months. Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo, perhaps Burma, Laos and a little gday to Australia as well could be on the menu. No plans, except to live! photograph, experience, travel and be free, free!
“Not all those who wander are lost.” – Tolkien
"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun." -Chris McCandless
The road is home
Let us conclude with the road, in this case a lovely red dirt road from Karijini, Australia. Red and blue dawn at it’s finest. Into the Wild.
Karijini Red and Blue Dawn
© Flemming Bo Jensen Photography
If you know some great photography locations in Thailand – and Asia – I would love to hear about them! See you on the road.
16 Comments on “Nomad. Photographer. Traveler. Wanderer. Dreams become reality.”
Look forward to seeing your travels Flem … I know you just updated your blog look, but the type face is a little small and harder to read …
Thanks Neal ! I am using the basic Cutline theme for now and tweaking it a bit, just switched to a slightly larger fontsize which should be more readable.
good to see it's all starting to happen for real now Flembot. 🙂
definitely doesn't sound like it'd be for everyone- but for you it's obviously the right way to live! even thinking about being in the same position is mind boggling for me! lol.
as i've said before i'm looking forward to following your adventures- and definitely looking forward to catching up with you when you're in oz!
all the best, and take care!
Thank you very much Stephen, see ya in the Stirlings some day!
You are entering into something I have thought about doing. I will keep you on my feeder and follow you through your words and images. Have fun, enjoy.
Thanks very much and thanks for reading my blog.
Bon Voyage Flemming!
Looking forward to the stories and photos
Happy journey Flemming,maybe we will bump into each other out there somewhere.I am doing the same,spending the next 4 months exploring India after that who knows.You only live once so let the beauty you love be what you do.Have a great journey.
Godspeed.
Hey Bo…good luck mate and I am sure that you will have some adventures that we will all be envious of.
I hope to be able to join you sometime if the planets align.
Looking fwd to following your adventures.
Cheers,
Mark
Thanks very much Mark – I will try hard to make those planets align, we gotta meet up sometime in the future 🙂
See you!
Happy travels Bo, I've just returned from three months of travel and I could have kept going, you will do fine and I'm looking forward to your photos and writings. If you are on the east coast of Oz, drop in for a visit in Newcastle.
Sounds like you'll be having an amazing time traveling around with your home on your back. Would love to do it myself one day.
Good luck, and looking forward to seeing the images!
Oh, and the photo is stunning!
Happy travels…looking forward to following your journeys.
Excellent Flemming – it's the only way to travel in my eyes (and budget!). You never really know who you may meet and where you'll end up sleeping – that's what makes it interesting. Best of luck
You are a very brave man, going from thought to action. A true inspiration. Live the dream!
Toni