Car-Free Outing

Is this our train?

Is this our train? Check the graffiti!

This blog inspired me to go car-free this weekend. Was it fun? Hell yeah!

I like the idea of slowing things down. Travelling by foot, bike or public transport… It seems totally do-able. What I am nervous of though, are the questions that follows of ‘What? You don’t have a car? Why?’ or ‘Shym, you guys must be struggling?’. These things shouldn’t really bother me. But social status convictions seem so brutal and real.

Now the reason I would like to go car-free is more about slowing down and having more fun. We miss so much by travelling in our metal boxes every day. You miss the smells, the scenery, the people (big one) and the feeling of freedom. You don’t need to worry about parking or speeding fines.

I must be honest I was a little apprehensive at first to travel by train. I’ve heard such nasty stories that the last time I travelled by train was probably a good 18 years ago! Wow, that long?

So we just took a short trip from Glencairn on the South Peninsula to St James (which is just around the corner) but a good distance by car.

The journey went like this:

  • Walked to train station
  • Saw a big fat black mole snake (**my heart**)
  • Missed the train
  • Waited about 45 minutes for the next train
  • Bought tickets
  • Looked at the beautiful scenery around us and chatted about life
  • Felt the sun on our faces
  • The sea and other strange smells
  • Saw graffiti
  • Got on the train nervously
  • Saw my kids’ excitement for experiencing a train ride for the very first time
  • Beautiful views of the ocean from the train
  • Big grin on my face
  • Seeing lots of surfers
  • People with beautiful dreadlocks
  • Walking in between old buildings
  • Sitting in the sun eating ice cream

It was a good experience and very good exercise. It was good bonding time with my family. It was fun.

Doing this every day to school might be a real option. ;-)

How many people do you see travel to work every day where there is just one person in the car? Such a waste of money and resources, don’t you think?

My humble opinion is that public transport will get cheaper if more people make use of it. There was nobody in our train compartment. The train might have been more crowded closer to town, I don’t know, but I felt safe.

I dare you to take small steps towards living life more abundantly. Get rid of one of your cars at least. Decide to use public transport once a week. Get a bicycle! Walk.

Does the idea of car-free appeal to you? ;-)

Walking to the station

Walking to Glencairn Station

Damn! We missed the train!

Damn! We missed the train!

Buying Train Tickets

Buying our Train Tickets

View from Glencairn Station

Gorgious view from Glencairn Station!

Waiting at Glencairn Train Station

Waiting at Glencairn Train Station

View from station - Sail Boat

View from station - Sail Boat!

Glencairn Beach

Glencairn Beach

Here comes the train!

Here comes the train!

Beach View From Train

View of Glencairn Beach from Train

Kids appreciating the view

Lady Jane and Master Sunshine enjoying the view!

View from train

What the kids saw from the train! Beautiful view.

View from train

View from train

Fish Hoek Train Station

Fish Hoek Train Station

Fish Hoek Beach

Fish Hoek Beach

Kalk Bay Train Station

Kalk Bay Train Station

Surfers at Kalk Bay

We could see some surfers at Kalk Bay!

St James Station

St James Station

Surfers at St James

Surfers at St James

Train Tracks

Train Tracks

Lady Jane at Danger Beach

Lady Jane at Danger Beach

Danger Beach

Danger Beach

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About The Organic Gypsy

Be the change you want to see in the world!

3 Comments

  1. Mr LemonSqueeze

    Great Post… makes me feel like I was there experiencing it too ;)

    Careful not to slow things up too much or we might miss the train again :)

    Can’t wait for your next blog

    ciao

  2. Bets

    awesome – it looks like real fun and all the views,I would love to share that experience with you next time,as I have done that when I was a child and that was VERY moons ago,
    and we did not had these beautiful views.

    I am so proud of you,to let the kids experience these joys in life,how many kids are there that never had a bus or train ride,they really miss out.

  3. That looks like a lovely train journey…what lovely views! And I like spotting people with nice dredlocks too! I much prefer going car free, I just learned to drive and it makes me really nervous, I try not to fly either so I’ve been able to do lovely long distance bus/train journeys all around Europe (the longest of which was three whole days from Cadiz in Spain to London!), which means I’ve been lucky enough to see whole loads of beautiful countries and meet lots of interesting people!

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