The grass is freshly cut, what I am crossing is not an abandoned place, this is clear to me: with the garage door open, some tools still out, as someone was there working on a wood bench or repairing the car just a few minutes before I walked by on foot, even the cat is waiting for someone in front of the house door.
Places are not empty, but nobody is around.
An empty environment, a clean scenario that I am slowly crossing on foot, but surreal, as someone has seen me coming from a distance, alert the others and decide to hide, as all of a sudden people decides to disappear, leaving behind obvious traces of life - just to go back once you crossed their house or you reach the next valley.
As in a dystopian novel where mankind is gone and you are walking alone in a disparate attempt to find someone else, but you hardly will be able to meet people for over 80 kms sometimes, if you don’t pay attention to the details, as the children toys are still scattered around and the inflatable pool was used recently.
The front door is mostly likely to be unlocked, as is the car or the bicycle, as nobody is expecting people to cross or to steal, there is a suspended tone in the air and walking on foot gives me time to look at details that by car will be just too fast to fit in this fictional narrative.
Even the Nepalese stone cutters, hired to renew the stone steps going up on the mountains, vanished in thin air as this was more a fable than a reality in the Norwegian landscape.
Crossing land in solitude allows you time to create infinite narratives where people have been photoshopped out of the picture, but they were actually there, you might see them if you let your imagination run.
When was the last time that they were there? When did they repaint their house last time? Because to me they are not gone, but I can not see anyone outside as nobody is ever at the window.
In this absurd game of references and futuristic scenarios, the solar powered robotic lawn mower will keep on making sure that the grass in front of your house will be forever perfect even after life.
Places are not empty, but nobody is around.
An empty environment, a clean scenario that I am slowly crossing on foot, but surreal, as someone has seen me coming from a distance, alert the others and decide to hide, as all of a sudden people decides to disappear, leaving behind obvious traces of life - just to go back once you crossed their house or you reach the next valley.
As in a dystopian novel where mankind is gone and you are walking alone in a disparate attempt to find someone else, but you hardly will be able to meet people for over 80 kms sometimes, if you don’t pay attention to the details, as the children toys are still scattered around and the inflatable pool was used recently.
The front door is mostly likely to be unlocked, as is the car or the bicycle, as nobody is expecting people to cross or to steal, there is a suspended tone in the air and walking on foot gives me time to look at details that by car will be just too fast to fit in this fictional narrative.
Even the Nepalese stone cutters, hired to renew the stone steps going up on the mountains, vanished in thin air as this was more a fable than a reality in the Norwegian landscape.
Crossing land in solitude allows you time to create infinite narratives where people have been photoshopped out of the picture, but they were actually there, you might see them if you let your imagination run.
When was the last time that they were there? When did they repaint their house last time? Because to me they are not gone, but I can not see anyone outside as nobody is ever at the window.
In this absurd game of references and futuristic scenarios, the solar powered robotic lawn mower will keep on making sure that the grass in front of your house will be forever perfect even after life.
This reportage is part of the "Of Walking on Foot" travelling experience, my solitary wild camping 1000 km on foot project in Norway (2024)
