Biketrekking & WarmShowers & Wild Camping adventures: Casa di Bernd

I will post a little about my current surroundings, to give you a taste of my newly found lifestyle in Ispica, Sicily.

Ispica, is a village of approximately 30,000 inhabitants, situated on a hill, 176m above sea-level. It is a sleepy town, with typical south Italian conservative views. Religion and tradition are still very evident parts modern life here. 7 km from a owonderful beach, with soft waves and clean water.

Bernd's place (La casa di Bernard) consists of three seperate non-adjoining gardens at the edge of the village. Here he grows various fruit and vegetables and in one of the gardens he lives comfortably in a series of four furnished caves. He has lived here for over twenty years and in that time has made “outside living” as comfortable as possible. His philosophy is to try to be as self-sufficient, healthy and creative. When not looking after his gardens, he is an artist and car mechanic. He is an artist in the Leonardo diVinci sense of the word ie carving, sculpting, painting, etc. and also designing, engineering, building new ideas. Constantly inventing and improvising, he uses other people's thrown out items to create new art or items to improve the quality of life for him and his guests. An eccentric in even the most open society, he is a remarkable oddity here in southern Sicily. But like all genius, it is not recognised in its time. He lends his time freely to those who care to listen. His skills and expertise are renown in this part of Sicily and many of the church and private sculptures, interior paintings and theatrical sets highlight his talents. Recently, his knowledge and experience of solar panel technology is being sought by the villagers.

I was inspired into learning how to live in a more environmentally, basic and healthy way on my visit here last year. Bernd invited me to “cave-sit” for him during his two month work trip throughout Germany, fixing 2CV Citroens for friends and family. Now, I have successfully completed my induction training here; gardening basics, how to take care of the animals, what to do when water/ energy/ rain is absent or in excess. I am alonee, minding five dogs, four hens and thirteen tortoises...

Some basics of my training and daily routine, will enlighten you to my new lifestyle.

Here is the general layout of the main living spaces
- There are four caves which Bernd has extended in his time here. Three bedrooms, fully equipped with lights, fans (important to reduce the damp atmosphere of caves; who would have known?), stove (allegedly it gets cold here in winter and to keep the caves from becoming too damp), radio/ CD/ mp3 player, bed, tables, artwork on the walls, wardrobes
- Kitchen area is outside under a roof. Gas stove. Fresh water only from approx 8am to 11am.
- Dining area consists of a table with benches under another roof.
- Solar panels are located on a higher platform, overlooking the kitchen/ dining area.
- Outdoor shower, with water heated directly from the sun
- Indoor bathroom, with wood-heated shower
- Compost”outhouse” toilet overlooking Cava di Ispica: every six months can be emptied to use as fertiliser in the gardens
All energy is derived from the sun – using a few solar panels (one automatically motorised), a series of batteries and low usage appliances, this place is almost off the electrical grid (the washing machine is still connected). A word of warning, is that the energy retrieved is only of the 12V variety. This does not compromise the electrical appliances Bernd has here. It just required a rethink.
- He uses car appliances, including a car fridge, car stereos and car fans, which normally function on 12V.
- Electrical work tools, laptop, lights and other devices, he converts to accept 12V.
- USB devices and others can be plugged directly into the laptop or car cigarette lighter sockets, located throughout.
- Directly solar charged appliances, including mosquito UV lamp.
- There is one socket available that uses a transformer to convert the 12V to 240V.
Water is used as conservatively as possible here eg compost toilet, waste water from dishes waters the plants, watering plants by hand only when necessary.


cauliflower


grapes

cactus fruit

paprika/ peppers

crab apple

bamboo


salad ie lettuce

corriander

lemon


tomatoes


aubergine/ egg plant


sage


rosemary

dragon fruit flower

2nd garden


spearmint


breakfast - figs included


something edible


onions

And now onto my animal tending tendancies.

Five schitzu dogs (Benny, Cora, Mya, Hugo and Camilla) with big personalities wander about the garden all day long. These need feeding twice a day and fresh water.
Four egg-laying hens (for the moment, nameless). To be fed daily and fresh water. Produce four eggs a day. Rumours of expanding hen population to eight in November.
Thirteen tortoises (numbered on their shells, seriously!). Born survivors, no need for special attention, some discarded food scraps and fresh water for the little 'uns. Only to be seen early mornings and evenings sunning themselves in their compound - soon to be enlarged.