26 Mar 04
At seven o'clock in the morning it was already 80F degrees and a hike was on the cards. Wimping out was not a cool thing to do. I was still being greeted by German, British, Swiss and American accents over a conscientious breakfast of muesli - the 'green' in Green Tortoise. Most of the Tortoise's tasty al fresco meals are meat-free, to save money. There were only three vegetarians aboard, but I could spot no genuine hippies and as yet no wicked wacky-backy. I finished my bran flakes, wondering where the so-called second generation of hippies was and why they weren't riding on a hippy bus.
Darren, a neatly groomed Geordie, was as surprised as I was to how the reality did not live up to the beatnik image. "I thought it would all be aging hippies and back to the flower power stuff." Germans, who made up half the group, saw the bus as a hippy haven. "To me it lives up to the hippy thing," said Sabine Froesa. "The G.T. is all about free expression. No one is forced to wear clothes." Or forced not to, I think. "Most bus drivers realise that the sooner you get people naked, the more comfortable they become with each other," smirked Brian, the driver.
The truth is that there was not one hippy on the bus. Nor were there any Grateful Dead songs or flower decoration. Someone mentioned Hunter S. Thompson at one point and there was plenty of tie-dye shirt-wearing. A pair of flares did appear. But not for long. The hippy of the 21st Century is a reserved chameleon.
