Their breakaway to establish an alternative lifestyle isn’t new either, nor the long arduous search of it. Yet historically, Ulysses, for example was always trying his best to come home. Unlike him, these new wanderers are off on an escapade toward an unknown lifestyle. 

Enter the tipi

Visitors are free to stay in the valley, sleeping in Big Lodge, a large Tipi erected on a green slope on the edge of the valley.A wild-haired ten-year-old boy called Keisha, offers to guide us to the Big Lodge, which is the site’s guest tipi. He wants to visit this year’s Glastonbury Festival and due to that he has been keeping his fingers with a sticky tape crossed for a month. As he lifted up the canvas ‘ door ’, we dived quickly inside to find fellow guest Tony wrapped in his sleeping bag. The rules of the Big Lodge are quite simple, such as: ‘Take your shoes off before entering a dwelling’, which rings a bell that life isn’t so different from a normal suburban home. As rain begins to fall we finally introduce ourselves to Tony over the dreamy glow of a fiercely and noisily burning fire. He looks tanned, strong, healthy. He is a long-term guest, "who plans to settle down in there with his girlfriend". To thank Keisha, we offered him some of the chocolates, but he took just one. "This is enough", he tells us and then, he disappears.

Tipis are durable dwellings, which offer warmth or cool, depending on the season, and comfort to its inhabitants. Inside every tipi, space is used wisely. Bedding is rolled up during the day. The ground is often covered with woven material. Instead of sofas there are sheepskins to sit on. A marked characteristic of the tipi is that, it has central heating literally. It is designed to host an indoor fire. All in all, you can heat the water and for cooking. Two ‘ smoke flaps ’ at the top of the tipi are adjusted with long poles. The tipi is moved every six months to prevent the ground underneath to grow naturally.  

Outside a few naked people were waking up and were still laying in the grass. But there are limits to the ‘anything goes’ atmosphere. Some people are incredibly friendly, others are more suspicious of outsiders. And, announcing oneself as a journalist is never a good idea. A rather aggressive middle-aged man, seeing our camera, says: "You can’t take pictures without asking for a permission first". Tipi village is not a completely lawless village but, has its own take on what counts as a point of principle like any small society.

Social Security scroungers?

"Over the years there have been hundreds of people come and go, but the population is stable the last twenty-five years. We are currently about 60 adults and 30 children. Over the past 35 years more than 90 babies were born in the Tipi Valley, though some of them were to families that came to the Valley specifically to give birth to their children. We own a valley of about 200 acres, 100 acres of which we own in common. The idea is that we live within Nature as a part of Nature, using what resources we need and without seeking to dominate over the environment". The early years were quite a challenge, "...we were an anarchistic community with a lot to learn. Our community was inundated with refugees, some whose negative dress code and behavior gave the whole Tipi Village a bad name", he adds. "The local farmers had genuine problems with us, trespassing their land to gather firewood".  

The relationship that these communes have with the immediate environment around them could be easily troublesome. If they don’t contribute to the neighbor's welfare and so on, you can see how farmers could be rather suspicious about people like them. But, that has changed at Tipi Valley, and Rik explains: "Nowadays, we have a better relationship with the villagers. We are very grateful to our neighboring farmers John Williams of Blaen Waen and Ron Jenkins of Capel Hir in particular, for  'forgiving us our trespasses' and for the friendship they have shown us in recent years. The local community in Llandeilo, has stopped trying to take us down and actually it cooperates with us. They don’t care what we do or what we are planning to do, they just don’t want us to get any bigger", Rik concludes.
As time went by, Tipi Village become more tolerant to the mainstream lifestyle, and even have adopted some of its commodities. Considering the clash of cultures nowadays: "Certainly, now it is less of a problem because the difference in the lifestyle of the communities is much closer to the mainstream than was the case forty years ago", Rik agrees.

There are certainly mixed reports about Tipi village. They used to hold free rave parties with drugs in full flow. They still celebrate but try to keep it lower key. Occupying the land without an official permission was another source of conflict in the early days and the community had to fight numerous legal battles to remain on spot. There was a time when the Tipi Valley hippies had a fractious relationship with the locals. At last, things are getting better and better at their end. Nowadays, the bureaucrats seem to have far less appetite for interfering with a community that has its origins in the Stonehenge free festivals of the 60s and 70s.

 
Rik clarifies: "Most of our land is quite legally lived on, for the 10 years change of rule relevant whether you apply for a Certificate of Lawful Use or not. The Council has no intention of trying to get rid of us anymore. Today most inhabitants sew their own canvases. I personally have accurate records of where every dwelling has been situated for the past 26 years if there is a need to prove it so".

And so, they survived with no external council-control or internal and hierarchies for more than three decades. There is, however, a single primary rule: to RESPECT EACH OTHER. Rik goes further: "We don’t have a leader. Being a leader is not a status here. We are all part of that leadership, but according to what we contribute. For instance, when we have complaints about something or someone, or a proposal to put it down, what we do is talk to people about it. And that’s how a democratic society  should work I guess". Everyone takes care of his own finances. "We are dependent upon making a living ourselves, and the Valley people have a wide variety of trades and professions", reckons Rik proudly. There are from honey producers to tipi makers, yurt manufacturers and local schoolteachers in the community. Rik sums up, "in the early years we were ourselves refugees from the cities, and it is true that then most of us were dependent upon Social Security payments from dear Mrs Jones of Talley Post Office, in those days situated in Pretoria House, Talley." 

It was then. that they were easily labeled by theri folks as social security scroungers. Those days of “Social Security handouts” are long gone, but they still have the opportunity to establish themselves, and thus remain very thankful.

Nowadays, residents are like anyone else, in paid work most of the time but claiming the standard child benefits and tax credits. "If you are self-employed with your particular trade or craft and are over 25 years old you will may be eligible for Working Tax Credit, an option some households go for, as the income you will generate yourself will most likely be more on a third world level compared to average British wages. Pension Credit is available for persons over 60, until the Government changes everything again", Rik adds. And he continues: "we never regarded ourselves as lazy hippies but pioneers of a new way of life, making as much use of opportunities offered to us as we could. We lived as simply and cheaply as possible, and all the money we saved was donated to our 'Land Fund', which we used to buy land that led to the birth of Tipi Valley". The 'Land Fund' continues to collect money for a hoped-for and important land purchase of neighboring Pistyll Gwyn cottage for the purposes of the community. Rik who found harmony with nature and is still loyal to his hippie ideals finally admits: "it is too late for me to move into a regular house, it wouldn’t feel right after so many years".  

Lola has kept her a 70s’ style, like a remnant of old an era. She wants to go to Greece with her boyfriend, for the summer. They have been together for many decades, but were never faithful to each other. While mainstream couples struggle with monogamy, Lola and her husband have been changing partners consciously. They regard themselves as true ‘travelers’ and camp all around the world, discovering new places.  

But, what are the consequences of being born here instead of the outside world?  

Lottie, a young girl with blue-green eyes and a rather forced smile, says that she has lived there most of her life. "My childhood here was something special. We had a lot of freedom a lot of playground to grow up in. I learned earlier to handle the freedom within the limits you should have as a child". She now works in the Lllandeilo but always come home to to her tipi.

Breeze, on the other hand, confesses how much he misses a real house and warmer weather. Ishi Church, being a tourist by now, was born in a tipi, although chose not to move back after going off to university. "The tipi was a big part of my life and has shaped my current personality".

Hardly anybody spends more than a pound a day for food, and travel if not by caravan is always by thumb. Some of the residents are members of the Green Party and therefore fanatics of the 'small is beautiful' movement. Rik refers to the above: "There are families who live in the tipi village and are gradually becoming self-sufficient. They grow their own vegetables and bring up their own animals. People are already investing in solar panels and things. Particularly, twenty solar panels go for all the residents, whereas others survive only with the basics". "We are consuming less energy than the people living in the houses outside the village. We are not compromising as we have a low footprint anyways. Additionally, we are living somewhere that it is extremely, extremely beautiful", he looks up at us and smiles.

The overnight experience is a testament to Rik’s words: "You have to really want to come here, otherwise you would probably never make it. It's a survival lifestyle indeed", "however, when the sun comes out and you are living in the midst of wild nature, then you believe in Paradise on Earth".

Photography © Stacey Hatfield

Tipi Valley wilderness appeals to those bored or disgusted by man and his works. If offers not only an escape from society but also, is an ideal stage for the Romantic individual to exercise the cult that he makes of his own soul.