An Adventure Under the Stars

On August 20, 2002, I leave Le Puy-en-Velay with a backpack and a hammock, to walk 250 km to Saint-Jean-du-Gard, following in the footsteps of the travel writer R. L. Stevenson. An adventure narrative under the starry sky, paced by bivouacs, at the edge of a modernity whose aspects, seen from the paths of reality, reveal all their futility. A return to the essential, to authentic sensations: contemplation, freedom, but also fatigue, pain, thirst, doubt. An inner journey, on the trails of our soul, discovering simple and accessible little joys, where the spirit arrives and flows on the path like a river in its bed, light as a wanderer.

This travelogue takes us along the 250 km of the GR70 in France, the Stevenson Trail, which crosses the Massif Central from Velay to the Cevennes. A map of the trail has been added at the beginning of the book, with points of interest and bivouac locations mentioned in the narrative. Throughout his journey, Ludovic Rocca, the author-traveler, makes us experience an adventure in total freedom, walking through grandiose landscapes and establishing his bivouac in sometimes improbable places. Along the way, he encounters the inhabitants of rural France who reflect back to him the condition of his own urban life.

The themes explored include freedom, bushcraft, adventure, escape, the idea of setting off solo without constraints, and leaving an urban way of life. The author provides his contemplative and poetic vision of nature and engages in some philosophical reflections. The practice of bivouacking and bushcraft is developed throughout the narrative, with the use of the hammock in particular, suspended or simply laid on the ground.

This novel is not a hiking guide but rather a literary account of solo walking and escape in nature.