The Compassion Flower Inn Reception for the Australian Eco Trekker was a big hit.... and they're coming back!

The Australian Eco Trekker drew a curious and enthusiastic crowd at the June 26 Reception.

The Compassion Flower Inn parking lot was filled with eco-mobiles representing an impressive range of clean technologies, along with their eco-aficionado owner's on-hand to give the techie-talk lowdown on each one.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel placement of the Eco Trek report the following day was page 2 under Local News. The "Wheels" section of the Sentinel on the same day featured the latest petroleum Jaguar (18 miles to a petroleum gallon).

Seems it was just too hard to make the leap and see these eco-mobiles as serious Wheels, even though the line-up included models such as the Tzero Ferrari-like electric car (0-60 miles per hour in 4.1 secs).

Eco Trekker Shaun Murphy with the help of a large framed map of the States showed us just where they plan to drive through in their 8-month trek across America. Along the way their TV series will feature places and people who are working to live more lightly on the Earth.

Hemp-Biodiesel is the obvious choice for Kentucky road miles - and to highlight the extraordinary versatility of this long-maligned plant, Shaun Murphy (Irish descent) will don a hemp kilt for that particular episode in the series. Kentucky growers know that the age of tobacco is passing and they are demanding the right to grow hemp as their forebears did. Educate yourself on the Carbohydrate Economy; as long as we shift from the inherently flawed mono-culture agri-business, a plant-based fuel and fiber market is a key to restoration and a crucial component of natural capitalism www.carbohydrateeconomy.org www.naturalcapitalism.org

Right now Eco Trekkers has a homepage up on the web at www.ecotrekker.com but before they set off on July 15 (from San Francisco) the website will be fully functional, and complete with the route map. If you see they are going close by some great eco-program you think deserves some airtime, let them know! info (at) ecotrekker.com

The June 26 event was filmed for broadcast by Tom Harvey, director of the television series Eco-Review, and will be aired on Community TV. For scheduled times check www.communitytv.org

Eco Trekker will be back: Santa Cruz is now to be their last port of call in February 2004 (us being so unequivocally eco-friendly) and it threatens to be a grand affair.

For the Earth,
Corrina McFarlane