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Travel Story

The Faerie Path

Or ‘How To Travel The World With $100 Or Less’

While it’s not unusual for an 18 year old to leave home and travel the world on his own for two or three years, it’s not every young traveller who hits the road sponsored by a kilt company, with $100 bucks in his pocket and a didgeridoo slung over his shoulder.

But then Adam McIntosh has always done things a little differently.

He became famous in Scotland at the age of 15 for building and living in a treehouse perched 30 feet over his father’s organic farm. He got the idea while attending various anti-logging protests and tree sits with his father and looking at the platforms the protesters had built using ropes and lumber.

(His father, Alistar McIntosh is a bit of a celebrity himself, and his book Soil and Soul: People versus Corporate Power is getting rave reviews in the U.K.)

Local newspapers and television crews, drawn in by McIntosh’s energy and charisma, featured stories on the young eco-warrior, and before long he was something of a national celebrity.

As the years went by, he added amenities like a gas stove, wood stove, solar water heater, and electricity, and with every addition came a new story. There was also the odd publicity stunt – such as setting his own crotch on fire during a fringe festival to raise money.

By the time he finished high school and was ready to travel, McIntosh had been featured on Good Morning America, and his treehouse, which he named Sycamore Mansion, became a kind of bed and breakfast that attracted, among others, Jamiroquai guitarist Simon Kratz and supermodels Roxanne Dodd and Denise Van Outen.

Before he left Scotland, he made the papers one more time by lowering his treehouse to the ground last February, stripping it of all its refinements, and setting it on fire. "Sending it to Valhalla," was how McIntosh put it.

Through the connections he had made with the media, and using his fame as leverage, McIntosh approached sponsors for gear and cash for his current trip, which he is videotaping for the BBC.

A newspaper bought his plane ticket in exchange for the story of the treehouse burning. 21 st Century Kilts, Scotland’s leading kilt company, gave McIntosh a few teflon-coated kilts to wear on the journey. Tiso’s, an outdoor specialist, gave him some waterproof rain gear, including a tent that met its end in Whistler. Brit’s Abroad, a company that exports specialties from the U.K. around the world, sends McIntosh 800 bars of Irn Bru shortbread whenever he needs help, which he then eats or exchanges for what he needs.

He has also picked up a few sponsors along the way, which in a way was the whole point of the trip.

"I call my trip the Faerie Path, because I wanted to show people that there are real-life faeries out there who will help you through a tough time," says McIntosh, speaking with a thick Scottish accent. "If you are good to people I think they’ll be nice to you. You get out of this world what you put into it."

Putting his theory to the test, Adam arrived at Halifax International Airport with less than $100 in his pocket, and no idea where to go – just the vague idea that he wanted to live with First Nations people.

"It was minus 35 degrees, 11 o’clock at night, and I had absolutely nowhere to stay," remembers McIntosh. "And I get off the plane wearing a kilt. It’s warm, but the cold in Scotland and the cold in Canada are completely different things. I was starting to get a little scare, wondering what I was doing."

He checked into the local hostel, sick and distraught. Then, in true faerie style, a local man bought him dinner. The man also contacted the Halifax Chronicle Herald, and on Feb. 26 Adam received his first publicity in Canada – "Young Scot following ‘fairy path’ round world."

After reading that article, an elderly couple took Adam in for two weeks, "fussing over me and feeding me brownies." A local grocery store also sent him some fruit and Irn-Bru, and a local company made Adam some lucky traveller coins – featuring a picture of Adam – to trade and barter on the road.

Halifax is something of a busker’s heaven, and by playing his guitar, didgeridoo and tin whistle around Halifax, he managed to put enough money away to move on. A local school also paid him to hang out at an indoor playground and answer questions about Scotland.

"My advice to any traveller would be to learn a musical instrument that you can take with you," he says. "A musical instrument gets you into that circle of people that are more likely to offer you a place to live. The kilt’s not a bad attention-getter either."

Feeling considerably more at ease with the whole Faerie Path concept, Adam hitchhiked north to a Mi’qmak reserve where he participated in peace pipe and sweat lodge ceremonies. He was even given a name which translates as Adam Two-Skies, one for the sky over him as he travelled, and one for the sky back in Scotland.

The next stop on the Faerie Path was New York City, where Adam hoped to raise enough money busking to cover the next leg of his trip. In typical McIntosh fashion, he met the owner of Poley Mountain in New Brunswick while hitchhiking to New York, and spent a week snowboarding as his guest before the man drove him to Boston.

He backtracked a little to visit New Hampshire and Vermont, enjoying some free Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, before heading to New York where he busked in the subways to raise money, and did some modelling for designer Tommy Hilfiger – unpaid, however, because he didn’t have a work visa.

"I didn’t care. I just did it for fun and the experience," says McIntosh. "How many people get the chance to model?"

He stayed in New York for three weeks, staying with faeries he met and raising $500 for his travels. One of those faeries he stayed with was a well-to-do landlord by the name of Joe Evers, who ended up buying Adam a new professional video camera after his old camera gave up.

"That was incredible, he didn’t have to do that," says Adam. "The generosity out there is unbelievable."

After three and a half days on the bus, McIntosh arrived in Portland, Oregon, where he planned to stay with a film producer he met in Whistler when he travelled here to ski at the age of 16 – the same guy who gave him his first video camera when he went to Scotland to visit Adam’s treehouse. He stayed with his friend and a faerie who was undergoing cancer treatments by the name of Candy Jones.

"She had a government prescription for pot, so she was pretty ill at the time, but I’m hoping she’ll get well."

After Portland, McIntosh came to Whistler, which served as his base for travels to Vancouver Island and the Interior.

He took part in the Duncan folk festival, hung out in Nelson, stayed with the Mount Currie Indian Band, and camped in the Whistler Interpretive Forest until a bear sniffed out his toothpaste and destroyed his tent.

He met various Whistler residents, who fed him and gave him a place to stay until he could move on to Australia, where his girlfriend was waiting with a 4x4 and a teepee.

The death of a great aunt and a small inheritance paid for the ticket to Perth, Australia, where he arrived last week with just a few hundred dollars to his name… The Faerie Path continues.

He admits that the Faerie Path is not for everybody. "Some of the people who pick you up are a little scary, and I’ve had some real luck as well," says McIntosh. "Not everyone could be as lucky."

Not everybody is sponsored either, or has the same flair for telling stories. Few people are as media savvy.

"I know if I get into real trouble, I can always contact the newspapers back home and they’ll pay me to write a story for them," he says.

He has already taped more than 40 hours of footage for the BBC, and although the people there are asking him for the footage, he says he will probably wait until he goes home to package The Faerie Path.

In the meantime, Adam is looking for ideas where to go next, and for faeries to help him along. You can write him at his Web site at www.adammcintosh.com . While you’re there, check out the press clippings and newsletter if you need some ideas of your own.