On June 25th, devotees from New Yogapitha in Slovenia embarked on Eco-Caravan 2008, their seventeen-day padayatra – literally translated as “festival on foot.” The cross-country pilgrimage, aimed at spreading spiritual and environmental awareness, was their seventh in a row.

The first group leaving Slovenian capital Ljubljana was forty-five strong. Many more devotees joined later however, when ISKCON Minister for deity worship Krishna Ksetra Dasa and exuberant preacher Janananda Goswami hopped on.

Pulling the cart carrying deities of Gaura Nitai was Haridasa, a magnificent Arabian horse. Haridasa was filling in for retired ox Bhima, who was sorely missed this year after being a padayatra mainstay for six consecutive years.

Books and sacred food were enthusiastically distributed, while accordion virtuoso Hare Krisna Dasa from Rome contributed the pilgrimage’s soundtrack. “It’s a formula and experience which we’d like never to end,” says Ljublijana temple president Ananta Dasa.

If you can read Slovenian, why not check out daily reports at the padayatra team’s excellent, but very non-English, website www.harekrisna.net/ekokaravana