The Road to Edge: Backroad Farm Caravan Experience

If this sounds like your kind of adventure, apply here to join. Need your Edge City India ticket too? Get yours here before the next price increase.

And if you know someone who'd love this as much as we think you will, send it their way!

TLDR

• 10 days, 6+ farms, dozens of activities, 1 caravan. An overland trip through South India’s farms and villages, starting in Bangalore and ending in Goa in time for Day 1 of Edge City India.

• Dates: departs Bangalore October 1st, arrives Goa in time for Edge City India’s opening ceremony October 11th.

• Hosted by Chris Morello (@morellomunch & Founder of Le Host Collective) and Ashutosh Dhasmana (@thelostmonk & Founder of the Indian Eco Village Network), in partnership with Edge City.

• The farms include ones the same family has worked for 6–7 generations, plus 200-year-old indigenous farms still active today.

• Surfing, chocolate-making, cacao ceremony, kayaking, and content creation workshops (bring a camera if you want to co-create and level up)

• Offered at near cost. We’re subsidizing local participation, and open to a sponsor who wants to fund more of it.

• Edge City India attendees get 25% off with code ROAD-TO-EDGE-GOA.

Request to join the Road to Edge trip here.

What to expect

Our Road to Edge hosts, Ashu and Morello, will be leading you and a small group by bus through 6 farms and communities across South India: 1,000km, 10 days, starting in Bangalore and ending in Goa right in time for week one of Edge City India. Along the way:

• Visit farms worked by the same families for 6–7 generations

• Walk 200-year-old indigenous farms still in daily use

• Get hands-on with permaculture, natural building, and traditional crafts

• Surf, make chocolate, join a cacao ceremony, kayak, practice chi gong, and drop into village life

• Take part in yoga sessions and indigenous wisdom circles

You’ll get to explore the places and learn from the people who have been figuring out regenerative life for decades, in some cases for generations: eco-villages, indigenous farms, and permaculture projects that have outlasted every trend cycle.

In Ashu's words: "If you want to build communities for the future, you need to learn from communities that have thrived from the past to now."

Make sure to request to join the Road to Edge trip soon. The group is small, so request a seat early.

Tentative 10-Day Plan

Day 1 — Bangalore → Mysore
The caravan begins with an opening circle, introductions, and the drive to Mysore. There’s no agenda beyond getting to know who you’re traveling with.

Day 2 — Mysore
The day includes morning yoga, a look at Mysore’s living relationship with modern yoga, and an evening kirtan.

Day 3 — Mysore → Coorg
This is a coffee estate immersion, covering growing, harvesting, processing, and tasting, along with the real economics behind one cup.

Day 4 — Coorg
We visit a regenerative land collective and hear from the founders about land acquisition and collective ownership models, then spend time at a waterfall and in the forest.

Days 5–7 — Varanashi Farm
This is the heart of the caravan: an organic farm tour, food forests and water systems, sunrise kayaking, soil biology, hands-on paddy farming, a bean-to-bar chocolate workshop, water harvesting, and permaculture design. It closes with a reflection dinner on the farm.

Day 8 — Varanashi → Udupi (Coast)
We spend the day in coastal India, visiting a traditional fishing harbour and learning about coastal livelihoods, mangrove ecosystems, and local coastal food.

Day 9 — Udupi → Gokarna
We explore Gokarna’s old town and temple culture, spend time at the beach, and hold our closing circle. It’s the last night together as a full caravan.

Day 10 — Gokarna → Edge City, Goa
The caravan makes its final drive north to the pop-up village, arriving at Edge City for a group photo and handover.

Similar to how we run programming during our villages, the roadtrip has an element of co-creation embedded in it. The best sessions on trips like this often come from participants themselves. So if you’ve got a workshop, a skill, or an offering that fits the group, bring it.

Itinerary is tentative and subject to change based on access, weather, and season.

Who this is for?

We’re building a small, high-agency group, a deliberate mix of local Indians and international regenerative practitioners who come to build with the people and communities we’re visiting.

• Building eco-villages, regenerative communities, or farms, in India or elsewhere

• A content creator looking for workshops, real filming time, and stories worth telling

• Scouting real regenerative opportunities in India

• A nerd for soil, systems, community design, or how villages run

• Up for adventure off the standard India circuit

• Looking to regenerate yourself as much as the land

If any of that sounds like you, we’d love you on the bus.

Logistics

• Arrive in Bangalore by October 1st. Departure at 10am that morning. A recommended hotel is provided for early arrivals.

• One bus for the whole route, so logistics stay minimal on your end.

• All meals and accommodation included.

• Trip ends in Goa, timed for Edge City India’s opening. Edge City tickets are booked separately. Use code ROAD-TO-EDGE-GOA for 25% off.

More details and apply here.

Pricing and scholarships

Proceeds support local eco-villages and indigenous communities directly.

We structured this experience to be as accessible as possible by offering it at near cost. We’d rather make it available to the right people than price it for margin.

We’re also subsidising scholarships for local participants. The cross-cultural mix is what makes this trip work, and every scholarship keeps the balance right. If you or your organisation wants to fund a scholarship seat, email telamon@edgecity.live.

One way to help is to book a private room upgrade. It directly subsidises a scholarship seat for someone who couldn’t otherwise join.

About the Indian Eco Village Network

Founded by Ashu, the Indian Eco Village Network runs on a simple idea: if you want to build the communities of the future, you have to learn from the ones that have already thrived, past to present. Ashu is a prolific documenter of India’s intentional communities on Instagram and YouTube, and has spent years building relationships with the farms and villages this caravan visits.

About Morello

Morello spent 18 months visiting 40+ intentional communities across multiple continents researching alternative land ownership and regenerative living, and writes and hosts content on solarpunk, land trusts, and community experiments. This caravan is Morello’s continuation of that fieldwork, this time in partnership with Edge City, and in a country Morello considers essential to understanding what resourceful, land-based living actually looks like at scale.

“If you’re into solarpunk and living off the land, Indians are some of the most resourceful people, seeing these long-standing communities in action is a must.”

About Edge City India

Edge City India is a three-week popup village on the beaches of Mandrem, Goa, running October 11 to November 1. It brings together hundreds of founders, builders, researchers, scientists, and creatives to live and work together.

It’s the Indian edition of a global series of popup villages, and the first time the Edge City community lands in India, one of the world’s largest builder ecosystems.

Caravan participants get 25% off Edge City India with code ROAD-TO-EDGE-GOA. Price increases regularly, so earlier is cheaper.

Apply to Join

Road to Edge: Apply to join your pre-Edge adventure here.

Edge City India: If you would rather just join with the rest of the village, apply here.

More on programming, site visits, and other details will come closer to the event. Follow us on X, LinkedIn, Instagram and on Substack for updates.

- The Edge City Team ☀️

Join us at Edge City India

Come live, work, and build with us in Mandrem, Goa, October 11–November 1, 2026. Apply to join Edge City India.

Want to help make the village possible? Reach out to sponsor Edge City India.

Originally published on Edge City India’s Substack.