The Atchley family has been living for 18 years as hermits away from civilization

For many of us, the dream of a quiet self-sufficient life away from noisy cities and people will forever remain a dream. However, for the Atchleys family just the life we are used to in gray megacities has become a distant memory — for 18 years they have been living as hermits in Alaska.

David, Romy and their 13-year-old son Sky Atchley are the only people living along the entire length of the Novitna River, which is 402 kilometers long.

A hippie family addicted to weed has run away from society to create their own life and a world where only the three of them are important.

(16 photos in total)

Source: The Sun

The nearest town, Fairbanks, is 322 kilometers from the family, and it can only be reached by snowmobile. So any trip to the grocery store for Atchley is a dangerous journey.

In their world, you don't have to worry about someone sitting them out, you don't have to run out of strength to get promoted, and you don't have to frantically check your Facebook feed for fear of missing something new.

The family doesn't have much to worry about. In addition to hungry bears, wolves, forest fires, thin ice, disease and incredibly low temperatures.

Every detail of the family's life was documented by British photojournalist Ed Gold, who lived with the hermits for three weeks.

The Atchleys stopped keeping track of such an annoying thing as time, focusing on their own, based on the northern lights.

There is no hot water in the house, it needs to be boiled, and snow performs the function of the refrigerator.

The 13-year-old son of the Skye couple, according to his father, is a kind of social experiment. He learns everything he needs about life from his parents, whom he will take care of when they grow old.

In the meantime, the family is resting, smoking their own grown and legal stocks of weed.

Of course, they don't have the Internet, and in their free time the Atchleys play the Dungeons and Dragons board game ("Dungeon and Dragons"). However, Sky still has a console, and he plays video games, such as GTA.

The nearest hospital is a few hours away. The family often faces fallen trees, the danger of falling through the ice and wild animals.

On the first night of moving many years ago, David and Romy were visited by a bear, smelling food supplies.

Another time, Romy had to shoot a bear, again intending to smash their makeshift refrigerator with all the food supplies.

The family has not used the Internet since 1999, after David and Romy moved into their hermit hut, having previously learned the necessary survival skills.

Previously, 52-year-old David worked in the city, and 44-year-old Romi was a waitress.

Now David sometimes earns extra money in the gold mines 160 kilometers from home or sells handmade shirts and fur coats.

The only contact with civilization occurs once a year when Romy and Skye leave to visit their family in Alabama for a month.

David said that people often ask how 18 years of isolation affect the family. By his admission, it definitely changes a person. "You have time to think about something carefully. We can spend several months discussing the same problem. Because we can afford to waste time."

"Do we miss people? No, we have too much to do."