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This weekend I had the pleasure of doing a long weekend in Morocco with my boyfriend. He is driving down from Zurich to Cape Town and back in his Landrover and I flew over to join him for this part of his trip. It was truly spectacular from the picturesque Riads in Marrakesh, through the snow capped Atlas mountains, to the sand dunes of the Sahara and the vast expanse of stony dessert and nothingness on its edge. Being in a Landrover meant we could get to places not many tourists get to visit and we also were able to camp out in the dessert, whilst being totally self-sufficient (his car is even equipped with a travel shower, solar panels and a proper fridge). I am truly fortunate that I was able to have an amazing experience like this and I had the most fantastic time … despite being offline for most of the time.
In this day and age to be somewhere were you truly have no internet connection, no wifi, no roaming, is remarkable. It felt as if time had stopped and there was only the here and now – with all its beauty. Of course I really wanted to share the wonder of my trip but at the same time I had no desire to connect to the outside world – to find out what new craziness was happening in the USA or what new issue was hitting the NHS. It really made the trip that much more magical being so cut off and it is an experience that I would not have valued perhaps quite as highly until I had gone through it. I always joke that I couldn’t live without Facebook but I survived 5 days without it!
The only time I went online was briefly to email my parents. They were naturally worried about their daughter going off road with some chap (they have not met my young beau yet) in a North African country and I wanted to let them know that all was good. I therefore switched on roaming as we stopped in one of the towns and sent them an email. This however is in itself remarkable because, just as I was connecting from the middle of nowhere in Morocco, they were picking up my email in the middle of the ocean somewhere off the coast of Hong Kong (they are on a cruise). It was comforting to know that I could let them know all was good – and I am sure it was comforting for them to hear that all was good my end too. Even in the remoteness technology enables us to connect with those that mean the most to us.
Of course I do have to admit that the first thing I did once I had been dropped off at the airport was connect to the Wifi and check the Beeb and Facebook (and send my parents another email this time with some photos). I discovered that actually the world had not ended while I was away and that I really had not missed much on Facebook. Oh what a surprise! What had happened though was that Whatsapp had changed – when I went to post a status update (something mooshy along the lines of being in love … ahhhh) I discovered that I could no longer do this the normal way but now there was a status tab but it only allows for photo updates not text. Change is not always good in my opinion!
Now that I am back home of course I am also incredibly grateful for technology. I will not be seeing my boyfriend for another month or so, when I will go join him in Namibia for a few weeks. Naturally I miss him like crazy but we can stay connected through Whatsapp and “old fashioned” text messages. He is also using a very cool tech device that posts his co-ordinates so I can also always see where he is and I am also comforted in knowing that the same device has an SOS function which will ensure help is sent to him wherever he is if he needs it. So whilst he is literally miles and miles away technology will ensure that we can stay close and connected and that is truly magical.
