Journeys with Janine

How did I end up in this place?

This place in my life where I am so reliant on an internet connection to share my photos with those you aren't and can’t be with me on my travels, this place where my pockets feel empty without my trusty (or not so-trusty – damn modern technology!) smartphone filling them, this place where it’s impossible to have a disagreement without reverting to the phrase “let’s google it”? How did I end up in this place and how on earth did I find a place where none of that matters?

But that’s where I am… I have found a place where no-one cares if the internet is down and life goes on regardless of any technological failures. I haven’t seen a cell phone tower in the past three days; no electricity lines for that matter either, no concrete structures, no damn smartphones, no laptops, no cities, just sand! For the past three days I have seen about ten people, a couple of lone antelope and stars matched in number only by the grains of sand in this red dune sea that is the Namib Desert.

For the past glorious, oh so glorious, days I have been walking through the desert ocean of Namibia where nothing but earth, earth as it once was, stretches out before my eyes, beside my hands and from where I have come. In this place I don’t know what is happening on Facebook, Twitter or my email and it is bloody marvellous!

As night settles the sky in this “dark sky reserve” has never been brighter as the balls of white light mould together to form a splendid blend of magic that quite clearly gave the Milky Way its name. I settle down to sleep as a thousand barking geckos tell me their stories and the sand shifts beside me as a small insect leaves its imprint on the world. The night whispers to me all the tales of Africa as I sleep surrounded by nothing but wild, untamed air.

In the morning I am woken for my trek home, to the waiting car, not by the incessant beeping of my cellphone but by the gentle Oryx that has come to see who or what I am. I have found a place where I want to stay, where I want to escape but the world beckons me back, there are emails waiting to be answered after all, and for what it’s worth - this place is probably glad to see me go.