Unplug, Enjoy The Journey & The Experience Of Travelling

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What do you remember most from your travels? Wandering amongst the warm, humid forests and moss covered stones of a once great Mayan kingdom?  Standing in awe as dawn discovers the deserted remains of a Buddhist complex partially hidden by natures disregard?  Racing across America’s south west on empty highways, traversing an ancient and rugged landscape erupting in geological wonder as the sun fades a bright red below the horizon? Or do you remember how you felt?

Is it the destinations and staggering visions we’re exposed to on our travels that remain vivid memories once we return home, or is it the experiences, the feelings, the inspiration and the knowledge acquired that is retained and recalled most frequently? How important is the destination to our travels at all? In certain situations it’s crucial for the experience, where that’s based on a sense of place, but often the experience of a personal journey that transpires from being on the road is generally what remains once our visions of the world have faded.  The idea of chasing a list of ‘must see’ places and ‘must do’ activities is based purely on a desire to tick boxes, brag to friends and connect with a world we’ve been told exists.

Companies are always telling us about top destinations for the new year, writing top ten lists for everything you can think of.  Rather than chasing pins in a map we should be chasing journeys, emotions, experiences and enlightenment; but how do you start a journey when you don’t have a destination?  Embark on an adventure from your front door, disappear down roads you’ve never been along, walk through woods you’ve never been in and enjoy the discovery.  Allow yourself time to explore a region without devising a route or a plan.

Pre-Internet holidays were straight forward

When I was younger my camping holidays around the UK would involve a vague destination – an area, a region – we would drive around exploring until the time came to think about pitching a tent for the night.  Sometimes we’d look at five different campsites before arriving at a mutual decision to stay or be forced to surrender to fading light.  We would never book ahead, never look at a guide and it’s that excitement and loose nature of the trips that I remember most.  There was no thought given to what we might be missing, who might be nearby or what other people had said about places we stayed.  I’m a technophile like many people.  I love my iPhone, spend a lot of time on the internet but I do somehow miss those days when we didn’t have the amount of information we have at our fingertips today.

The more you learn about technology the more you realise it can help you, and the more you feel obligated to use it where you can for fear of missing out on something.  The secret to successful adoption is to moderate your use and not rely on it.  My Twitter account is populated everyday with nauseating cries of self appreciation and calls for attention, it’s a fine example of technology becoming an embarrassing obsession for some.

Information overload & social networks might be damaging our motivations to travel

The proliferation of guidebooks in recent times may be somewhat responsible for our quest to achieve and ‘bag’ destinations, disrupting our natural curiosity and inner engagement with travel.  Bookshelves lined with guides to almost every country under the sun; vast amounts of user generated web content detailing the top things to do, see, eat and experience; powerful social networks held together by the ever expanding reach of the Internet are all partially to blame for our inability to explore and connect with the experience of wandering.  If we never disconnect from the familiar world that surrounds us we’ll never test our inner strength and come to understand the true worth of travel.

The Australian Aborigines understood the spiritual significance and emotional importance of ‘going walkabout’ – it’s what they did when they became muddled or lost – and although huge numbers of school leavers, university graduates, workers and retirees now take gap years to travel the world and ‘go walkabout’, how many unplug themselves enough from the familiar in order to fully connect with the personal development opportunities available? There is no question that advancements in technology and the Internet have shrunk the world making it easier to stay in touch, but at what cost? Of course we are all able to control our use of the Internet but how many of us do? With Internet cafes never far away and an increasing number of travellers carrying laptops, tapping into to WiFi hot-spots it’s far too easy for us to take a domestic obsession on the road with us.

Should we be concerned that as we work to develop ideas and innovate that we will further lose sight of some of the true values and reasons for travel – to feed the soul, educate, engage and inspire.