Today my grandma and I went to White Horse Hill, a historical site near Oxford. Its valleys were shaped by melting ice during the ice age and at the top is where a pre-roman Celtic tribe lived. The views from the hill are some of the most magnificent in Oxfordshire and the energy of the site is something truly special, I can't quite put my finger on it but you could just feel how been a special place for humans across 1000s of years.

My grandma told me how she once rode her horse on a three day journey from Oxford to the hill, staying overnight in hostels and farms on the way.

I imagined how special it would be to arrive at the site after such a journey. I remember that feeling from walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Travelling to a place slowly allows you to build up appreciation for where you are going.

I imagined her showing up at these places asking if they had space. The excitement of not knowing what the next day would bring.

When I first went backpacking in 2017, I arrived in Paris at 10pm with the directions to my hostel written down in my journal. It felt like an adventure.

I don't have any photos of that first night in Paris but I remember it all in such detail. I remember the walk from the bus stop to the metro, I remember the feeling of being truly out on my own in the world for the first time, I remember looking at the metro map in slight confusion and the kindness in the woman's voice who gave me directions. I remember smile of the person who checked me in. I remember the glow of the traffic lights on the slightly misty windows of the kebab shop. I remember the sound of rain falling on the windows as I was falling asleep in the hostel dorm. I remember every feeling.

It's on my bucket list to go on a road trip without phones one day. To use paper maps for navigation again and to figure out accommodation along the way. Whenever I have suggested this to partners of my past they have been very off put by the idea. Not liking the thought of driving without satnav.. or worried about possible inconveniences or emergencies.

Often it's in those inconveniences that memories are made. When my Grandma and I were driving from Swansea to Oxford in 2016, we got lost on the way and wound up at a cosy pub in a small Welsh town, where we ate crisps, enjoyed fizzy drinks and studied the map together to find our way, making a memory we still reminisce about today.

Our phones have trained us to be terrified at the thought of not having them by our side. We could spend our lives worrying about the 'what ifs'. Or being afraid of the world outside our comfort zone and convenience. But actually there are a lot of kind people out there to meet and a lot of really great adventures to be had, very often the best way to encounter them, is through lack of planning and lack of technological convenience.

So for you my dear, I have two questions. First, do you have a core travel memory that was made possible through lack of technology?

and second, are you interested in going on a no-phone road trip with me? Make yourself known please. Otherwise I will be doing it alone, and as I have discovered in the past, I go a little cuckoo if I go too long without some one to yap with :) 

lots of love, 

Elle