If you had 15 seconds to pack your bags and run, what would you be gunning for? My money is on that shiny new smartphone, our BFF we call Visa and probably a selfie-stick. Because seriously, how dare we live life without a selfie?
Since when have we become this self-obsessed, delusional tribe whose biggest challenge is which iPhone filter serves me best? Much to our surprise there is a world outside the perimeters of our social network, a world where the stars are actual light sources and where camel wool replace roof tiles. I had the opportunity to step into one such world for 10 days and live a life unparalleled to any I have ever known.
The Ait Atta Berber clans of Morocco are a nomadic tribe, whose origins allegedly date back to Goliath and who twice annually make an arduous trek between the Dades Valley and the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco with their herds of goats and sheep, camels and households. During the summer months, they trek into the mountains to escape the heat and find grazing pastures for their flock, and during the winter they descend to escape the freezing temperatures of the mountains. It’s probably one of the few examples we have in our digitized world where life runs according to nature’s timing.
Rogue travellers like me can dive head first into this cultural kaleidoscope with reckless abandon, completely unplugged from technology. This expedition alongside hundreds of sheep, goats, camels, chickens and donkeys involves six full days of walking with a nomadic family trekking across the stunning M’goun Massif in the High Atlas mountains, where the sense of wilderness and dramatic landscapes are intoxicating. Evenings are spent playing with the children, baking bread, and enjoying campfires with the family while sipping endless rounds of Moroccan tea otherwise called the Berber whiskey. Nights are spent in open-sided camel hair tents under the stars. In lieu of city noise and planes overhead, the only sounds heard are from chewing camels and blazing firewood. Who needs rehab really?
During our ardous trek we sometimes crossed into small mountain towns like Aït-Benhaddou a traditional Mud Brick city on the edge of the High Atlas Mountains (Remember Lawrence of Arabia) which magically transports you into a 17th century village, a crumbling glory of mud and straw, decorated with a labyrinth like series of sandstone colored Kasbahs, towers and walls. While I spent a day camping there, I took a local cooking class where I learnt to make tagine and bargained hard to buy an ancient Moroccan sword that made me suddenly feel like Gladiator. Oh well!
To actively luxuriate in the passing of time, walking along soaring mountain passes, or over a glass of mint tea, or high up on a rock overlooking hundreds of miles of unpeopled wilderness, brought a deep sense of contentedness. Having spent a week in this nomadic lifestyle, a life divorced from anything with a screen;I can tell you that there is no better way to recalibrate your value system and in particular to remind yourself of the value of time and the futility of hoarding ‘stuff’. Nobody is going to stand at your funeral and discuss your precious art collection or your envious pile of shoes. So... I can’t help but wonder; why are we compelled to make life a catalogue of belongings? Don’t we deserve better?
— The writer is an entrepreneur, LBOF (Little Bit of Fabulous).
