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In this day and age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the internet, connectivity, mobile phones, social media and everything electronic, it’s important to do a digital detox every now and then. What is a digital detox, you ask? It is when a person refrains from using electronic devices such as smartphones or computers for a period of time. This is regarded as an opportunity to reduce stress or focus on social interaction in the physical world.

I found the perfect place for such a digital detox at Hillston Farm about 53km from Middelburg in the Karoo Heartland. Particularly at their Northmead Country House. Northmead is an escapist’s dream abode. Located 6km down a two-track farm road from the main Hillston homestead, Northmead doesn’t have electricity nor mobile phone reception. The stove, fridge and geyser are run on gas and the light is provided by rechargeable LEDs and candles.

Sometimes, you find yourself in the middle of nowhere,
and sometimes in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself.

Spending a weekend or longer at Northmead means you switch off electronically, switch on your mind and suddenly you start to find yourself. Not just that, but you notice so much more around you right there on the farm.

You hear the squeak and clanking of the windpomp, notice the coming storm, feel the wind pick up slightly and smell the rain before it even arrives…

You go for a walk along the farm road and feel the sun on your face, the wind in your hair, smell the Karoo vegetation and you start to hear your own thoughts…

You get up early on a windless Karoo morning and the first thing you do is head to the farm dam to go and look at the windpomp’s reflection in the water…

You notice how the termites have repaired their hills with fresh mud after being damaged by an aardvark…

You sit on the stoep and notice the insects and birds flying past. A dragonfly hovers over the dam, a pair of Blue Cranes call overhead and a couple of Swallows keep sweeping past. You hear the baby swallows in their nest in the corner of the stoep and see a Cape Ground Squirrel scamper through the veld…

The windpomp starts to have a strange allure. You keep watching it, listening to the blades turning, notice the direction of the wind and suddenly you get the urge to climb it and see what the view from the top looks like…

You hear the bleating of approaching sheep. You notice how they stick around the water and spend their time in any available shade during the warm days, then start wandering off when it gets cooler again… After dark you know they’re still around. A snapping twig, an occasional baaahh…

You notice the beauty in everything. The mountains on the horizon. The colours and shades of green in the veld. A rusty piece of farm equipment abandoned in the veld. You wonder what the ruins on the other side of the farm yard use to be.

Suddenly you realise that there are so much more to life than watching your divice screen all the time checking up on your friends’ Facebook statuses, watching Instagram reels, checking to see if you have a new email every few minutes, deciding what video to put on TikTok, your mobile ringing or a WhatsApp notification every 5 seconds. While we are busy with that little screen in our hands or staring at the laptop, there’s a whole wide world to appreciate out there, and we’re missing all of it.