Wandermust.

When you’re thrilled to see a kaleidoscope of butterflies, you know you’re in trouble.

This wasn’t difficult. I didn’t have to pick a name from Pinterest’s “10 places you must…”. I didn’t have to backpack across one of those exotic lands TripAdiviser advises you. I didn’t have to fork out a year’s reserves and bargain a frugal life for the later months. All I had to do was say yes.

Mapping the calendars of 10 girls, which magically didn’t create the Great Divide, had reserved us this most sought-after, rustic weekend. A tsunami of countless notifications, pictures, links, updates and lists wondrously hushed to silence as our travel began. Hours of unavoidable public transportation that very literally reminded us of the ups and downs of life managed to shake plenty of things. Just not our spirit.

Throughout the journey, velvet green hills adorned with vibrant valleys and delicate waterfalls beautifully hijacked our surroundings. Finally, miles inside unknown trails of lavish foliage, where time echoed inside the solitude of silence – was our humble abode. A quaint cottage as extravagant inside as it was modest outside, greeted us with its off-grid peace.

Unlandscaped. Unmanicured. Unphotoshopped. It was the purest form of nature. The soothing sounds of water streams, mysterious chirps of tiny birds, gentle gush of winds – had shushed the conversations of 10 over-enthusiastic girls. We were at awe. Not because we’d not taken a trip to the great outdoors before but because we had somehow remembered the priceless feeling of being left alone. No signal, no schedules and no selfies. We all spend our time doing the ordinary things; catching butterflies, dipping toes in rocky pools, squatting down to stare at crabs and crickets, dancing in the rains, taking muddy walks and soaking in every bit of this bucolic beauty. We had all forgotten we had cell phones, Instagrams and ADHD in our worlds of obsession, noise and attention. That weekend, we went back to being basic humans.

Of course, along with karaokes, jamming sessions, card and board games, we did flood our cameras, hysterically laughed, heartily drank and merrily danced, but not before truly living each moment first. We’d never done that before.

And somehow towards the end, inside those jungles of no network, we connected with ourselves.