The Daily Mail recently recorded the miseries of a couple who, en route to an important wedding, were sent wildly out of their way by their satnav and arrived without time to change into their gladrags, let alone wash. It was a reasonable story, but amazing to me that anyone should think it was news. Isn’t this par for the course? It reminds me of being been driven by a cousin to visit my son, who lives north of me. The route that was chosen by the driver’s machine led us street after street towards the west, before finally crawling back eastwards.
It could be argued that I am all too eager to denounce anything mechanical or automatic or modern. I’m not denying that satnavs are useful. I’ll admit that when my son and I were scattering an aunt’s ashes in the Highlands and trying to find the glen she had asked for, the satnav let me off a splendid amount of map reading.
But real travellers learn to anticipate the turn of a river, the scattered buildings that introduce the beginning of a village or factory site; to remember how one change of fields and trees marks a landscape that can be crossed more than one way. In towns the church or shop reminds you where you are.
The driver who never looks at anything but the satnav may get where they want to go, but they will miss half the discovery of the journey.
What do you think? Share your thoughts below
