Vacations are one of the only times my phone gets silenced. My out-of-office goes on, my notifications are muted, and sometimes, if in full digital detox mode, my devices are stashed in a drawer or the glove compartment of my car.
But on a recent holiday, I did a tech pivot. I spent a weekend waving my phone at the sky, using apps to tune into the wilds of Britain’s Scilly Isles. Flung nearly 30 miles off the country’s southwest coast, the small archipelago is sometimes referred to as the ‘UK’s Galapagos’, thanks to its isolated location and unique microclimate. Scilly rides the warm Gulf Stream, and without frost or heavy rainfall, it’s an Eden for flora and fauna not found on the mainland.
“Each island has a small microclimate and quirks in their ecosystems,” says Jilly Halliday, one of Tresco’s resident beekeepers. “Tresco has an evolved microclimate with historic imports of species and accidental stowaways like the adorable stick insects from New Zealand. We can see the effect of human impact on the mainland in comparison to how beautiful and unspoilt our islands are.”
For me, Tresco and in particular, Tresco Abbey Garden, was a perfect playground to scan subtropical plants, identify unfamiliar birdsong, map cloudless constellations—and to settle a debate: Would apps enhance or dull my enjoyment of the natural world?
