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The San people is the broad term for the name of many clans that make up the Bushmen. I will refer to the people I met with the term Bushmen because that is how they asked me to refer to them.
The persistence method is possibly one of the oldest forms of hunting, practiced long before the invention of bows and arrows, and the domestication of dogs. It is also known as the great dance, and together with the art of tracking, it has evolved into more sophisticated levels that are still practised today, by modern hunter-gatherers, in some parts of the world.
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The San people is the broad term for the name of many clans that make up the Bushmen. I will refer to the people I met with the term Bushmen because that is how they asked me to refer to them.
The persistence method is possibly one of the oldest forms of hunting, practiced long before the invention of bows and arrows, and the domestication of dogs. It is also known as the great dance, and together with the art of tracking, it has evolved into more sophisticated levels that are still practised today, by modern hunter-gatherers, in some parts of the world.
Online Courses:
Become a Story Hunter - Sign up for the Story Hunter Online Course.
Uncover the track of your life through the Track Your Life Online Guided Retreat.
Discover Boyd's books:
https://boydvarty.com/book/
Come to Africa. Visit Londolozi
Join Boyd’s community:
Follow the journey - Subscribe to the Track your Life Podcast and never miss an episode.
Visit Boyd's website for more.
Online Courses:
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Discover Boyd's books:
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Alex, James and I are going back to the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. On one level, these trips have a practical component - we are assessing and fostering tracking skills. But there is a symbolic level too - something happens deep in my psyche in the face of the wild. Certainly, last year's trip changed me fundamentally and prepared me for the love that was going to come into my life. We are intrigued to hear what has transpired since our last trip, what stories have been told around the campfires by the Bushman people.
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Tracking the Kalahari lion is an intense experience of extreme endurance, grit and absolute commitment.
Few environments cultivate extreme mindfulness like the desert. There is no margin for error here and I consider my own fragility.
If you don’t yet know what that track is in your own life, you must discover it. In this final episode, I share some thoughts from what I have learnt, to help you on your path of discovery.
1:55: Kalahari tracking
3:45: Fragility in the wild
6:05: A lesson in commitment
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There is a beautiful feeling to driving into the middle of nowhere, and frankly anywhere west of Hukunsi is the middle of nowhere. The land is vast and empty. White desert sand, tall camel thorn trees, rolling plains of dry grass, that just goes on and on and on. The temperature gauge on the vehicle gives a casual outside reading of 46 degrees at three in the afternoon.
We bump along dirt roads into a wildlife concession roughly the size of Switzerland that not a single tourist visits. This land is not even game reserve, it's simply the Botswanan wild lands.
Learn more about the work of Kalahari Research and Conservation Botswana.
3.57: Bushmen culture and lifestyle
5.33: The persistence hunt
11.12 - A remembering
13.51 Coming out of the portal
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In this episode we embark on what feels like a masterclass in desert tracking.
The first light of dawn hadn't yet cracked the horizon when I found myself breathless, feet sinking into the sands of the Kalahari, trying to match the pace of Kecao, Hamku, and Tamai, on the tracks of a cheetah.
In this story, experience the rush of the intense pursuit, unmatched tracking skills and exhilarating enthusiasm. The vast landscape challenges every ounce of our stamina while we learn the language of the land.
We sit in ceremony around the campfire - and learn about the cultural skills and knowledge that are still preserved.
1.22 On the tracks of a cheetah
7.44 Music, dancing and games
09:27 A prophetic story about a plane crash in the Kalahari
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We have begun our journey South. In Ghanzi we are warmly greeted by Anneli, who is a descendant of the Dorsland Trekkers, and can be described as the salt of the earth. She shares her knowledge with all the complexities and nuances that only a local can offer and offers a small window of insight into the complex interactions between traditional and modern ways of life in the Kalahari. I'm quickly learning that in this profoundly complicated world,, we often miss the multiple layers and complexity inside of every issue.
Our first interactions with the Bushmen people are authentic - real and warm. I feel their energy and, as a tracker, I'm touched by the quality of wilderness literacy I'm seeing. They are deeply mindful about every way they interact with nature. It feels like we are in a time machine.
(00:47- The Dorsland Trackers
(02.13 - Anneline from Ghanzi
(06:12 - Meeting and gathering with the Bushmen
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Is there something you know that lights you on fire, that somehow you keep falling asleep to?
I am reminded that the wild has my heart. I reflect on how my work is, in some ways, to inhabit and remember wildness, in an ever more domestic world. I must not forget this secret art of my life - to be in tune with wilderness.
Our organic plans to meet with the Bushmen people are coming together. I am ready and excited to learn from the Bushmen people - who are renowned trackers and people of the land.
(05:22 - - 06:08) The intersection of energy of the trackers and the energy of the Shaman
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At sunrise, we cut the tracks of a male lion.
This episode follows our pursuit of this majestic animal through wild and dangerous terrain. Deep down, I feel my own hunter - a desire to compete and survive. I feel a million-year-old drive to find what I'm tracking. I feel how in the wild, there is no margin for error. A mistake out here can mean instant death. And this proximity to real death is paradoxically full of life.
There is an intimacy to tracking. To walk in an animal's footsteps all day is to know that animal on a different level. And the beginning of a transformation and a deeper understanding of our own agency in the world. Tracking takes us on a journey of mastery and perseverance that challenges us to question the crafting of our experiences in the pursuit of what it means to truly be alive.
(02:24) The alertness to lion tracking
3.37 - Archetypal energies of tracking
08.58 - Different worlds
10.22 - Finding the lions
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Our first morning of tracking in the Delta starts early - following the tracks of a lonely hyena track with lacklustre enthusiasm. Suddenly, our morning takes an exhilarating turn and the energy of the group shifts, as we find ourselves on the trail of a pack of Wild Dogs - also known as African Wolves, or Painted Wolves.
In most places, we wouldn’t bother following the tracks of wild dogs as the ground they cover is too vast. But here, in the Delta we have no boundaries or time constraint. We feel the vitality and the movement of the wild dogs and we begin to move as a pack. The hours pass and we follow onwards into a massive wilderness. We are interacting with the wild like few people can. The wild has started to shape us.
1.34 - On the track of Wild Dogs
09.22 - Losing the track
12.35 - We will always remember this track
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The Okavango Delta is an incredible natural phenomenon that can be seen from space. When we land in Maune, we meet up with two fellow trackers, and graduates of the Tracker Academy, Otto James and Innocent Ngwenya. Personally, there is something very satisfying as a tracker to meeting up with other elite trackers on the edge of a massive wilderness. I couldn't be more excited. There is a feeling of adventure in the air.
Before we head south to meet with the Bushman, we visit a leopard habituation programme, pioneered by the Tracker Academy. What has been achieved with the leopard habituation programme is remarkable and has had a profound impact on conservation.
We drive north from Maun over dusty wild roads into the Delta. It's a vast and beautiful wilderness. It's hard to describe, but it feels like the deeper we go into the wild, the more at home we feel.
The San people is the broad term for the name of many clans that make up the Bushmen. I will refer to the people I met with the term Bushmen because that is how they asked me to refer to them.
Leopard Habituation
Habituation is when a tracker spends months and months tracking a leopard, slowly building a relationship of trust with that animal. It's important to stress that habituation is not taming. The animal remains as wild as ever. The process starts by finding the animal on foot using tracking over time, you show it you mean it no harm. Eventually the animal becomes calmer, and relaxed enough through the constant presence of trustworthy humans, to allow itself to be seen. The result of having wild leopards that allow themselves to be seen is almost impossible for a game reserve to quantify. If the habituation process is successful, suddenly whole reserves (wild areas where animals are being protected) become viable. Tourists come from everywhere to see the leopard, one of the world’s most elusive animals. This results in not only the ultimate protection of the land, but also the development of a local economy. Habituation is about rebuilding the relationship between humanity and nature. Learn more here.
-- Tracker Academy was established to preserve the indigenous knowledge of wildlife tracking.
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Imagine a time when nature was our storehouse. When we knew how to share and to simply be.
We knew we didn’t need much for our expedition to the Kalahari. For the Bushmen people, food surpluses are not prominent, as the environment itself acts as a storehouse - imagine a sense of deep psychological abundance and knowing you will always be provided for.
Simplicity is abundance and the desert calls for a beautiful simplicity. I always know when I'm in an important experience because the experience itself starts to constellate new thought processes. I start to daydream about how to ignite the collective psychological abundance in our culture. What can we do to instill a sense of abundance in people?
I don’t know what we will find on our expedition - but I am excited about simplicity. I hope with the Bushmen people, I can touch an older way of life that might teach me how to live in this one.
-- Boyd makes reference to the book Boiling Energy, by Richard Katz
(4.26) - Learning about the life of the Bushmen people
(6.14) - Modern life structures
(7.41) - Simplicity in the desert
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The expedition begins with Alex van den Heever - close friend, seasoned wildlife tracker and founder of the Tracker Academy. We want to understand how closely the Bushmen people are still living in tune with nature. We want to find out what skills have been lost and what still survive. We want to understand whether the ancient hunting skills associated with the art of tracking are still being taught.
To explore this place at the intersection of nature and the human psyche, is my deepest calling. To be with the Bushmen people, is to go back through time to where this intersection is closer to the surface of consciousness. We are going into a rare place in these modern times. We are going back to the wild.
-- The Tracker Academy was established to preserve the indigenous knowledge of wildlife tracking.
(0.44) Alex van Heerden, Renias Mhlongo and the Tracker Academy
(9.23) Preparing for the Kalahari
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