Boyd Varty: What I learned from Nelson Mandela
In the cathedral of the wild, we get to see the best parts of ourselves reflected back to us. Boyd Varty, a wildlife activist, shares stories of animals, humans and their interrelatedness, or ubuntu -- defined as, I am, because of you. And he dedicates the talk to South African leader Nelson Mandela, the human embodiment of that same great-hearted, generous spirit.
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The Cape Town 'Lobster Trip' - Londolozi TV
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We sent eleven of our staff members on a once in a lifetime trip to Cape Town. The purpose of the trip was to congratulate these staff members on there achievements on the Lobster Ink programme that was started at Londolozi about two years ago.
Lobster Ink is the hospitality education system that trains staff and management, in areas of Service, Bar, Wine, Spirits, Housekeeping, Guiding and International Standards.
The whirlwind trip comprised of flight from Nelspruit KMIA to Cape Town courtesy of Sa Airlink, a stay at Mannabay Fine Boutique Hotel, lunch at the Roundhouse and Lobster Ink, the ocean at Camps Bay, wine tasting at Waterford Wines and a cable car ride up Table Mountain. Thank you to all of you who made it happen!
The Londolozi Family
Cathedral of the Wild by Boyd Varty
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Boyd Varty had an unconventional upbringing. He grew up on Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa, a place where man and nature strive for balance, where perils exist alongside wonders. Founded more than eighty years ago as a hunting ground, Londolozi was transformed into a nature reserve beginning in 1973 by Varty's father and uncle, visionaries of the restoration movement. But it wasn't just a sanctuary for the animals; it was also a place for ravaged land to flourish again and for the human spirit to be restored. When Nelson Mandela was released after twenty-seven years of imprisonment, he came to recover at the reserve.
Cathedral of the Wild is Varty's memoir of his life in this exquisite and vast refuge. At Londolozi, Varty gained the confidence that emerges from living in Africa. We came out strong and largely unafraid of life, he writes, with the full knowledge of its dangers. It was there that young Boyd and his equally adventurous sister learned to track animals, raised leopard and lion cubs, followed their larger-than-life uncle on his many adventures filming wildlife, and became one with the land. Varty survived harrowing rhino charges, a vicious crocodile attack, even a debilitating bout with malaria, but his biggest challenge was a personal crisis of purpose. An intense spiritual quest takes him around the globe and back again—to reconnect with nature and rediscover the track.
Cathedral of the Wild is a story of transformation that inspires a great appreciation for the beauty and order of the natural world. With conviction, hope, and humor, Varty makes a passionate claim for the power of the wild to restore the human spirit.
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The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life Book Trailer - Boyd Varty
Everyone is looking for something and trying to find their way to something in their own lives whether personally, professionally, in relationships or with family. Trackers do this and the the tools of the tracker can be applied to one’s own life.
Right now we realize that the way humanity is living is having a detrimental effect on the environment and people are looking around and asking if this is what life is all about? What will it take to find your way to a life that feels like a fuller expression of who you are and what your creativity is? People who discover this create lives that are unique, unconventional and full of purpose. The life tracker creates an outer life that is a deeper reflection of their inner values by paying attention and tracking their internal guidance system.
This book is about connecting with nature and connecting with the nature inside of oneself. The ancient art form of tracking awakens a primal magnetism and understanding in people. There is a deep desire to in people to connect with nature - the natural world is speaking to us, it is full of wisdom. There is a place inside each one of us that knows what aliveness and fulfilment feel like.
This is the wild self. Overlaying this is the social self that makes us lose touch with the wild self which is bound to the rhythms of the earth and the truest version of ourselves.
Tracking is science, a mythology, an art form and a toolkit. The book is a journey about the quest to track a pride of lions but it is also about getting the reader to start to think about stepping onto the trail of their own life to discover what it is they are looking for. Tracking is the first story that humanity ever told, it takes you places that you would never have expected to go.
The book offers:
- A Common language to connect people to their wild self
- Nature prescriptions
- An exciting adventure on the tracks of a pride of lions
Boyd Varty - The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life Book Trailer 90s
Everyone is looking for something and trying to find their way to something in their own lives whether personally, professionally, in relationships or with family. Trackers do this and the the tools of the tracker can be applied to one’s own life.
Right now we realize that the way humanity is living is having a detrimental effect on the environment and people are looking around and asking if this is what life is all about? What will it take to find your way to a life that feels like a fuller expression of who you are and what your creativity is? People who discover this create lives that are unique, unconventional and full of purpose. The life tracker creates an outer life that is a deeper reflection of their inner values by paying attention and tracking their internal guidance system.
This book is about connecting with nature and connecting with the nature inside of oneself. The ancient art form of tracking awakens a primal magnetism and understanding in people. There is a deep desire to in people to connect with nature - the natural world is speaking to us, it is full of wisdom. There is a place inside each one of us that knows what aliveness and fulfilment feel like.
This is the wild self. Overlaying this is the social self that makes us lose touch with the wild self which is bound to the rhythms of the earth and the truest version of ourselves.
Tracking is science, a mythology, an art form and a toolkit. The book is a journey about the quest to track a pride of lions but it is also about getting the reader to start to think about stepping onto the trail of their own life to discover what it is they are looking for. Tracking is the first story that humanity ever told, it takes you places that you would never have expected to go.
The book offers:
- A Common language to connect people to their wild self
- Nature prescriptions
- An exciting adventure on the tracks of a pride of lions
Track Your Life Retreat
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Boyd Varty has a psychology degree from the University of South Africa. He is a certified Master Life Coach, the author of two books and a TED speaker.
Boyd has spent the last ten years refining the art of using the wilderness as a place for deep introspection and personal transformation.
Having taught his philosophy of “Tracking your Life” to companies
and individuals all over the world, he has created a retreat that merges
tracking, coaching and storytelling into an experiential learning environment.
Boyd Varty 40 Days and 40 Nights: Episode 32 - Day 30
I made an oatmeal breakfast that was Instagram worthy. The brand of oats out here is called Jungle Oats with a strong image of the Bengal Tiger on the front.
There is a Chinese saying that the best time to plant a tree is ten years ago or now. I love this idea and feel it here as time warps. I don’t know where time has gone. I think our relationship with time shapes some of our relationship with life and self. In a natural rhythms your consciousness changes as your notion of time shifts. Time seems to make life rather than count it down.
One thing that I am struck by in the quote about planting a tree is how, even with this experience, there is something incredibly powerful about just starting. It will be the value of starting ten years ago in the blink of an eye. The company, the piano, French. Cut the crap and start.
Trackers talk a lot about the first track. You have no idea how the path of the tracks will play out and you don’t need to. All you need is the first track and then the next first track.
In the coaching world I sat with so many people who have said to me that when I have the whole plan then they will start. The people who experience the most transformation are the people who make little changes all the time.
Carl Jung had an idea of circumambulation where you exist in your fullest potential in your future self. You achieve this future self by paying attention to what truly grabs you with the feeling of aliveness now. You move towards and also around your future self. As you do this you will see patterns and themes about what is core and essential to yourself. If you look back over your life you will see that there are themes that continually emerge on your Venn diagram. You see all of this as you spiral through time towards your future potential.
I remember I once spent a week watching Anthony Bourdain shows one after the other. To me he was an incredibly original storyteller. It shaped my own tracks of the style and types of stories I wanted to tell. Anytime I’m walking through the world I feel Bourdain there drinking Scotch irreverently and saying to me ‘Go for the character, not the facade.’
When you really look at death, it teaches you to live. And when you look deep into the eyes of regret you start now.
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Boyd Varty 40 Days and 40 Nights: Episode 22 - Day 20
This morning at Dawn a spur fowl flew over me in sheer terror. A second after a goshawk came past, silent with its wings tucked.
Thinking a lot about how information is transferred. Want to follow an elephant bull for a whole day. Following one took me into a grove of green grass and trees. I followed signs of crushed foliage and chewed branches.
I have been alone for twenty days and have a profound relationship with the stillness.
The 3 elephant bulls were in a mud wallow. I could feel them pulling me into their frequency as if in treacle. As they moved there was clearly a silent code between them. Silently without touching a sensing would occur and one bull would give way to another.
I just stayed there on that termite mound. Somewhere below me termites were farming fungi.
What do we know of experiencing life when we reduce it to only what we can explain. Felt experiences are a frontier. I am sleeping at the frequency of the wilderness. What information is happening at my cellular levels? How much code can pass between you and another? What worlds of information are there in a glance?
If I had a conclusion for twenty days in, I would say this. A very smart team of people are working very hard at keeping your attention.
Felt experience and our relationship with its creation is where the foundations of meaning constellate.
Nature is a network of infinite interlocking intelligences emitting frequencies that you can tune into at levels way beyond knowing the names of birds and trees.
If you do your capacity for imagination, innovation and feeling return naturally. Life comes back to life.
Simplicity is a lost art form and its radically different to making things easier to do. Firelight is essential to the wellbeing of spirit.
The most sought after art form of the future is will be the creation of gatherings where people are guided out of pretence and perspex enclosed lives into deeper encounters with others and all lives.
A strange phenomenon of memories playing out to me. I can see the difference between what is happening and what I believe is happening.
I don’t know, thank God. I surrender.
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