Blog - Page 6

“Do your little bit of Good,
where you are.
Little bits of Good, put together,
Overwhelm the world”. Desmond Tutu

On our Safari through North-East South Africa the Stanford University Seminar participants visited wintery Johannesburg for 3 days this June to learn ....

Wilderness life coach story: On one starlit night we decided at the campfire in our comfortable tented camp to rough it and go out for a three day hike into the reserve with the whole group. Our goal was to reach the Makutswi river, camp out there for two nights and return the third day. Everything we took had to be carried in our backpacks and the whole trip was planned to be on foot. We set off the first morning in a good mood and fast pace but soon we discovered that our backpacks were heavy, the rifle’s got sweaty and the sun was beating down on us...Even in the middle of winter it is hot here during most of the day. With a couple of breaks on our first day trail and a quick encounter with a curious Black Mamba we arrived at the river where we set up camp for our first night. It was a magical place to camp; ”Mawela-wela”, the area is called meaning “going up and down” due to the many little granite and quartz hills in the area.

The Daktari children wildlife club members, with a group of 10 their members, visited us for a game drive. I found out on arrival that only 2 of the Daktari children wildlife club members had seen a lion in the wild... No one in our car has seen a “live” rhino but me! I am on Game drive in the Greater Makalali Conservancy. My game viewer is filled to the brim, not with foreigners from far-away continents but with teenagers from a local village called; “The Oaks”. They have started the Daktari children wildlife club at their village. The village is just 10 km away from the wildlife reserve and my passengers are all around 15-16 years old. Most of them recently joined their village’s newly founded Daktari children wildlife club and are very excited for this trip.

In South Africa the term “spoor” is mainly used to indicate the tracks of an animal or person. Spoor can be simple tracks in the sand of a riverbed but it goes further than that. It can also include flattened grass, scrapings on trees, scattered seeds or maybe broken off branches. Even the smell that an animal left behind belongs to the kingdom of “spoor”. This short tale explains how trailing spoor or tracks can help you increase your leadership awareness and reach your goals in life.

This is a story about lion leadership. It was at the midst of summer six years ago that I saw the two male lions crouching down in the high Guinea grass (Panicum maximum). They were freshly transported into Makalali from a private game reserve around Kgaligadi National park close to the Botswana border with South Africa. Kgaligadi isan area with vast plains consisting of semi-desert vegetation formed by succulents, rocks and hardy clumpsof grass but few trees to escape the blistering sun.