Track Your Life with Boyd Varty

Resources: 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. Go Deeper. Join the waitlist for the Track Your Life Masterclass. 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Resources: 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. Go Deeper. Join the waitlist for the Track Your Life Masterclass. 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Resources: 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. Go Deeper. Join the waitlist for the Track Your Life Masterclass. 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Resources: 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. Go Deeper. Join the waitlist for the Track Your Life Masterclass. 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Resources: 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. Join the Track Your Life Masterclass - A complete initiation into the art of tracking your life. 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Mentioned in this episode: 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. Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Mentioned in this episode: 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. Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Mentioned in this episode: 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. Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Mentioned in this episode: - 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. Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Mentioned in this episode: 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. Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Mentioned in this episode: 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. Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

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. Mentioned in this episode: 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. Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

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. Mentioned in this episode: 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. Timestamps 1:55: Kalahari tracking 3:45: Fragility in the wild 6:05: A lesson in commitment Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

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. Mentioned in this episode: 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. Learn more about the work of Kalahari Research and Conservation Botswana. Timestamps 3.57: Bushmen culture and lifestyle 5.33: The persistence hunt 11.12 - A remembering 13.51 Coming out of the portal Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

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. Mentioned in this episode: 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. Timestamps 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 Resources: **Online Courses: -Become a Story Hunter - Enroll in the online course. Uncover the track of your life through Boyd's online guided retreat - Track Your Life. *Discover Boyd's books: * The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life Cathedral of the Wild Experience Africa. Immerse your senses and awaken your spirit on a Londolozi Safari *Join the community: * Follow the journey - hit subscribe to Track your Life and never miss an episode. Sign up to Boyd’s mailing list Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more

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. Mentioned in this episode: 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. Timestamps (00:47- The Dorsland Trackers (02.13 - Anneline from Ghanzi (06:12 - Meeting and gathering with the Bushmen Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

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. Mentioned in this episode: 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. Timestamps (05:22 - - 06:08) The intersection of energy of the trackers and the energy of the Shaman Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

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. Mentioned in this episode: 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. Timestamps (02:24) The alertness to lion tracking 3.37 - Archetypal energies of tracking 08.58 - Different worlds 10.22 - Finding the lions Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

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. Mentioned in this episode: 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. Timestamps 1.34 - On the track of Wild Dogs 09.22 - Losing the track 12.35 - We will always remember this track Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

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. Mentioned in this episode: 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. Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

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. Mentioned in this episode: 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. -- Boyd makes reference to the book Boiling Energy, by Richard Katz Timestamps (4.26) - Learning about the life of the Bushmen people (6.14) - Modern life structures (7.41) - Simplicity in the desert Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

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. Mentioned in this episode: 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 Tracker Academy was established to preserve the indigenous knowledge of wildlife tracking. 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. Timestamps (0.44) Alex van Heerden, Renias Mhlongo and the Tracker Academy (9.23) Preparing for the Kalahari Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

A good story will set you apart in almost any setting. When I was working as a safari guide, I would notice that a story could always shift the group's energetic momentum towards you, which is important when you are guiding. More than being a momentum shifter, a well-crafted story could, in the right moment, be profoundly transcendent. If you cultivate your capacity as a storyteller, you cultivate your life. If you are becoming a storyteller, you're working on your life as much as you're working in it. Stepping back to work on, and develop, the multiple stories that make up your life is important work. It will radically leverage your life and your impact in almost any setting. Humans are narrative creatures. This has been true since the first people told stories around the fire. When you become a master of narrative, you become a world maker. Mentioned in this episode: Visit Londolozi The Tracker Academy was established to preserve the indigenous knowledge of wildlife tracking. Connect with Andreas Sitole Learn more about David Rattray and Fugitives Drift Timestamps (5:35) David Rattray, South African Historian, and the story that set him apart (15.32) - Working on your personal story (19.57) - Andreas Sitole’s story ‘Into the Unknown’ Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

If you have begun the journey of becoming a Story Hunter, you have become a character who finds characters, switched on your attention, learnt to see with the right kind of eyes, become someone who can create context. You are now ready to touch the core of what makes the story elevated. I call it the personal collective. There is a strangely universal truth that the more in touch you are with your own unique personal essence, the more what you have to say becomes universally meaningful. The most private things are the most universal things. Any type of trying to be commercially successful or thinking about the end user while you work will kill an artist's freedom. Yet if you are a storyteller, you want the story to be listener friendly. I always think about how a listener could put their own story into my stories. This is not a rule but rather an orientation. Like a compass, I point personal story towards a subtextual, universal story. A story always has an archetypal core. Mentioned in this episode Londolozi - https://boydvarty.com/retreats/visit-londolozi/ Learn more about the Tsalala pride at Londolozi - https://blog.londolozi.com/2021/12/07/the-legacy-of-the-tsalala-pride/ Timestamps (3.30) The Tsalala pride (06:43) Universal energies (08:42) Living with severe depression and anxiety Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

There is a deep chasm between the making of art and the experiencing of it. When I am in that chasm - a solitary path - I know I must face the resistance in the now, knowing what it can give in the future. Are you willing to do what it takes to be creative? Art is experienced by the public, in the public. But in most cases it is created in crushing solitude. At some point, if you are to produce good work, you will need to be alone in a room for a long time. Within those days there will be beautiful flow. But mostly there will be a kind of self consciousness, at times even a self hatred, of procrastination - a dull judging solitude. It is always a profound challenge to be alone long enough to create something of quality. I certainly know this as a writer. As a Story Hunter you must have the courage to be alone enough to make your art. Timestamps (03:15) David Foster Wallace - chasm of art Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

As a Story Hunter, I have found that remote places are often the natural habitat of wild characters. Finding characters in life is becoming harder, as life becomes more homogenized. Characters almost always have found their own uniqueness and a path to express it. They seem to fit what they’re doing - they know what lights them up. They know what they have to offer. And almost always, they know how to live in a way that is unique to them. Characters almost always have a different worldview, and they are often world class in an unusual field. When you spend time with a character who has mastered a state, your own sense of what is truly possible is expanded. Characters help you imagine a world of possibility for yourself. Timestamps (5:40) Losing an arm to a crocodile (8.10) Discovering your personal uniqueness (11.25) Good reason to find characters Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

Being lost is part of being found. In this episode, I share my experience of being lost, tracking lions with group of guests on a Track Your Life retreat. Stories are layered with meaning. Meaning is almost always a constellation of thoughts and beliefs that weave into a story - and retreat participants were pulled into an unfolding co-created story, making meaning out of the experience. They had learnt a basic universal lesson: there is always something unfolding as it should. I learnt a lot during those few hours of being lost. In particular, I had learnt that nothing bad ever happened to a storyhunter. Mentioned in this episode -The Track your Life Retreat is an extraordinary experience of self discovery. Find out more: https://trackyourlife.co.za/ Learn more about Londolozi Timestamps (02:06) Lost in lion country (08:54) Making meaning of stories (12:23) Run in the wild Resources: 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/ Visit Africa. Visit Londolozi Join Boyd’s community: Follow the journey - Subscribe to the Track your Life Podcast and never miss an episode. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

If the truth is stranger than fiction, then the art of storytelling is not to make something up, but rather to really see what is there. Reality, if you look close enough, is almost always hilarious. Storytelling is about providing context and meaning. It's a discipline of attention, a way of helping others understand the world around them. Mentioned in this episode Listen to Boyd’s epic account of 40 days and 40 nights spent alone in a treehouse in the wild eastern part of South Africa. https://boydvarty.com/about/40-days-40-nights/ Learn more about Londolozi Timestamps (02:04) Barry, the Buffalo (08:00) Safari storytelling tradition Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram and X Visit Boyd's website for more.

If you are to become a storyhunter you must live stories. You must find a way to say yes to life beyond the known. Seek out people and places that resonate with things you're naturally curious about. Curiosity will pull you into unknown circles. If you can be in those spaces, adventures will emerge. Make friends with people who will pull your life into stories. Say yes to something you normally wouldn’t. There is a story across town, if you can learn to say yes to life. Timestamps (02:32) The Rift Valley (3.32) Buying motorbikes in Kampala (8.57) Jesse Isla - Time is undefeated Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

A person who can tell a story is gifted with the ability to help people understand and feel. A truly brilliant storyteller is structuring awareness - they are an instrument for meaning. This is why storytelling - an ancient shamanic art - is magic. This podcast series emerged out of a time when I had retreated back into the wild african bushveld, after three years of almost endless travel. I wanted to disappear for a while. I have come to think of anonymity as one of life’s deepest gifts. Almost instinctively, after a period of time, I found myself chasing stories again. This is how I became a Story Hunter. Timestamps (3:34) Martha Beck: Creative people bounce (06:48) Going back to the wild Mentioned in this episode: 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. Learn more about the work of Dr Martha Beck: https://marthabeck.com/ Resources: 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. Sign up to Boyd’s newsletter. Follow Boyd on Instagram X Visit Boyd's website for more.

https://boydvarty.com/world-village/ Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/

https://boydvarty.com/world-village/ Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/

https://boydvarty.com/world-village/ Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/

https://boydvarty.com/world-village/ Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/

https://boydvarty.com/world-village/ Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/

https://boydvarty.com/world-village/ Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/

https://boydvarty.com/world-village/ Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/

https://boydvarty.com/world-village/ Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/

Find the track of a more purpose driven life: https://boydvarty.com/course-listing/track-your-life-online-guided-retreat/ Enroll in Boyd's Online Course Here: https://boydvarty.com/courses/track-your-life-online-retreat/ Once in the far north of Kruger national park's pafuri area I found a clear pool of spring water rising out the earth. The pool was surrounded by three huge ebony trees and a giant eagle owl flew out from under the deeply shaded branches as I approached. The presence of the owl adding some intangible sense of spirit to the place. The water was crystal clear and bubbling happily out the earth. As I knelt to put my lips to the water I felt like I was being let into some great secret. My body took on the shape of an animal drinking lips to the water……and an archetypal connection millions of years old ran like a current through me. I like the wild animals of that wild place I was drinking from the secret source. I think to know wild water in these times is the kind of thing we have forgotten to even know we want. The way it runs into you full of the codes of the minerals and plants of that place……wild water is full of information that attunes your body with its energy. Unbottled, untreated…….having never known a pipe or a cistern wild water is full of spirit. I'm going to talk in a very shamanic way about how to get to know a river. I'm going to talk from inside the mythological way to share the way I make meaning of the world around me. I might say it like this Once upon a time a man lived in a tree by a river. Far off to the west he could see the high mountains in which the river rose. The man longed to know the spirit of the river for it gave so much life on its journey. He knew that he must go to those mountains to know from where the water of that river was born. Only then could he truly know the river. This was running through my head as the pickup swung through the foothills and climbed the escarpment. As the crow flies the mountains were only 90 km from where I had lived in the tree but by car it was a circuitous 180 km winding drive that took you from 300 meters lowlands up to about 1600 m on the edge of south africa's high plateau. In historical times there had been a natural flow of native people who lived away from malaria on the highlands and descended the escarpment via hundreds of foot paths to hunt in the lowlands when the winter came. My destination was my friend's bungalow, a beautiful mountain cabin with no lights and streams full of trout that flowed past it .The landscape around the house is a rugged kind of african Scottish highlands. High ridged terrain with deep vegetative gorges. Unusual birds, eland and mountain reedbuck….and a silence in which a leopard that was never seen slipped past. That first night in the bungalow the man did not sleep. He was between this world and the next. All night he tossed and turned in the darkness and dreamed that the mountains had a message for him. Eventually I rose well before dawn, drank a cup of coffee and set off with my friend through the freezing dark for the highest peak. Mount Anderson is the watershed…..from which all the rivers that run east to the kruger national park flow Through a trailess darkness we walked for the summit…..the stars giving way to a crisp dawn. We were fit and walked fast… cold air burning our lungs. Learning the mountain in some intrinsic way you can only achieve by being on it The summit at dawn was icy with a whipping wind and a thick fog so that one could not see how the land fell to the east calling to the water. But Up there on the peak I left an imprint of my body ……so I could always suddenly be back there. So I could always send a greeting upstream to the mountain from my home in the lowlands. What I could now say is that I had been to where the rivers rise. The source…….but not the source of the source…….water is too free for that and one can never really say where water begins or ends. If you know water somewhere you know water everywhere. The man came down from that communion with the high peak with stiff legs found a cold mountain pool to swim in. The water was freezing with aliveness and he drank and drank. Saturating himself. Baptizing his body with that kind of purity. I tell you these things in these ways as a remedy. I don’t mean to be flowery or poetic but in my time with native people I started to think of the relationship with all things as an exchange of an unseen aliveness. A connected story….like the story of all water… in which you weave yourself into the web of other currents of life. A river, a mountain, a friend. You can interact with the experience of living on so many levels and for me there is always a story within the story. The way of meaning making is the way we make the story of our life. I could tell you that on the night of the day we submitted we drove up a steep hill with a bag full of beers to watch the sunset. The light cut the cold mountain a

Followed a rhino bull, but he led me in circles. I couldn’t shake the distinct feeling that a rhino was trying to shake me off his tail. To add to the confusion there were also tracks of a female rhino from the night before. If the rhino was my nemesis then he was my sacred enemy. The difficulty he was providing was causing untold growth in my tracking ability. Boyd Varty Sacred Sites https://boydvarty.com/sacred-sites/ Connect with Boyd Varty: Website | https://boydvarty.com/ Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/boyd_varty/ Twitter | https://twitter.com/BoydVarty Find out more about Londolozi Website | https://www.londolozi.com/en/ Impact | https://londolozi.africa Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/londolozi/ Twitter | https://twitter.com/londolozi Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/londolozigamereserve/

Journal entry. The best time to be in the leadwood forest is in the creamy light of a full moon. All around the trees peg a scale of time beyond human comprehension to the earth. It can be a strange thing to watch people from all over the world walk into the dappled light of the trees and fall silent. In my days as a safari guide I would wait for the third or fourth day of a safari. I would wait for the hysteria to see animals to subside and then take people to the forest. You see the forest can be experienced on many levels and I have come to believe that it will meet you where you are ….it will take you to the level of stillness, wildness or reverence that you have cultivated in yourself and then some. The deeper you are the deeper the magic of the forest. The poet david whyte talks about the conversational nature of life. The idea that your life will never be exactly how you planned it to be but equally it will never be exactly the way life wanted it. for all our living days we are in a co-created experience with living…..some of our agency….mixed with life or god, or whatever you call its plan. Inside of this we have action when we know to take it and surrender when we have reached the end of what we can do…. another dance. We have the development of a contemplative mind ……the cultivation of a mind in which many things in the world can be true at the same time. Being in nature takes you naturally into this kind of inner exploration. If your eyes are open in a place life the leadwood forrest you can't help but notice the relational nature of nature, As dawn breaks in the forest a dark bull nyala lifts his head out of long brown winter grass to look at me. Franklins begin to chatter into the dawn. In the stereo all around me hyena started to call. A hyena is the perfect embodiment of opportunism. As he moves craftily through the bush he seems to have a single thought running through his head…… “what's in it for me?” ‘how could this situation beeeeee good for me” If you have ever battled to put your own needs on the table……hyena is your guy. He's gonna show you how. Im developing a strange technique for this podcast. What I do is go to a place like the leadwood forest. I move through the terrain at different times of day. I take a big sniff of the Amazonian snuff called hapi which is a mix of tobacco and ashes of herbs. Then with my head empty of thoughts I open myself and move through the space. Opening myself to a different way of knowing. It's like I'm trawling through the feeling of the place and each feeling is full of invisible codes that later when I sit down with my notebook will start to come out as memories, encounters, stories and insights. You see like those hyena calls in the forest this morning took me to an image of the hyena. In my mind's eye I saw his slanted body loping away with the leg of a giraffe held across his jaws and a look of glee on his face. Imagine your dog walking proudly around with a weed wacker in his jaws and you have a sense of how much this hyena had bitten off more than he could chew. This little encounter in my imagination takes me to the clarity of knowing that a hyena has. A hyena wants what he wants. This idea makes me think of the hundreds of people I coached who have started having huge transformations when they started to ask clearly without agenda or attachment for what they want. I think of how early on in my own journey this idea was totally foreighn to me. I remember a whole night in a ceremony where I lay half hanging off the edge of a mattress and it never occurred to me to ask people to move over. I had grown up in a world where resilience was the most needed skill…..you didn’t need what you didn’t have so get on with it. I'm very grateful for that place in myself but I remember also releasing that one of the ways to create more of the life you want is to want and ask….. “Will you move over for me? I need more space” could not sound more silly to me now but at the time it was the silly beginning to much big wants and asks that I was going to allow myself. It was a breakthrough to something new. A first step I could build on What will keep you out of asking for what you want? You limit what you think you deserve. The desire to not be too much trouble. The fear of needing things from other people Your fear of being rejected. Your assumptions about what other people will think of you asking. If you think i'm being trite well then try it. Take the next week and wherever you go……in your work……family……out for a walk. Start asking people around you honestly, clearly and without justification for what you want. Start with will you………rather than can you. Will you walk with me Will you go out with me? Will you upgrade me? Will you promote me? Will you hug me? Pay attention to where you can just ask……..notice where you cant…….notice where you don’t because you assume you know what the answer will be. Pay attention to where you hide fr

Journal entry. Tracks of huge pride of lions cut off a beautiful white sandy road onto a game path. Here the pride walks in single file laying a perfect trail. The path opens into a small clearing next to the crusted mud of a dried up waterhole. Next to a huge termite mound with a giant brown ivory growing out of it the tracks tell the story of a giant lion love ball. They have lain down here… lying up against each other…..cubs climbing on mothers heads and biting each other's ears. The flat grass and imprints of tails tell me that they slept here some time yesterday afternoon. They probably moved as the sun went down so they have a whole night ahead of me. I was not planning on tracking but this is life in the wild. This is life as a tracker you must let yourself create with the moment. It’s a large pride and to a tracker this magnetism is too strong. I walk a half circle around where they lay to find the direction they set off on …… quickly I am onto their trail as they head into a deep thicket. Through the night a herd of elephants have moved through the area covering over many of the tracks. Then a herd of zebras followed the elephants cutting the hard ground on top of where lions padded past. Quickly the majority of the tracks are gone. This can be very common in tracking. You can go from this is going to be easy to this is impossible in a few steps. Like life. Like any time you set out on a new path. Now I must follow as a shadow tracker…..to follow these lions I must become a student of vagaries, a follower of faint impulses and weak imprints…..i must drift through the terrain every reactive… ever alert…..moving on invisible lines that those tawny creators may have taken through the thick terrain. Anticipating If I want to see each track or be sure I'm on their trail I will make myself crazy. Here quite suddenly the need for certainty is an impediment. The shadow trackers energy is that of drifting….as if in a world between worlds…..noticing…..moving with attention…..but with the world in a soft focus around you. Somehow letting go of thinking about how lions move and being empty enough to move like a lion. It is a lost kind of attention in modern life. It’s the skill of riding a tide like a jellyfish. Or catching a thermal like a migrating bird……it’s the skill of being in the right place to be shown and taken. I tell you this now awakeners because that unexpected lion trail was teaching me how to follow the trail of my own shadow. The shadow is the part of you that has never been allowed. It's your dark twin, a narcissistic, bad, even evil part of you that got stuffed away so you could belong. It's your most unsocialized primal desires. There is biting and talking without asking. It’s the back side of years of being good to get a cookie. But your shadow denied will run parts of you with unconscious force until you can meet it as a friend. I say this now cause we are in the time of shadow….and we must work in ourselves to work in the world. Your shadow given a seat at the fire becomes more self….. strong boundaries, unfuckwithable personal power. a person with a well integrated shadow is not interested in being nice or liked they are interested in being true. There is a grace to a person who has found the dark in themselves. A compassion that can look at a tyrant or a weakling and know that is in me too. But strangely a person who has met their shadow stands up to tyrants and is able to ask for help where they are weak Shadow tracking… is for if you want to get to know yourself more deeply. It will liberate so much primal energy if you get to know that dark part of yourself. To find the shadow you must give up certainty and need to know it and drift with an open awareness. Notice the people who make you most mad and uncomfortable. They are holding your shadow. Pay attention to your restments. See what you fantasise about. Notice where you are compulsive. That which we repress bursts out at strange times or runs our lives without us knowing. Do not try to understand the shadow. Do not try to identify it outright. Not like a shadow tracker drift in the half land where it lives. Become aware of it. Ask yourself……that person I can't bear why ?……they are narcissistic, loud, self centred. What are they holding so you don’t have to. That’s the part of you that is repressed. Ask that resentment…… resentment what are you asking for? Rage what do you want. ? Disgust what you need? Let the answers be truly uncensored and ugly. As you drift towards the guarded outlines of your shadow with this soft eyed attention you will find themes. You may be annoyed at someone who always puts themselves first cause you never do. Until you explode and leave so you can do what you want. You will get to know what your anger is asking for. You will come to understand how your patheticness is a place where you couldn’t get the help you needed so you acted like you never needed anything. Oh shadow tracking is n

Journal entry. Intuitive is defined as: using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive I think this is why I have always liked sacred sites because when you are at one “you are beyond conscious reasoning” you sense something in the air. and I like it there because for me there has always been more life beyond conscious reasoning. You only need to fall in love to understand the truth in that. There are different ways of knowing. On native medicine wheels there was always body, mind , heart , spirit. It was understood the mind was only one way of relating to or experiencing life. Plaque rock is a beautiful dome of granite that sits logged deep into the river bank. You can walk up onto it easily from the bank and then it falls in perfect smooth rock down to a pool below with a few young crocodiles and a lazy terrapin that live in it. Beyond that is a second band of rock and then the thick green phragmites reeds of the river. As a child when I would go there it may as well have been another planet. Running and playing on the large dome we could have landed on mars. The rock is warm in the late evening having absorbed the sun's heat and if you lay with your back on it will share that warmth with you. the whole rock feels alive. Like it has its own intelligence. Like the rock itself is a living presence. As I sit there on a winter's day I am the centre of a small universe that spins around it. Creatures slowly appear. A kudu in the midst of the far bank. A herd of nyala Herons kingfishers flying past. A lizard scuttles out from under a rock to bask. There's something you don’t do enough of….basking My grandfather who I never met used to sit on this rock. When I am there I can intuit his ancestral presence. I am a part of what came before, I am a part of what will come after. I am not self made. I do not think of myself as a life apart. I am a part of life. Inside of this understanding I see a bigger picture. For a moment I am set free from the innate narcissism that my life is in some way the most important thing that’s happening. I am part of a chain of unfolding life. My grandfather flew planes in the second world war. From north africa him and a rogue captain called hayward would fly to warsaw to drop supplies for the polish resistance. Hayward knew that if they flew high over the city they would be a slow moving target for the anti aircraft guns. so when he saw the city which was on fire he would fly low down the river, dodging bridges moving too fast for gunners then drop his cargo and go. flying home with barely enough fuel. After the war my grandfather took up lion hunting as a way to keep himself feeling alive. Only later when I came to understand trauma did it occur to me that the lion hunting was a common behaviour for someone with severe combat experience and ptsd. The need to seek out dangerous extremes to try and get the sound back on in your life. When my grandfather died suddenly at 54 the war was long over. Hayward loaded my 15 year old father in a plane and flew him from Johannesburg to the place where I now sat in the wild . flying over the rock hayward ever the renegade opened the window and tipped my grandfather's ashes out into the river. That’s how plague rock became an ancestral place for my family. When I was born my mother named me craig…..I cried and cried until the shangaans people told my mother I was crying for my ancestral name. they started calling me body and I became a quiet child. As I sit here this morning I can look down across the pool at the base of the rock to the second ridge where a plague with my grandfather's name on it….a name that is also my name. boyd varty it reads he loved the bushveld. I'm telling you this because your ancestry makes you close to your infinity and your mortality. When I am here I intuit some deep transformation in my own life that seems to be happening on a grander scale in the world. “the restoration of the planet will come out if shift in human consciousness” is my cry My grandfather was a lion hunter. I am a lion tracker.. My grandfather had severe ptsd……I have worked intensely with how to heal extreme trauma. We were both in love with the wild. As a hunter he was intictual as a healer so am i. In the men in my family for so long there was steel with no feeling .I am coming to respect both. Why am I saying all this from some forgotten rock in south africa …..and what does it have to do with you. Okay here goes. If you have bothered to listen to these podcasts and they moved you or interested you then something in you is intuiting what's under the words. You know that like me you are here for the mystery, you are here to live differently, you are here for nature, you are here to find your track. Your whole life a part of you deep down has known the way we are living is not the way. maybe you couldn’t say it for fear of sounding crazy but a part of you knows. A part of you has