The culture of wildness

Last week I was in Madikwe Game Reserve, covering the sensory-rich experience of Jaci’s Tree Lodge with my comrade in nomadic indulgence, photographer Gorgeous Goddess.

I don’t know if it was the bumpy game drives, but it has re-awakened a lustful sensibility within and I am charmed, once again, by the power of being in wild space. I feel driven to share some gushy ode to dusty roads and scrubby bush.

We journeyed through pylons draping electric cable elegantly over sunflower fields, and a chameleon mountain with the road for her tongue, which swallowed us whole. But once we hit bush, it all paled. I fell in love (again and again!) with the pure sensation of African mama and her quest to tame humanity’s juvenile ego by showing us infinite grace.

I watched this great mother express her personal preferences. I saw humans responding to her timing, her ways. I felt my body open and my mind relax as I listened to elephants grazing loudly on the other side of the river. The stylish décor disappeared into the back-ground of riverine forest, the sand road and hum of bush insects soothed me like the sensuous bed linen.

I felt sooooo grateful for the lack of gung-ho hunting lodge bravado!

I had a lesson with the wild dogs – those pert, kinetic hunters that have graced the hall of fame for their near extinct-ness. We were doing extreme-experience of the lodge-style-game-drive as we hurtled through bush in our own private Land Cruiser. Although I would have liked time for quiet connection, walkie-talkies were buzzing static like vultures with a rasping cough, and we were off to find the dogs that were attempting a sunset kill.

Perhaps disturbed by the Cruisers that did a pretend-hush version of pulling to a stop right near them, the wild dogs missed the impala. But their alertness never altered. With a flash of irritation, they included us as clumsy partners on the chase, ran close as they passed us, eyes focussed, ears up, coats magnificent and continued on their wild way. I so admired their style!

As I witnessed their grace and our gaucheness I realised: perhaps it is we who are wild? Perhaps we seek the quiet grace of unspoiled nature as the culture that can teach us how to be civilised?

What bliss if nature's culture could tame our wildness...