Boyd Varty
Host of Track Your Life with Boyd Varty
Having spent his life in apprenticeship to the natural world, he now works to bring what he’s learned to a wide audience. Boyd’s unique combination of wisdom, humour and spirituality makes him a captivating speaker. He keeps diverse audiences in rapt attention and gales of laughter and leaves them moved.
The wildlife and literacy activist Boyd Varty, author of the memoir Cathedral of the Wild, had an unconventional upbringing. Born to a family of conservationists, Boyd grew up on Londolozi Game Reserve in the South African wilderness, a place where man and nature strive for balance, where perils exist alongside wonders. Founded more than 90 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 27 years of imprisonment, he came to the reserve to recover.
Since childhood, Boyd shared his home with lions, leopards, snakes, and elephants and has spent his life in apprenticeship to the wisdom of nature. Boyd survived a harrowing black mamba encounter, a debilitating bout with malaria, even a vicious crocodile attack, but his biggest challenge was a personal crisis of purpose. As a university student, he studied psychology and ecology, supplementing his education by learning martial arts in Thailand, hiking through the jungles of the Amazon, and apprenticing to a renowned tracker from the Shangaan tribe deepening his intimate knowledge of the natural world. Boyd grew up speaking the local language and learning the true meaning of coexistence between people and with nature.
Boyd Varty has hosted 61 Episodes.
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Activating the Campfire Consciousness
August 15th, 2021 | Season 3 | 5 mins 58 secs
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A Wilder People
August 8th, 2021 | Season 3 | 4 mins 52 secs
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The Second Language
August 1st, 2021 | Season 3 | 7 mins 26 secs
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Relational Fields
July 25th, 2021 | Season 3 | 7 mins 19 secs
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The Upside Down People – Shamans Live Backwards
July 18th, 2021 | Season 3 | 6 mins 41 secs
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Community Soup
July 11th, 2021 | Season 3 | 7 mins 49 secs
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A Shared Language
July 4th, 2021 | Season 3 | 9 mins 43 secs
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Notes from a Road Dog
June 27th, 2021 | Season 3 | 13 mins 40 secs
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Expedition 6 - The Source
July 30th, 2020 | Season 2 | 9 mins 25 secs
guardian, leopard, mpumalanga, shamanism, source, south africa, water
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. -
Expedition 5 - The Sacred Enemy
July 16th, 2020 | Season 2 | 11 mins 30 secs
rhino, sacred enemy
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.
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Expedition 4 - Hyena Telepathy
July 8th, 2020 | Season 2 | 9 mins 46 secs
hyena, leadwood forest, makomsava, resonance, sacred sites, telepathy
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. -
Expedition 3 - Shadow Tracking
July 1st, 2020 | Season 2 | 11 mins 31 secs
lion, narcissistic, shadow, tracking
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.