Track Your Life with Boyd Varty

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.

Day 34 - So Many More Elephants

May 5th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  11 mins 54 secs

assumption, danger, firefly, heat, irwin, kudu, rhino, tortoise, vultures, water

There were many elephants which required a certain type of bushcraft. What had meant to be a stroll through open clearings had turned into a tactical maneuver. In the outdoors dangerous situations often happen long before the danger. They happen through unexpected sliding variables. Assumptions you had made no longer fit the moment. Experience in some ways is the ability to arrest the preconceived ideas and assumptions to make new decisions out of those assumptions.

Day 24 - Pegasus

April 25th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  11 mins 8 secs

aware, mission, pegasus, present, purpose, retreats, rhino, st frances, tracking

Losing tracks is part of tracking. Losing yourself is part of life. I consoled myself with knowing that some of Londolozi’s elite trackers lose the tracks from time to time. St Frances said wherever you go preach the gospel but only where absolutely necessary use words.

Day 15 - Storming

April 16th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  19 mins 29 secs

byron katie, chris rice, death, fear, how great thou art, life, lightning, lions, londolozi, rhino, scared, storm, the work, thunder

Then the world fell on my head. At 11pm I sat bolt upright and smelt the storm on the breeze and felt it in my body. It was windy instinctual but I got up and erected the tarp. I’ve watched myself learn fast how to handle the rain. My body had a current of energy running through it, it was like I could feel the future. Then came the mother and father of a thunderstorm. The volume was turned up to holy shit!

Day 9 - Jurassic Park

April 10th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  13 mins 8 secs

franciscan, mystic, rhino, sweet potato, unicorn

We have forgotten how to live. Your phone is not making your life more convenient. Delete Netflix. Stop watching the news. Turn off your wifi. Go to places where there is no power. Focus on nature and community. Have ceremonies. Explore. Induce reverence for life. Find the others who really want to live. Don’t fight the system, just abandon it.

Day 4 - Safety Third

April 5th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  14 mins 15 secs

buffalo, bushbuck, camp life, elephant, giraffe, mind of god, monkey, nyala, rhino, running, safety

Today I will run through the bush like people have always done. There are tricks to running in the African bush.
Its good to run when its how and animals are less active. There are three phases to being safe when running in the wilderness. Phase 1: Mindset and awareness you live in that is forward thinking, route planning, route assessment, knowing the terrain, local knowledge. Phase 2: How you handle the dangerous situation. Phase 3: The safety itself as a result of the first two phases.

Day 3 - Watch Out For The Small Things

April 4th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  11 mins 37 secs

buffalo, camp, caterpillar, mike boon, rhino, zambezi

Boyd enters day 3 hot on the tracks of a rhino to try and find them. He details how he is arriving with humility to the greater rhythms of nature and developing an intimacy with his family place. Then things go south...