Track Your Life with Boyd Varty - Episodes Tagged with “Tracks”

Day 36 - Never Punch a Monkey

Boyd Varty — Thu, 07 May 2020 02:00:00 +0200

In the silence by the fire I suddenly heard growling. It was so constant I thought it was a generator on the breeze. It was the sounds of cats mating but without the specific sound that leopards make at the end of copulation. Lions mating.

In line with my family tradition I walked in the moonlight down the road to the camp. The moon was so bright I cast a shadow. I knew if the lions were mating I only need wait a bit and I would hear them again. I stood in silence listening to the Scops owls call all around. Then the sound again. I moved fast towards the lions as I knew they would not hear me. Then I saw them. The air was very cool and the cats stood and began to walk away from me on a hippo path towards the river. Watching them in the night and to be alone was something astonishingly private. No one would every understand how close I felt to them that night. I went back to the fire and just sat there for sometime.

As I do this I become aware of how distracted I was before. This kind of empty fire sitting is a way of being with your own being. Afterwards I went up to the tree and the branches were shadowed on the tree.

I have been reading Bourdain’s books. Little did Bourdain and I know what lay ahead of us that night. At 2am I was awakened by something landing on the deck. A flat thump then a spray starting hitting my face and I got out of bed shouting.

You never know when you will get pissed on by a monkey.

The things you worry about never happen, it’s the things you never thought about that actually happen.

Finally when dawn broke I made a cup of tea and got on the trail of following the mating lions which went on for ages. I lost the tracks but kept persisting until I found their tracks crossing the border eventually.

Technically Im entering a phase now of this ceremony which you might think of as dismount. I need to integrate the ceremony and make sense of it to share with the world.

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Day 7 - Solo

Boyd Varty — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 10:30:00 +0200

Journal Entry: Discovered a perfect white fluff ball of feathers. My roommate, a chinspot basis. I got to bed to roost.
Living in a tree you don’t look up at birds, you are eye level.
African Hawk Eagles, Chinspot Batis, Tracks, Lions, Roost, Presence, Richard Siwela, Manyelethi

Why am I Here?
Why have I always known I would live in a tree?
Why do I track solo?
Why do you know you must do that you have not rational reason to?

Out here I do one thing at a time. If you are into being present, I would give it a try.

I found a pride of lion in the Manyelethi.
Decoded the pattern of the tracks. Some young, some old. With young cub present I must be especially aware. The tracks had no night traffic. I began to follow. There is a unique feeling to following a pride of lions alone.

When tracking solo your tracking should be sufficiently good that you are not trying to track.
Now you are self reliant. If you encounter danger from the lions, the outcome will be dictated by the quality of your reactions. React slowly, do not run, do not panic. Condition yourself in advance for presence.

You are in a conversation that is communicated primarily with energy and body language. Stand your ground and then move backwards.
The general rule is to have respect and be humble.
The goal should be to see the lion before they see you.

I don’t know why I must follow but I want to follow. A tracker must follow as a form of self expression.
On a track alone, there can be a purity of self expression.

I think of my childhood hero, Richard Siwela. He was an incredible solo tracker. He was a leopard specialist. He was meticulous, judgmental and aloof by nature. He carried himself with the superiority of the superior.

Today I have been beaten by the boundary but I have enjoyed my art form.
The ability to let more life into my heart is surely a trail worth following.

Eugene Marais - Purposeful action towards an unknown purpose. Homing towards something towards their is no …..
Homing instinct in young pygmy boy.

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