HEAL WITH THE PEOPLE OF THE KALAHARI

The elders of the Ju!hoansi Khoisan tribe in Botswana’s Western Kalahari Desert are thought to be the last custodians of a phenomenal bush knowledge, the roots of which reach back many generations. Their tracking and hunting skills are legendary and their cultural practices, at least for now, remain a portal to an ancient world.

Robert Barber has known these people for almost two decades – he and wife Charlotte Bennett-Diver were married by a Ju!hoansi elder in 2016 – and offers outsiders a privileged look inside their lives. On a tailored safari with his company, Golden Africa (golden-africa.com), you’ll touch down on a remote airstrip in Botswana’s south-west then travel overland to a camp on the edge of a tribal settlement in the Aha Hills. You’ll find living conditions at the bivouac very comfortable; Barber’s converted seven-tonne military truck is effectively a mobile lodge. Stay in one of the six stylish tents, attended by eight staff, including a chef trained at South Africa’s benchmark Belmond Mount Nelson hotel.

By day, experience firsthand the survival skills that have preserved one of the oldest bloodlines on the planet, tracking and interpreting signs in the wild as you accompany the Ju!hoansi women while they forage for food – nuts, tubers, grasses – before returning to camp to prepare meals.

After sunset, drawn by firelight and the sounds of music nearby, everyone walks to their neighbour’s camp where a traditional healing ritual is underway. There’s dancing, clapping and chanting – no words, only sounds – and then, after a time, the ceremony begins. One of the old men starts placing his hands on the chests and backs of those around him, kinfolk and strangers alike.

The ceremony is said to make the heart happy and that’s how you’ll leave the Aha Hills after three nights living beside these bushpeople. Barber says the experience is life-changing. “Maybe there’s something instinctive in it because it’s the lifestyle we all came from.”