Notes from a lonely treehouse
One lodge owner is testing his lockdown limits, solo in the bush. By Francesca Syz
For most of us, a productive lockdown means cleaning out the cupboards or trying our hand at baking. For Boyd Varty, whose great-grandfather established the legendary Londolozi Private Game Reserve in 1926, it is the chance to fulfil a long-held ambition: living alone in the wild for 40 days and 40 nights. His goal is to immerse himself in his natural setting and discover what it is about spending time alone in wilderness that has appealed to so many mystics through the ages. He’s also producing a podcast about his experience, the main intention of which, his sister Bronwyn Varty-Laburn says, is to give people a connection to nature while we are all in lockdown, and to keep people dreaming of visiting SA when international travel returns.
Londolozi, a 14,000ha reserve bordering the Kruger National Park, was the first in SA to switch from offering hunting safaris to photographic safaris in 1970. Varty now runs it with his sister and their parents, Dave and Shan Varty. He is also a tracker there and a master life coach. He studied with Navajo medicine men and Peruvian shamans, is a TED speaker and has written two books.
Home for his 40-day-and-night adventure is a platform 10m up an ebony tree on the banks of the Sand River, 10km from his home. It’s furnished with a mattress, a comfortable armchair and a mosquito net. At ground level, there’s a firepit and a trunk for things like dry goods and cooking utensils (basic food is dropped off once a week).
Boyd’s thoughtful, funny daily podcasts, bring us along on his journey, each day roughly split between time in camp — yoga, meditation, reading, writing and cooking — and out of it — running, washing and swimming in the river. It’s part tracker diary, part travelogue, part inner dialogue.
On day 1, he says: “There is something quite daunting about knowing I have 39 days ahead. So I find myself making things smaller so I don’t think about 39 more days … I think about making sure the camp is in order. Making a cup of tea is an entire event. What I’m trying to develop is that each task through the day is a chance to be mindful.”
He also describes his budding relationship with a log, visible from camp, that looks like a giant baboon … “I’ve named it Raymond. I guess I’m telling you so you will understand when I’ve gone totally mad and there is a whole episode of me talking to Raymond.”
There are lots of tracker tips. “In danger there is nowhere to turn except yourself … [if you encounter lions] this usually means standing your ground then moving backwards slowly. Lions don’t want to mindlessly eat you. They want their space. However, if you react wrong, they will kill you out of instinct. The general rule is have respect and leave your ego at home.”
There are some wonderful encounters, such as on day 3. “I walked out of camp to find the tracks of a rhino bull crossing the road. It was overcast, and in the flat light, the tracks were very difficult to follow. But my eyes attuned to the crushed grass and the scuffed sand. Rhinos have distinctive toes that make unique patterns on the hard ground. Like a large three-leaved clover.
“I found where the rhino had gone down into a dry river bed to sleep. A beautiful imprint of the shape of the rhino in the sand. There was a wet patch near where his nose would have been, from where he had been snoring into the dust.
“I knew I was very close. I continued
around the bend and then there up ahead, about 60m away, was the rhino. Rhinos have very poor sight and with the wind in my favour I had no concern of being seen. For a time, I just observed him in secret. It was a great moment.”
Other anecdotes are very funny, such as the time he broke out in welts and realised he had been badly caterpillared. Desperately itchy, he rummages for an antihistamine, which he realises he doesn’t have.
“Plan B. I take all my clothes off and run down to the river. Naked man covered in welts. Monument to unsexy. I leap into the shallow water, body still on fire.
“Dammit. It turns out the buffalo I told you about earlier is also in the river about 50m upstream. I scrub my body with sand while having a ‘stare-down’ with an angry-looking buffalo. Buffalo stampedes away. Raymond the weird baboon log watches all of this looking kind of judgy.
“Walk back to the camp still naked. Body now still itchy but also rubbed raw by sand. I glance at the sky and pray to God it doesn’t rain again. Cue rain.”
Despite the challenges, though, Varty is unequivocal on the rewards. “The last three days have been the best 10 years of my life. I absolutely love it all. Four-Zero Out.”
— © Telegraph Media Group Limited [2020].