The essence of African wilderness

In my new book Spirit of Africa, I try to express the feeling of being immersed in African wilderness.

At times, I have experienced infinity. What do I mean by that? I have experienced the distinct sensation of merging with my surrounds. I’m not sure where I end, and where Nature begins. I feel connected to myself and all of life, past and present. The 5 billion years of Earth’s lifespan is distilled into “right here, right now”. Through immersion in African wilderness, I have learnt that the present moment is all there is. And that it is enough. In fact, it’s everything.

I try to keep up a formal meditation practise when I’m back home. I try to spend half an hour every evening sitting and meditating on my breath. I have to be disciplined, because I find it really hard. But when I’m in African wilderness, the “meditation” happens effortlessly, without me even realising it. I don’t have to try, because it just happens to me.

Initially, however, I need to spend a few days shedding the “modern” world. No shoes, no wrist watch, few clothes. Put down my camera even. Go somewhere with no cell phone reception. Where the lion’s roar is the loudest sound and Sirius and Canopus and my campfire are the brightest lights. Botswana’s Central Kalahari is good. So too is north-west Namibia, or the lower Zambezi Valley. Or Congo’s rainforest.

There is so much beauty and wonder – and Life! And endless space, both out there – and in my mind. By natural osmosis I begin to synchronise with the Spirit of Africa. When I breathe in, the lion breathes out. When a martial eagle takes off from a baobab, her slow, rhythmic wingbeats match the cadence of my own heart.

In those moments I understand what Joseph Campbell meant when he wrote: “The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.”

Or when Carl Jung wrote “I am in the midst of my true life. I am most deeply myself. At times I feel as if I am spread out over the landscape and inside things, and myself living in every tree, the splashing of the waves, the clouds and animals that come and go, in the procession of the seasons.”