Okavango leadership trail

OKAVANGO LEADERSHIP TRAIL / BOTSWANA

5 NIGHTS / 6 DAYS
MOREMI GAME RESERVE

Impactful encounters of personal transition and ecological connection. Exploring the interbeing between ourselves and the natural world … and our fundamental co-dependance. These are the keystones on which to build new systems that change our deeply flawed rules of engagement with the planet, with those of circular purpose.

Our restorative encounters in the wild can help translate these new rules of engagement, and integrate them into our belief systems. By slowing down and re-calibrating. By reconnecting with trees, insects, lions or elephants, not through the eyes of a scientist or consumer, but through the eyes of a human being. One who’s heart beats with the rhythm of the planet.

Perhaps its only by first re-writing our own stories that this existential transformation can occur. It is not in our hands … its in our hearts.

ITINERARY OVERVIEW

DAY 1: Arrive in Maun and charter flight to out tented base camp
DAYS 2-4: Depart by traditional dugout canoes camping and walking on Chief’s Island, Moremi Game Reserve
DAY 5: Return to base camp by canoe.
DAY 6: Charter flight back to Maun.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Tracking and stalking big game on foot
Small and exclusive, maximum of 8 people
Walking and use of traditional canoes only
Camp wild from a basic tented fly-camp, fully sustained and off the grid
Travelling light
Introduction to the walking culture on trail, the solitude, silence and value of situational awareness
Cross the comfort boundary: this is a vital component to a wilderness experience
Understanding our impact on the environment and the need for ecological humility.
Introduction to trail lore and safety procedures when encountering big game.

CORE ELEMENTS

The 5-night trail explores the exquisite wilderness areas of the Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana. It has all the elements of a classic foot-safari: camping out of a remote fly-camp, the excitement of tracking and stalking big game on foot, and rejuvenating solitude. The Leadership Trail however, offers more than this.
Not about conventional scientific knowledge or traditional leadership training, the trail gently guides you through an empowering discovery of self and of the logical connections we share with the natural world.

The following are examples:

TRACKING

Learning about the signs animals leave is highly enlightening and inspiring. Tracking beetles or antelope is one thing, but big game is another, as this awakens all avenues of perception. Your senses become alive! This is the origin of lateral and circular thought patterns, and encourages you to ‘look outside the box’ and assimilate information that is not normally not obvious. It promotes a return to ’the indigenous self’.

Tracking is a functional and conscious method of energising the sense of intuition which is largely dormant in modern society.

SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

The art of paying attention, the foundation to all observation and understanding. The presence or sounds of lion or elephant deepened by the silence, sharpen our senses, awakening our in- stincts. This can be highly energising. It not only promotes crucial life skills and survival techniques, as well as ‘reasoning in the moment’. Deep observation skills and attention to intuition come to the fore. Discover more about the intrinsic partnerships of ecology, the operating system of the earth. And how we are still connected to it.

SOLITUDE

Downloading, or the road back to the self. This is very powerful in wild places without artificial interferences. Solitude is the building block toward inner dialogue as well as awakening deep observation skills based on animal sightings, encounters, dialogue with the group, and ecologi- cal interplay.

Non-motorised travel and pristine landscapes provides deep meditative states, yet we are still highly alert to signals around us. Being on foot, exposed and vulnerable, is essential for the process of awakening ecological and social humility.