Tracks of Giants: Personal Reflection
The TRACKS team were due to cross the border into western Botswana today, 27 May, at remote Dobe and to meet PJ Besterlink, old friend and conservation “giant” of Botswana. As the Logistics Manager for the expedition, when I had heard nothing from the team by 6 pm I...
Protected: Mali: Determination wins through…evidence that our strategy is working!
Password Protected
To view this protected post, enter the password below:
Tracks of Giants: The first days of the expedition
Home alone after an intense busy stressful intimate people-filled period of the first 12 days of the Tracks of Giants project – it is difficult to settle. Responsibility for the logistics of the expedition have, for the last year, weighed heavily on my sleep...
Tracks of Giants: The long haul across Namibia
18th May 2012 – Eighteen days and 880 kms later, its rest day at Andersons Camp in the Ongava Concession that lies adjacent to the Okaukuejo Gate of Etosha National Park. Thanks to Mike Wassing, Lious Nortje and all the staff at Wilderness Safaris for providing this...
Tracks of Giants: Hiking the Horuseb Valley
Hiking up the Horuseb Valley, across the Skeleton Coast, was a lifetime experience. As we turned inland from the coast we saw our first elephant spoor (tracks), those of a large bull that had walked to the coast, turned, and ambled all the way back up the valley. We...
Tracks of Giants: Crossing the Desert
I have been to the tiny dusty village of Puros a number of times, but never had this collection of drab tin and pre-fab dwellings been such a welcome sight. Lying on the edge of the Hoarusib River that splits the true Namib Desert from the pre-Namib and Escarpment to...
Tracks of Giants: Hiking the Skeleton Coast
1 May 2012 wake-up call at 0500 – it was very dark and damp on the little promontory of Rocky Point, jutting into the Atlantic Ocean on Namibia’s Skeleton Coast. After years of discussion, an announcement of intention during WILD9 (Mexico, 2009), and two years of...
Tracks of Giants: Driving to Rocky Point
30 April, at the base camp in Purros, NW Namibia– We packed for the first 5 days which would be a Wilderness Leadership School type wilderness trail, or trek, that would launch TRACKS on the coast of Namibia, headed east for 5 months to the Indian Ocean. Packed and...
Tracks of Giants: Getting Ready
After meetings in Washington DC in late April, everything was focused on gathering exit speed in the US to head to NW Namibia to join the team members assembling from all points of the compass to launch the Tracks of Giants expedition. As I departed the US on 25...
Andrew Muir Awarded at World Economic Forum on Africa
Five leading innovators were named the Social Entrepreneurs of the Year 2012 Africa by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Among the five winners is WILD’s close friend and colleague...
Return of the Lynx
In my undergrad ecology class at SUNY at Buffalo we studied predator/prey cycles and a well-studied phenomena of ecology is the predator prey cycle of the Canada lynx and Snowshoe hare. I worked in a struggling record store while in college that also had used books...Tracks of Giants expedition to launch May 1st!
May 1st is just around the corner! The Tracks of Giants website has been launched, the intro video is complete, people are following along on Facebook and Twitter, and the team is ready to go. Don’t miss out on this exciting journey–be sure to follow along...
Dr Ian Player receives the Anton Rupert Award
Peace Parks Foundation CEO, Mr Werner Myburgh (second from right), hands the Anton Rupert Award certificate to Dr Ian Player (second from left). Dr Player and Mr Myburgh are flanked by Mrs Ann Player and by Dr Frank Raimondo, member of the Peace Parks Foundation...
Protected: Note on the poaching incident at Insegueren, Mali
Password Protected
To view this protected post, enter the password below:
“A heart for rhinos”– Interview with Dr. Ian Player
In this upcoming April edition of Africa Geographic, Dr Ian Player–WILD’s founder–is interviewed by Rachel Lang about the past and present rhino poaching crisis. Dr Player is a ‘man of many reasons’ for wilderness: African game ranger, international...
Sleepwalking in the Wilderness, Part II
“Wilderness, it is here I came to know myself, but it was only just the beginning, because I found the more you know your true self, the more you know about those around you,” J. Shaw, participant on trail with the Wilderness Leadership School, South Africa. I chose...Protected: Renegade soldiers declare coup in Mali
Password Protected
To view this protected post, enter the password below:
Rhino Briefing in DC
The rhino poaching crisis is escalating daily. Of the world’s total rhinos (approximately 20,000 white rhino, and 4,000 black rhino), 80% are in South Africa, so that is where the poaching syndicates concentrate. So far this year, until 15 March, 135 rhino have been...
Sleepwalking in the Wilderness
Orion’s belt is now in the center of my sky. The moon is half, waxing to full. The air is cold, crisp and there is a heavy stillness, deathly quiet. It is January 1, 2012, I think. Something made me stir from my dreamtime and I slowly lift my eyelids to gather...