Nature’s Classroom: Living the Life of a Tracker
Boyd Varty wrote, “No one can tell you what your track will be or how to know what calls you and brings you to life. That’s your work to do. But a great tracker can ask: How do you know you love something?”
I struggled with this question for the longest time. But that was before all of this happened.
I had heard about Renias Mhlongo from reading Boyd Varty’s books and podcast interviews – and so I reached out to inquire about going tracking with Renias for an extended period of time in order to immerse myself in the wild and learn tracking from one of the best trackers in the world. This turned into me booking a trip to go tracking with Renias for 30 days in September 2024. I had no idea what would transpire – but I sensed that these types of encounters were calling me.
We had heard the lions calling south of camp during the night and so we set out to track in that direction the next morning.
One of the things I love most about tracking lions is that you never really know what you are going to get yourself into. One minute you are sipping coffee at 430am and then at 530am you might have a lion charging at you. Or, you might track for five hours into the heat of the day and not see any animals at all. I love the uncertainty. If I wanted certainty, I’d go to the zoo twenty minutes from my house (rather than flying nearly 10,000 miles from the US to Africa to go tracking). But I’d much rather simply not know what is going to happen.
Within 45 minutes of tracking, we hear some lions growling intensely off in the distance. By the sound of it, we estimated that it was about 200-300 meters away. We weren’t quite sure what was going on. It could have been a couple of prides fighting over territory or a couple of males fighting within the same pride, or, perhaps it was a pride of lions on a kill they had just made.
We immediately moved in the direction of the sounds we heard, trusting that we’d find tracks as we got closer. Every 5-10 minutes – we’d hear the lions growling again and came to the conclusion that it sounded like the lions had killed a large animal and had just begun to feed. Our guess was that the female lions had killed the animal and then the male came in to feed and the females growled to show their displeasure. These were all guesses of course and so we tracked our way closer to figure out what was going on.
We quickly realized that it was much further than 200-300 meters as we were enamored by how far the sound of a lion growl travels. We traveled well over 1km and were still a few hundred meters from the lions.
As we walked, I thought to myself – “I wonder what I’m going to see when we get to the place where this wild sound is coming from.” “I wonder how close we will be able to get.” I love how much the newness of this experience brings me into the present moment of each step – knowing that at any moment we might see the lions.
As we are walking in the thick bush with visibility at about 30 meters, we consistently scan up and down, zooming in and out, looking for tracks on the ground while keeping our head up for the danger ahead. And then suddenly, we begin to see tracks. Since the tracking conditions were good, Renias invited me to track alongside him. I’m so excited and full of anticipation as I can feel the adrenaline running through my body each time we hear the lions growling in the distance.
While tracking, Renias reminds me, “When tracking, you must put the lion in your heart – you must learn to see and feel and experience the world as a lion – in order to see where they might be going and what they might be doing.”
We see multiple lion tracks and it is clear that the lions are running and weaving in and out from each other – a sure sign that they are hunting. We wonder what they are hunting as we search for tracks of a buffalo, impala, or giraffe. And then, suddenly we see it, the tracks of multiple buffaloes running in the same direction.
The growls and the tracks tell us that this all happened within the last 30 minutes which means we are going to approach these lions fresh on a kill and so we need to be very careful as we move closer.
As we are about 60-70 meters from the lions, we are deep in the bush – with waist high grass and high thickets surrounding us. We see something unexpected and we stand completely still so as to not blow our cover. One of the lions who has finished feeding walks off to our left at a distance of 30 meters. Somehow she doesn’t notice us as she goes to lay down to rest. We proceed. At about 50 meters out from the kill, another lion walks away from the kill to rest, but this time off to our right. Again, we stand still and go unnoticed.
My fear begins to rise as I realize we are now surrounded by lions. But I think to myself, “I want to go closer” as I think about how much this is like life. Sometimes we have to move towards our fears in order to overcome them. It is only then that we realize our fears aren’t as bad as we imagined. I know that I don’t want to live in fear – and so I long to get closer.
I whisper to Renias “we are surrounded…should we be worried.” Renias responds, “no, they didn’t notice us so there is nothing to worry about.” I’ve grown to trust Renias at his word by this point and so we proceed.
We get to about 25 meters from the lions and the growling feels like I’m standing next to speakers at a concert – I can feel it shake the ground and reverberate through my soul. But we can’t quite see the lions yet. So we move closer to the sound. My eyes look up. And all of a sudden, I can see the outline of lions on a kill through the thickets and bushes. We stand there in awe for a couple of minutes without the lions having any idea that we are there. It is one of the most beautiful moments of my life. I crouch down to get a better look through the trees.
A few moments later, one of the cubs notices something. Either he smelled us or one of us moved slightly, catching his eye. And in a moment’s notice, he quickly turns his head towards us and I can see the most beautiful silhouette of a cub looking directly at me from 20 meters away. He squints to try to figure out what it is before jumping off to the side, alerting the other lions that something is up. Three lionesses jump up and look directly at us, curious as to what is interrupting their mealtime. They let out a low growl to indicate their displeasure. Renias instructs me to remain completely still – stating that if I stand up, they will certainly charge.
I think to myself “Why did I crouch down?” My knees and legs are burning. I’m nervous because I’m on the same plane as the lions, down low. Every part of me wants to jump and run because of the fear. And, at the same time, I absolutely love this. This is why I am here. I want to feel this exact aliveness in my body. It’s intoxicating. I’m aware that this type of aliveness can sometimes only be felt in seemingly dangerous situations.
Somehow, I’m able to talk myself into staying completely still and after numerous growls and curiosity, the lions calm down.
And we get to spend another minute with them, just taking in their presence. I take slow deep breaths because I don’t want to miss this. Feeling their presence is hard to put into words, but it feels most akin to pure courage.
A few moments later, we back away and move off from this beautiful pride.
I’m completely in awe. I don’t have words.
For some reason, my soul seems to calm when I’m tracking. And even though I may never know why, I love it.
This, this is how I know I love something.
