My journey (safari) in your presence always begins from within my own sense of exploration. Mine is a combination of philosophy, physics, the sciences within life, and all the promises of tomorrow.
I will stop and pick up a piece of quartz crystal lying on the surface of a dirt track in the Kruger National Park and hold it in my hand knowing that my journey has begun.
My guides are Plato (knowledge is a subset of that which is both true and believed) Sir Isaac Newton and his three laws of motion, Albert Einstein’s teachings on relativity, the writings of Socrates and the discoveries of Charles Darwin. My guides are also the sands and the crystals and the organisms of our history that lie within these grains and have been transported by the winds and the waters of our past.
I hold my piece of quartz crystal and begin to think about time and about space and about the nature of things. My journey through the sands of time has begun.
Travel with me now as we try to unravel our past and unwrap our future by experiencing this moment in time – a biological half-life of exponential decay, or as I like to view it – incremental understanding.
So as we walk or drive on this road we begin an incredible journey into a world we all know but seldom have the privilege of experiencing first hand while it is happening. I am always honored to be asked to guide you but ask you to please remember that like my own guides and mentors – I do not have all the answers, and certainly do not expect to ever have them. The first rule of medicine’s Hippocratic Oath is:
“To consider dear to me, as my parents, him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and, if necessary, to share my goods with him; To look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.”
For me as a nature guide, this is my ethic, and although stolen from another discipline, my principal remains the same.
On our safari we will explore not only the significances, processes and philosophies of nature – the animals, plants and other organisms around us – the ecology, ethic and culture of our world, and more recent, the footprints and other field signs on these sands of time. The clock is ticking – a biorhythm so incredible in its vibration, so enthralling in its lesson, and so inspirational in its simplicity that now is the time to be on safari.