find awe. radiate optimism
Venice Beach, California
Emerging from a year of cancer treatment and Covid lockdown, by setting out to find the life around me.
Every afternoon, I get on my bike and cycle around Venice Beach and Santa Monica. It’s one part physical health, one part mental health. Embracing sparks of life in everyday moments. Finding wonder in the Californian light. Finding life in others that helps find new life in me.
Nobody can tell me why I got cancer. Without being able to prove it, I feel fairly certain it was stress — from work, the state of the world, from moving fast. Slowing down has connected me to this place more than ever; I’d lived in LA 14 years and my appreciation of the everyday had atrophied. Now, Venice seems more visceral than ever. I’m drawn to the moments of youthful vitality, the quiet moments of reflection, and the weather moving through.
There’s a simplicity to the ways people find joy around the beach; surfers playing with wave energy, skaters flowing with gravity, acrobats exploring their bodies’ capabilities. Together, the healing power of nature, movement, community.
I wrote more about the process of this series here.
Khwai, Okavango Delta, Botswana
When I was 18, I met some people in South Africa who’d just left the Okavango Delta; I can’t remember the details of what they said about it (leopard walked past their campfire? kayak past elephants?), but the way they talked about it stayed with me all these years. They were giddy about the Delta.
So this trip to the watery wonderland was a long time coming. We spent most of our time in Khwai concession — Khwai is a small village on the east side of the Delta; Khwai is also the name of a river, and it’s also the name of a community-run concession (protected wilderness area). Moremi Game Reserve is in this area too, but we spent most of our time in the concession, where we had special moments with leopards, big herds of elephants, the incredibly rare African wild dogs, and so much more.
We stayed at the remarkable Khwai Lediba, and had the fortune of being guided by Phefo, who grew up traversing the Delta in a mokoro with his dad.
The waterways and marshes of the Linyanti River delta.
Linyanti River is in Northern Botswana, and the camp we went to was 120 miles west of Victoria Falls. Getting there is a bit of a clown show: jeep drive from Victoria Falls to the Botswana border; walk across the border, sheep deep your feet (to avoid transfering foot and mouth disease), another jeep to Kasane airport; small plan to Linyanti dirt airstrip; helicopter into Linyanti Expeditions camp. Miles without tarmac are a different scale than miles with.
Linyanti Expeditions is a seasonal camp, only open during the dry season when the river recedes, leaving behind lagoons, marshes, grasslands and adjacent riverine forest. As the waters recede during dry season, animals congregate around the remaining pools, leading to an intensity of social and predatory interactions.
With ‘Prof Ken’ as a guide, a pride of lions became the throughline of our time there; tracking or following them over the course of four days as they assembled the pride, then feasted together on a hippo. Alongside this multi-day journey was the most beautiful, quiet time with eagles, waterbuck, elephants, zebra and mokoro (traditional Okavango canoes). African Bush Camps know what they’re doing.
Linyanti Expeditions is a seasonal camp, only open during the dry season when the river recedes, leaving behind lagoons, marshes, grasslands and adjacent riverine forest. As the waters recede during dry season, animals congregate around the remaining pools, leading to an intensity of social and predatory interactions.
With ‘Prof Ken’ as a guide, a pride of lions became the throughline of our time there; tracking or following them over the course of four days as they assembled the pride, then feasted together on a hippo. Alongside this multi-day journey was the most beautiful, quiet time with eagles, waterbuck, elephants, zebra and mokoro (traditional Okavango canoes). African Bush Camps know what they’re doing.
Mana Pools, Zimbabwe
Beautiful days at Nyamatusi Camp. Mana Pools National Park runs alongside the great Zambezi river, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984.
Mana means ‘four’ in Shona; there are four large pools created by the Zambezi, which magnetize wildlife, particularly in dry season. Thanks to African Bush Camps and Tanda Afrika for making this trip happen; I can’t say enough good things about them.
Mana means ‘four’ in Shona; there are four large pools created by the Zambezi, which magnetize wildlife, particularly in dry season. Thanks to African Bush Camps and Tanda Afrika for making this trip happen; I can’t say enough good things about them.