beautiful rock formations, often decorated with ceremonial rock art dating thousands of years old. It is also home to desert elephants the endangered black rhino.
From Damaraland it was time to leave the Namib and enter the open Kalahari savannahs of Etosha National Park. This was a wildlife adventure like no other. I stayed two nights within the park – one at the Dolomite Camp on the western end and the second at the Halali Camp on the eastern side. Traversing the park was an exercise in sheer joy, and the freedom to experience this at one’s own pace cannot be underestimated. With some friendly insider advice and a map of key waterholes, I encountered great herds of wildebeest, zebra, springbok, gemsbok and hartebeest. Giraffes, ostrich and elephants lumbered in an out of the bush without warning. Lions strolled by my vehicle, while skittish jackal and hyena kept an eyeful distance. Black-faced impala were locking horns in spirited competition. It was primordial and it was wonderful.
Throughout my journey, I met and interviewed people about their relationship with wilderness. Some derived their livelihood from these wild places, while others felt in competition with it. Some embraced it for the unique treasure it is, while others simply appreciated the value it provided to them. All of them – from field guides to taxi drivers, park rangers and security guards – were strongly impacted by this place. These people’s micro stories, as well as the broader stories of Namibian wilderness, are being told on I am Wilderness iamwilderness.com, and shared on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram .
Of course the people I encountered were not the only ones impacted by these wild places. While I was in Damaraland, I began to feel that the wilderness I came to see had begun to see me in return. And I became still.
Do you know that feeling of confusion when you're traveling, you wake up from a deep sleep and have to remember where you are? I expected that to be a possibly unpleasant experience while solo traveling across one of Africa's wildest landscapes. But it was quite the opposite. I wish I could convey - or somehow record - the feeling of absolute peace in this photo [PICTURE] - the cool, still air; the chirps & fluttering of morning birds, the grunt of the rock hyrax, the bray of a nearby donkey (or zebra??) and the occasional bellow of the baboon. But it's the sound behind these sounds I really wish I could share. It is stark silence. An ancient stillness that is hard to otherwise describe. And no human sounds to disrupt it. No motors, no jet planes, no electronics or street noise. I came here seeking a landscape unaltered by human "development", but find it in turn to have altered my own soul - slowed it down, stilled the mind, and nurtured a deep sense of contentment - what Cristina Goettsch Mittermeier describes as "enoughness". This was supposed to be a journey to document ecology, global change, and humanity's fleeting relationship with wilderness. But it also - perhaps predictably so - became about spirituality. Of course it did. For these great unaltered expanses of wild are the sources not only of our food, water, the air we breath, a stable climate and the life systems that safeguard a livable planet, but they are also the source of our art, our music, the concept of love and our inner connection with the outer that is unseen - our spirituality, enlightenment, the world religions. They were all derived from our relationship with wilderness.
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