Wilderness Leadership Trails – re-connecting man and nature

Introduction

When you combine a magical location, an inspiring teacher and nourishing food, travel has an almost alchemical power to it. Special journeys can irrevocably change us and many of us at one time or another have experienced this shift.

Our vision is to help people live richer, more fulfilling lives. This occurs when we begin to increase our self-awareness, understand how to be more conscious citizens, improve our feelings of self-empathy and empathy towards others and experience living in harmony with each other and with nature.

The Wilderness Trail

“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit” ~ Edward Abbey

A trail is not a hike. It is not a safari. It is not a personal endurance test. A Wilderness Trail is a deeply profound experience that is very difficult to articulate. It is a chance to return to your natural habitat. A digital detox. A deep experience of our own connection to the natural world. A chance to re-wild yourself and get inspired by the rhythm of nature. Your experience is carefully facilitated by guides who are arguably the best in Africa. The food is beyond what you could imagine. An authentic Wilderness Trail is unlike any other experience. Those who have been on this trail return again and again. You simply have to experience it to fully understand the power it can have on you, your team and your relationships.

This wilderness trail was pioneered by Dr. Ian Player well over half a century ago. After all of this time, the principles, the experience and the purpose of these trails remain the same. It runs over five days with a few days either side organised for you in a hotel. You sleep under the stars. You experience some of Africa’s most wild and sacred places. But most importantly, the trail experience is about you, a personal journey into wilderness and yourself. This is an experience that inevitably creates environmentally conscious leaders and ambassadors for our wild spaces.

Developing Wild Leaders

Wilderness Leadership helps nurture an understanding of what a leader is. The trail experience helps develop self-reliance, improves judgement, decision making, respect, and a sense of responsibility that helps leaders thrive in today’s rapidly changing business landscape.

The benefits of a wilderness experience

• Chance to destress and reconnect with who you really are
• Amazing bonding, team building and relationship building
• A Digital Detox, no cell phones, social media
• Detox – healthy food, no alcohol or artificial stimulants, exercise and personal space
• Tranquility – solitude and meditation. Stimulates flow of creative thinking
• Different stimulus of adrenalin and responsibility in looking after and working with peers
• Test personal boundaries and comfort zones
• Learn new skills- flora, fauna, bush craft, astronomy, ecology, tracking
• Become ambassadors for a cause – protection of wilderness areas, anti- mining and anti-poaching lobbyists,
• Rewild yourself and develop a language of wilderness and wild spaces
• Explore the spirituality of wilderness
• Wilderness immersion has a significant psychological healing properties
• No hierarchical pressure
• Leadership quality development
• Provides neutral space in which to explore company issues

FAQ’s

The trip is all inclusive, meaning you do not need to worry about anything. We include transport from Durban (or the nearest airport) and all your trail equipment.

Q: Special Dietary Requirements & Allergies?
A: Our guides are master cooks and we have catered for all sorts of allergies and special dietary requirements. Just let us know prior to trail if you have any special requirements and we will get it arranged for you.

Q: How many people can go on a trail? (if not booking as a bespoke group)
A: Each trail accommodates between six and eight trailists.

Q: Are the trails guided and safe?
A: Two experienced, armed guides lead each trail. These guides are highly trained and in over 60 years we have never had a trailist hurt by an animal.

Q: Where do we sleep?
A: You set up camp in an area chosen by your guide and sleep under the stars, a once in a lifetime experience in its own right. Each trailist is expected to also stand night-watch and guard the fire while others sleep.

Q: How fit do I need to be to do a trail?
A: You do not need to be especially fit, provided you are over 15, healthy and can carry a rucksack and manage a few kilometers walking each day you should be fine. The duration of the daily walks are customized for your comfort. A trail is NOT an endurance test, in fact, it’s rather relaxing.

Q: Is there mobile phone reception on trail?
A: No sophistication (including mobile, watches, music or liquor) is allowed on trail. Trust us, you’ll love the experience of being away from that for a few days anyway.

Q: Is this a malaria area?
A: Although we do recommend mosquito repellent, our trail venues are not malaria risk areas, with the exception of Okavango Trails in Botswana.

Guides & facilitators

Our guides are some of the most experienced in Africa, specially trained not just for your own safety but to also facilitate your wilderness experience and give you deep, meaningful insight into Africa and the wilderness area. For many, this experience inevitably also opens up a deep insight into yourself. Reconnecting with nature at such a profound level changes the way you see the world, changes the way you see yourself and your experiences in the modern world.

Our guides have a vast amount of experience, they spend over 2000 hours a year in the wilderness and they are arguably some of the best in Africa.

Your guides are also highly trained to ensure your safety during encounters with wildlife such as Rhino, Lions, Elephants, Buffalo and other when on foot, something few people ever forget and fewer ever experience.

For bespoke groups from individual organisations who wish to travel as a team, we have a range of facilitators such a business leadership experts, psychologists and wilderness survival skills experts who we can also arrange to join your group.

In mid 2019 we’ll be linking this Wilderness Leadership Trail with our our Soul Safari, so you’ll begin your trail from one of the lodges we feature from uMfolozi Big Five.

Included:

• Group sizes range from 6-8 people – organised as either a bespoke group or bookable as an individua
• All trail equipment provided.
• Transport from Durban, airport pick up and drop off
• All meals, seriously good food, catering for any dietary requirements.
• Experienced guides to guide you and ensure your safety.
• All camping equipment including ground sheets, foam mattress, sleeping bags and rucksacks, cooking utensils, eating utensils, toilet-paper, spade, water containers.
• Transport from a designated meeting place to the wilderness area.
• Trail fees cover all gate fees, overnight fees etc… no hidden costs

Locations

iMfolozi, iSimangaliso, Pilanesberg, Okavango, Wild Coast and Drakensberg but we predominantly off this in iMfolozi.

Women And Resilience

You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I’ll rise”

– Maya Angelou

Resilience is a capacity present in all of us, regardless of gender. It is the ability to both recover from setback with learning, and to adapt oneself to changed circumstances. It is more than mental toughness, it is the flexibility to find new ways of thinking, feeling and behaving in order to achieve our goals.

It is a capacity that gets tested by the stresses of life and those stresses are gender blind. However, the evidence is that resilience is a key capacity for career success and that the barriers that women still face within work require them to have higher levels of resilience: to stay persistent, to deal with barriers and recover from setbacks.

We believe that since women have the right to a career that is satisfying, successful and does not drain their physical, emotional and mental energies, it is important that they can both recognise and utilise their resilience qualities and develop strategies to regain resilience when they lose balance.

Women And Resilience can be delivered as a byte size session or a longer workshop. A typical workshop includes:

• Understanding the contributors to resilience
• Gaining a profile of individual resilience strengths and resilience gaps
• Recognising what changes under pressure
• Strategies for developing resilience that encompass physical, mental and emotional dimensions
• Combining research evidence with experiential learning

Why Carole, why this workshop?

This session utilises Carole’s work as an executive coach, where she helps develop individuals at every career stage and knows that resilience gets tested whether they are in a first role or the CEO. As a writer and researcher she has looked at how people regain resilience when it is lost and has used that learning in working with individuals and groups. She is Visiting Professor in Business Coaching at Ulster University and is the author of a number of career books as well as the award nominated Resilience: A Practical Guide for Coaches. She is the past President of a European wide women’s management development network, and has written for academic and popular publications on the issue of women’s careers.

This can also be delivered as a live webinar by Zoom or similar platform.

Woodland Basecamp for organisations

The Woodland Basecamp workshop aims to teach all the skills needed to spend a whole day comfortably in the woods. Our presenters Andrew and Emma combine their knowledge of outdoor culture, nature and adventure with their background in illustration and design. They have been living in a woodland environment for eight years and have learnt most from life by simply staying put in one spot and allowing nature to reveal itself.  They’ll share with you how to set up camp, using lightweight tarps and clever knots, find and prepare firewood, teach fire lighting using natural tinders, cook food over fire and carve useful objects with simple tools. Most of all though, they’ll teach you how to switch on your senses and become more attuned to the rhythms of nature, making for a richer, deeper outdoor experience.

This workshop can be taught across all levels from senior leaderships teams and down the line.

Email us to start the conversation at [email protected] 

Presenter The Life Adventure

For individuals and organisations who want to feel and think better, both emotionally and physically, The Life Adventure is a wellbeing consultancy and online platform that offers you practical tools and techniques in the form of talks, workshops, programmes and online video. We teach you how to live your life more fully, how to be more present and how to operate at your best, both at work and play. We give you clear, practical takeaways on unique subject matter that will change the way you, and your organisation, sees the world, forever.

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What’s included

Group sizes range from 6-8 people – organised as either a bespoke group or bookable as an individual
Flights if required
Transport from Durban, airport pick up and drop off
All meals, seriously good food, catering for any dietary requirements
Experienced guides to guide you and ensure your safety.
All camping equipment including ground sheets, foam mattress, sleeping bags and rucksacks, cooking utensils, eating utensils, toilet-paper, spade, water containers.
Trail fees cover all gate fees, overnight fees etc (no hidden costs)

Price contact us to discuss your requirements

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Presenter Dr Carole

Dr Carole Pemberton believes everyone deserves to have a working life that is satisfying, allows for success and does not drain them of their physical, emotional and mental energies. These are not ‘soft’ aspirational words they are conditions which are key to both the engagement of staff, and their ability to perform in high demand environments. has spent her working life, researching, writing, consulting and working with individuals and organisations on the challenges of living out careers in organisations. That involvement with individuals at every age and career stage from graduate entrant to CEO has given her recognised expertise in career management, executive coaching and resilience. interest in resilience grew from working with leaders who had lost access to their own resilience because of the relentlessness of demands, or because of career setback. Alongside her work as a coach, she is also Visiting Professor in Business Coaching at the University of Ulster. This means that she brings a strong evidence base to her work, and her skill is in translating what academic research discovers into its practical meaning in the workplace. She is the author of a number of books including Coaching to Solutions: A Guide to Performance Coaching for line managers and most recently Resilience.

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What’s included

A Women & Resilience session of any required duration is available to organisations as part of our revolutionary business programmes. Please contact us at [email protected] for pricing according to your requirements, and any more details you may require on this session.

Price Price on application

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Presenter The Life Adventure

For individuals and organisations who want to feel and think better, both emotionally and physically, The Life Adventure is a wellbeing consultancy and online platform that offers you practical tools and techniques in the form of talks, workshops, programmes and online video. We teach you how to live your life more fully, how to be more present and how to operate at your best, both at work and play. We give you clear, practical takeaways on unique subject matter that will change the way you, and your organisation, sees the world, forever.

MORE »

What’s included

This Woodland Basecamp workshop can be organised as a half or full day session as part of our revolutionary business programmes. Please contact us at [email protected] for pricing according to your requirements and any more details you may require on this session.

Price

Add to Cart

Add to Wishlist