In my fiftieth year, 2020, The Timberlakes who I first got to know in Bulawayo recommended I read Rewilding by Isabella Tree. Nick and I were aware of Knepp Estate, we had seen pictures of Charlie from when they started on his grand family estate, and we both thought he was so lucky. They had been inspired by their time in Africa, seeing trully wild places that are so un-inhabitable humans had not quite managed to damage the environment enough so that nature was still at its best.
It made them look at their own land, and their question….what will happen if we let nature take its course made them brave enough to let go of control. They watched the hedgerows widen, the scrub grow and the connections their type of eco system should support come back. I also highly recommend you read the book!
I booked one of their tree houses for my 50th Birthday in July. To be honest initially we were slightly horrified by how many other people were visiting. We were coming out of pandemic restrictions and the white stork nest was generating a high daily footfall. When we walked around during the day it was very busy. So we waited until dusk and walked again, this time we watched a herd of fallow deer grazing near the ponds. We stood and watched the herd of long horns grazing near the dam and then moving right past us…we both instinctively stepped back as these cows were behaving naturally and we didn’t want to disturb them.
We enjoyed cooking by a fire again. Sleeping in the tree tops was wonderful, from the deck in the hot tub style bath in the late afternoon we could see fallow deer in the field opposite and the leaves danced above us. I realised how spoilt we had been in Zimbabwe and Zambia we had got used to being deep in nature on our own. From the tree house we could hear another family in the other tree house, kids running around. Noises of activity from the camp site. Cars driving up the road. However, it was the happiest I had been in awhile. It felt like the money we had spent to be there was being put to good use. This trip sowed the seed that although I did not realise at the time, was about to grow only 6 months later.
0 Comments