How do you even begin to share a conservation journey of almost 100 years? A journey that, by the year 2026 will grant us access to the centenary club. A journey of heart, mind, earth, body, spirit, sentient beings, rivers, leopards, rhinos, and everything in between. A journey that meant that sometimes we got lost or made mistakes and sometimes we found new territories and untouched potential. A journey from a family business, to a corporate expansion and back to a family business that relies on the essence of kinship to keep people connected to a common purpose to accelerate the awakening of humanity in partnership with nature.
How do you explain the level of gratitude to the many teachers, guides, staff, experts who have lent their time, knowledge and passion to this incredible adventure?
How do you explain using words something that can only really be felt, and in fact exists in the wordless space of experience?
This is the challenge that lies before us. Perhaps we should start at the very beginning?
An Intention set in 2015
For many, the beginning of 2020 has been the start to another year, but for the Londolozi Family, it has been so much more. For us, this year in particular, has been a beacon to which we have been striving towards since 2015 when the concept of The 2020 Vision was born. This vision set the clear intention of a living journey that we needed to take towards a sustainable Futuristic African Village. One rooted in the principles of the flywheels of sustainability which include heartware, hardware, heritage and permaculture.
Developing New Systems for Living was at the centre of our intention, allowing for each member of the Londolozi Family to play their part within our Futuristic African Village. We as the Londolozi Family have committed to best-practice technologies and systems (known to us as hardware) from solar power production to waste processing, food gardens, refusing and recycling as well as many other technologies to ensure that we are leaders in creating sustainable village living.
Hardware
- Solar Farm
- Water Resource Management
- Electric Land Rovers
- Food Gardens and Integrity
- Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot
But, sustainability is nothing without the human heart, and that’s where the term heartware was born.
Heartware is not about bricks, money or computers. It is about you, the individual. It’s about creating internal engagement and discipline. It’s about how we live together. It’s about each one of us becoming servant leaders to take Londolozi, South Africa and our planet into the future.
Buying the technology to build the solar farm or to recycle the water was the simple part. We needed to spread consciousness in an infectious way to 280 people in the Londolozi Family to start doing the little things, like switching off their lights and air conditioners, to think of ways to consume less, to change their diet, essentially encourage each individual to live sustainably with each other and the planet. We’re not interested in telling people how to live, rather we allow them to find their own way to their own way of being, with the hope that this will ripple out into the world.
Heartware
- Resource Awareness
- Decorative plants to all be indigenous
- Sustainability Whatsapp group to share ideas
- Pressure on supplies to delivery plastic free
- The production of eco-bricks
- Office paper is “earth kind” and fully recyclable
- Community litter pickups and planting of trees
- Sustainability courses
- And so much more..
Over the past 5 years, we have witnessed a fundamental shift in the behaviour of not only our family members but also our guests who have come to visit us. Recently someone referred to their annual trip to Londolozi as a pilgrimage – a time out from their busy, everyday life, to recharge, reconnect and be a part of a living model for change. What a beautiful way to describe this Londolozi experience.
Pilgrimage
/ˈpɪlɡrɪmɪdʒ/
verb. A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about the self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life.
As we are sure you have now come to realise, the chapters of Londolozi are deep and wide and far too layered to described in one blog.
And we invite you to explore 90 years distilled into four chapters that represent Londolozi’s learnings. Explore the Londolozi Living model, founded in Village life and based on New Systems for Living, that has been pioneering the restoration movement in the belief that the restoration of the planet can only come out of a profound shift in human consciousness…
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has” ~ Margaret Mead
Londolozi is not a game lodge but rather a platform for advocacy of the restoration movement and the new consciousness.
What if there is a place that inspires a profound desire in people to live in deeper connections with each other and the natural world?
There is a place…
It’s called Londolozi…
It’s time to make the pilgrimage…
Great read. Can’t wait to come back.
Bronwyn, loved the video🤗. We have been there 4x and will return in Sept to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary in 2020. Loved the article about sustaining the ability to reuse. My daughter is Santa Barbara Channel Keeper – it was founded by Bobby Kennedy, Jr. He will be speaker at her Blue Water Ball, a fundraiser she has had for 20 yrs.
What splendid post. We can all make a difference whether it is planting bee friendly plants, not using pesticides, growing some of our own food. All we are is guardians for the next generation, and we aren’t doing a good job of it.
Lovely report. We will be there in July with Lex. Really looking forward to it.
Wonderful report. Thank you so much for all you do. We were there in September 2018 and will return. Greetings to Tracker Ray and Ranger Kevin who made our visit so much more valuable and educational.
What a beautiful story of an inspiring journey! Thank you so much for sharing. Hope to be back soon.
Amazing beautuful video.
Fantastic post and video. Those of us who have visited the Londolozi environment, leave forever touched by the people, animals, aesthetics, and your commitment to preserving the natural world as well as researching and practicing the best conservation efforts. Thank you!!
I would be there tomorrow if I could. My heart rests at Londolozi and with the ohana there. Aloha.
This is wonderful. You guys always have been on the cutting edge and its terrific you are doing this. You may also want to check out drawdown.org and see their plan for 2020.
Thanks Michael, Project Drawdown has been a big inspiration for us over the last few years – their plan is certainly inspirational!
A wonderful explanation of what makes Londolozibsuchba wonderful place. Over the years we have visited you and each time we arrive we are taken into this feeling of being part of a family and of a sense of a part of the world where « all is right » , that nature is going about its business as is natural. We have noticed the changes , like the water that is not in plastic. It is delicious and I only surrender my bottle at the end of the safari tonTerence when he promises to pour what is left on the plants. We never worry about the wonderful dinners you make for us and the wonderful trips to see who is there. We learn from our Rangers and Trackers. In short we feel that Londolozi is a haven. We also know how much work all this takes to create and sustain this wonderful haven. Thanks to all of you who make it possible and send us home rested refreshed and more knowledgeable than when we arrived. Victoria
Bronwyn and Londolozi family, What a fantastic post! The story is amazing, the video incredible and the accomplishments aligned with your 2020 goals are real! It has been exciting to watch it all develop into reality!! We remember the beginnings during our 2015 visit and were lucky enough last year to be in camp the day you switched on the solar panels – bravo, bravo!!
What a wonderful and inspiring plan and ongoing execution! But as the world faces this terrible pandemic, I realize just how interconnected we all are – and then worry about the resources I consume to make my sixth pilgrimage from San Francisco to Londolozi next month. I cannot stay away, though, the pull is too great! I hope nothing stops us from visiting our “African home.”