After years of guiding at Londolozi, I no longer need a map to navigate the reserve as I did when I was a trainee ranger. I have it all mapped out in my head. I know which game paths lead to the sandy riverbeds, which drainage lines disappear into thick vegetation and which crests offer views across the landscape. I know the trees that stand beside certain corners and the places where animals seem to favour crossing the road.
A lone elephant bull peacefully feeding on the lush grass after the rains.
But somewhere along the way, something else happened.
The reserve became a memory palace. Almost every corner has a memory attached to it.
Sometimes it is an obvious one. There is a particular stretch of road where I remember finding The Nkoveni female with her tiny cubs. Another corner reminds me of a morning spent watching lions stalk a herd of impala. There are places where I can still picture wild dogs disappearing into the bushes where I couldn’t keep up or elephants standing quietly beneath a large mahogany tree on a hot summers day. Sometimes those aren’t necessarily the memories that come back first.
Sometimes it is something much smaller.
I remember stopping on a crest one afternoon and watching termite alates pour from a mound. Thousands of tiny winged termites emerged into the evening sky, while behind them the sun was dropping towards the Drakensberg mountains. Another place reminds me of an adult Burchell’s Starling feeding a young Great-spotted Cuckoo. It was a small moment, easily overlooked amongst the excitement of a game drive, but I remember it because of what I was watching. A bird had successfully raised a young cuckoo, despite the fact that the cuckoo had been raised in its nest.
Then some memories are impossible to forget. There is a particular area where I once got a flat tyre in the middle of a herd of more than a thousand buffalo. At the time, changing a tyre probably wasn’t quite as enjoyable as it sounds now. But years later, that road still carries the memory.
A spectacular sighting of a herd of Buffalo approaching a Waterhole at sunset.
This is what happens when you spend enough time in one wilderness. The landscape starts to become more than a collection of roads and landmarks. It becomes a map of experiences.
A fallen tree might remind me of a leopard sighting from five years ago. A bend in the road might take me back to a spectacular thunderstorm. A particular termite mound might remind me of an evening spent watching a pangolin moving through the grass. And sometimes I don’t even realise I am remembering something until I am back in that exact place.
That is one of the things I love about guiding. Every game drive is full of possibility. I can leave camp having no idea what the next few hours will bring. A leopard might be around the next corner. A herd of elephants could appear from the bush. We might follow tracks that lead nowhere. Or we might discover something completely unexpected.
But every drive is also a journey through everything that has happened here before. The reserve is constantly writing new stories over the old ones.
A place where I once watched a lioness with cubs might now be where I would go to find a family of dwarf mongooses. A tree that once held a leopard might now be fallen. An area that was quiet for years might suddenly become the centre of attention.
The landscape changes, and so do the characters within it. But the memories remain.
Perhaps that is why, after all these years, I still get excited when I turn a familiar corner. I know what has happened there before. But I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen there today.
And that is the wonderful contradiction of being a ranger or a tracker. Each game drive is both a trip into the unknown and a journey down memory lane.
You never know what each new day will bring.
This patch of wilderness has become an endless story that I get to return to every day. The animals stop becoming just sightings. They become the characters. And every road, riverbed, tree and rocky outcrop becomes another page of the story.
Hi Matt, I loved this blog as it succinctly sums up.my own experience of a memory map of the bush. I know exactly where I saw who, and what happened where. The lovely thing about it is that all these spots are becoming magical in their own unique way. And even if not much is going on in an area where you have enjoyed a special sighting on a particular day, it seems as if that spot still resonates with the thrill of that earlier sighting. A living energetic memory. That is what makes the environment so very special. I hope in the days to come I will be able to create a new memory map to carry on this unique sense of wonder!
“A map of experiences,” I love this perspective, Matt! I feel the same with places I’m deeply familiar with, although I’d ever thought of it like that. The land, and our sense of place really does act like a collage of memories, each one a different layer.
A nostagic and deeply evocative article. And absolutely true sentiments.
The included photo collection is spectacular, the one more impressive than the next.
Thank you.
Matt, that was one of the most wonderful articles I have read on the Londolozi blog not taking anything away from all the other articles. I have been following this blog for quite a long time now and enjoy each and every one , thank you
Hi Matt, the same happens to me when I come back to palace I had been to before.
A tree in which once was a python curled up, or the Causeway at Londolozi that holds so many memories of birds, crocodiles and hippos.
Or the drainage line in which we once watched the Nkoveni Female playing with her two daughters who are now adults..
So many wonderful memories to which I can always return , even when I am at home. memories that bring the wish to return and see more…
What a beautifully written piece, Matt. And after nine visits to Londolozi, your experiences parallel mine in so many ways. So many places in the reserve are alive in my memory and revisited often through my photos from those trips. Truly magic!
I’m speechless Matt. True poetry of life. The pictures of starry skies or sunsets or like the two termites fallen, in contrast to the buffalo army… and, in the end, unforgettable the picture of the Three Rivers female playing with the Tinxyia female… Mother and daughter and they had been so close to each other…
Marvelous set of photos ! May I ask you who was the female carrying a cub in Matt’s picture? Thank you.
What a wonderful story to share Matt, a reminder of how the land became a part of you as you were becoming a part of it. I can only imagine how many paths you’ve walked and how many times you have driven the roads around and through the blocks, holding memories of magical sightings that only happen once but you will always remember where you were. Now that I have visited several times in the past 8 years, I have my own memory palace. I know where I saw Shingi the first time with his mother but the next visit he was far from that place and without his mother. The causeway is a favorite place as I know where the Giant Kingfishers keep watch , looking for their next meal yet this past visit in April, there were no Kingfishers or crocs – just a single Hammerkop. The land of Londolozi is a continuing story, adding new pages every day and I’m grateful that I have been able to be a part of it. Additionally, your accompanying pictures were perfect for this post.
Hi Matt, you are so privileged to be a Guide there on Londolozi ground. I am sure your memories are precious and every one has it’s own merrit. It is true one day is never the same as tomorrow, because you don’t know who is around the next corner. Londolozi animals are absolutely stunning and the bush does not wait for anyone.
Matt, what a great blog and wonderful memories you mentioned along the way. I caught myself “remembering” familiar areas while I was there after a day or two, but I was so impressed how all of you just know it and all the shortcuts, and “off roading” to get from A to B faster. I can only imagine how certain memories visually come back at a turn or a special place. I envy your “job” and how each day brings new sightings and experiences and memories to take with you. Coming from a visual person, I understand how it’s all a Memory Map and smile. Hope to add to my Londolozi “memories” in the near future. Thank you for sharing!
What a great job you have! Lucky you.
❤️🙏🏼❤️
What a beautiful essay, Matt. Very thoughtful and true to the heart. The places we know and love are so full of such memories. I feel it whenever I come to Londolozi, overlaying new memories – sometimes in the same places. Nothing is static, the memories remain and in the spiral of time new experiences are added layer by layer. Thank you for your insight.
Matt, this was such a beautiful piece of writing. You’ve expressed precisely how many of us who visit Londolozi feel, the reason we keep coming back year after year. And your photos are spectacular. Thank you for reminding all of us “blog readers “ how lucky we are to experience, even for a short time, the beauty of the life of the bush.