In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. …

More than 55 days away from Switzerland and over 200 Hours actively spent in the Bush, 2 different countrys and surviving all kind of weather – from freezing cold nights – to melting hot walks during the day to stormy nights and rainy mornings. I have arrived – Finally realising that I won’t leave so soon. I wrote down 3 things I love about the bush.

After 4 Weeks in the Selati Game Reserve, it was time to say goodbye to South Africa and let’s go and have a look at Botswana’s Wild Life. After a Corona-Test and a 13hour drive with a complicated Boarder-Crossing we arrived in our Camp in Botswana.  As I am uploading this blog we have already been here for over 3 weeks. Learned about many new things and at the moment we are studying hard for our exams.

Day by day I fall more in love with where I am and who I become.

What I love about the Bush

Everyday is a present 

It is crazy, that I am able to see everyday the most beautiful sunrises & sunsets in the most amazing spots. Every night I get to look up and see 1000 of stars (actually 2500 Stars and 5 Planets are we able to see with our naked eyes ;)) Everyday we drive or walk out into the bush and everyday nature gives us many new storys to tell and lesson learned. Everyday I just see wild animals, plants growing and also my biggest passion: I am able to analyse poop everyday! (Just kidding) But nature wakes up everyday no matter how the weather is. The sun rises and nature awakes. And I am able to be part of it and watch it in full HD.

EVERYDAY! And I don’t even have to pay for the movies I see. Having our coffee break next to Elephants is 10 times better compared to the newest blockbuster with popcorn. I am so thankful for everything I have experienced and learned so far and every morning I am waking up excited for what todays episode is going to be about. (Ok – I am honest. At 5′ O Clock in the morning I am not that enthusiastic about life and often rather want to stay in my bed and sleep through the whole movie.)

 

Nature decides how our day is going to look like

The weather decides, if we are even going out or not. No matter if it is hot or cold, if it is rainy or windy, we just adapt to it. Or at least we try… We do not have an aircondition, we don’t have a dining space inside, we even have showers without any roofs. You work with what you have and accept how it is. When it’s windy and rainy – it is just not a good day to go to the bush (animals also don’t like the wind because it alsonmesses with their hearing and smelling) – and it’s not the end of the world if we just stay at the camp for once. If it ’s absolutly hot – the animals won’t just think ok – we have visitors lets put on a show. No they are trying to survive and they look for shade and hide where we can’t see them. (And yes we will drive anyway 3 hours in the heat around looking for them.) But it is ok. Because nature has much more to show and teach then just the big animals. Trees & stones as our instructors always say – they are always there – they don’t move and they have as well many storys to tell.

It is such a nice feeling of just not stressing about what we are going to see or if we can learn about this or that. In the big picture, yes we have to cover all the topics needed for exams etc. – but there are enough days to do that – and you just learn to trust that everything will work out. We take what nature is willing to give us and don’t force anything. We much more concentrate on what the day will bring us rather than thinking ahead what we want the day to be like. We accept the day for what it is and don’t care so much about what we didn’t see. We concentrate on what we saw! And somehow it feels like everyday was a successful day.

Everything makes sense and everything has its place

In the last few weeks or already months I learned a lot about ecosystems and how nature works. I learned about nutrient cycles and food webs. Every living and non-living organism has its purpose. With the first sunlight, trees and plants start to work and produces energy for everything that comes after. Everyone who has seen Lion King is probably very familiar with the circle of life. And yes of course I watched the movie as well ( actually many times) but since I am here and learn about the details of the circle of life and how animals and plants live together I got a deeper understanding of how nature was able to balance itself for so many years. There are very very small creatures, that are amazing and are as important as the majestic lions. I startet to learn the behaviour of animals such as territorial behaviour or how they adapted to changing living conditions. Colours in birds or mammals furrrr in general – they have most of the time a meaning or are helping with surviving. Surviving doesn’t just mean that you should try to get not eaten – it also means that you find a good mating partner and reproduce and pass on your genes. Nature is a very complex system but at the end everything makes sense and it seems just so easy and simple. Surviving and reproduction (or more romantically said: Love) But for me that is just the most fascinating thing and what makes nature so special.

My experience so far has been amazing. And I fall more and more in love with this kind of lifestyle. And of course it would be just half as fun without the people that went on the same journey 55 days ago as I did.

During this time I of course noticed a few things that I maybe don’t like so much about the bush or put it that way… It showed me what I am missing and what I should appreciate more. Read my blog about 3 thingsI don t like about the bush next week.