Time out

VIEW FROM A HIDE

- MITCH REARDON

Early in October 2020, shortly after quarantine restrictions on interprovincial travel were lifted following the harrowing first wave of Covid-19 lockdowns, I drove north to the Kalahari. After months of hiding out at home, I felt an urgent need to reconnect with deep nature and the Kalahari is one of the planet’s ever-diminishing number of naturally quiet places. Natural quiet doesn’t mean total silence; rather, it’s the sounds of nature without any mechanical noise. Science has empirically verified that quiet places are a balm with the power to heal, but there’s a trick to crossing the divide between human and wild environments: nothing must impede direct access to nature’s soothing sights and euphonies.

My destination was Marrick Safaris, 10 kilometres south-west of Kimberley, the Northern Cape’s raffish provincial capital. In 1994 the Datnow family converted Marrick’s 3000 hectares from domestic farming to ecotourism and it’s where I go when I seek to immerse myself in wild country without being plagued by onerous rules and regulations. Though Marrick is not far from the iconic mining town’s bustle, the marks of civilization’s violent collision with earth’s ecosystems are surprisingly inconspicuous here and, unlike some once-wild places, it’s not overrun by hordes of tourists.