Member-only story
A book review of “Cathedral of the Wild” by Boyd Varty
“Cathedral Of The Wild” is a book by Boyd Varty and it is about his life of being raised on Londolozi Game Reserve by a remarkable family and extended family as they built what is today one of the great African tourist safari preserves. He is a gifted storyteller with a remarkable love nature, his past and people (probably in that order…no bad)…
The preserve has a big footnote in modern history because Nelson Mandela choose to go there to help his recovery after 27 years of imprisonment. There is probably no greater testimony to the beauty and peacefulness of a place than that.
He opens the book with a terrifying story of a life threatening close call with a black mamba (the deadliest snake in the world for humans) and he also leads with a remarkably touching story about elephants that made me cry (trust me the bar is not very high for that for nature stories)…
The book is filled with anecdotal experiences of survival (mostly caused by his Uncle John and his father to make sure he and his sister knew the dangers of the land along with it’s beauty. He successfully makes all of the childhood dangers around him seem like everyday life for those who choose the path of truly engaging nature on nature’s rules.
