Horse Riding in Africa - choose the desert

Horseback across the oldest desert on the planet

Many horse riders come too Africa to ride with big game.  Generally lodge-based, these riding  safaris have great appeal to those  who enjoy genteel riding and comfortable lodge-living.  For those to whom the great outdoors on a horse is akin to intoxication, Namibia’s remarkable deserts offers something infinitely more appealing.  

Plunged into a real desert - its weather, its sometimes otherworldly landscapes, and seeming lack of what one would normally consider ‘comforts’ - you find even time seems non-existent here.  And that is exactly its appeal.    Finding yourself in an environment where you are forced to pay attention, to remain present - a different narrative is being related - one you might not perhaps have expected.  There are a few life-enhancing lessons to be learned….

Made small by the sheer size of this magical place

Much as we would like to linger in these remarkable places - intuitively we know we could never survive here. That is the first ‘lesson’ from the desert - gratitude for the simplicity of living carefully  and mindfully.   Seeing plants and animals - even  big ones like giraffe - not only surviving, but thriving in these impossible places.  How?  By paying attention, heedful of simplicity. 

We tend to start off with ideas of what we need to survive this ‘ordeal’ - instead of simply surrendering to being cast into the fray without needing to be ‘armed’ against it - lesson number two.   The animals and plants discover their minimalist way of being in this environment by simply living in it - not thinking about it, not resisting it.  You have to be immersed to know how to swim.  

Riding into safari camp at the end of the day

The third lesson is finding the ‘how’ tends to be immediately available - when we stop resisting. This ‘means whereby’  reveals itself to all who simply pay attention, listen, and allow everything to be as it is.  In these places of extremes,  where the veils are infinitely thinner, we’re better able - when divested of our everyday neediness - and find joy is effortless.

A desert simply is what it is and when we stop resisting that, it really is rather marvellous.

Herds of Oryx thrive in aridity

The ancient desert dweller knew a desert to the the garden of the gods, from which the Lord of the faithful removed all superfluous life, so that there might be one place they could walk in peace (from Shelly’s Ozymandias)