BUSH & BEACH Wilderness Encounter

BUSH & BEACH

KWA-ZULU NATAL, SOUTH AFRICA & PONTO DO OURO, MOZAMBIQUE

3rd – 11th December, 2024 - 9 DAYS / 8 NIGHTS

Please note you can adventure on BOTH sections of the Bush & Beach Wilderness Encounter or chose The Wisdom of Elephants OR The Healing Power of Dolphins. Both sections of the Wilderness Encounter are a separate Investment.

"In our noisy cities we tend to forget the things our ancestors knew on a gut level: that the wilderness is alive, that its whispers are there for all to hear - and to respond to.” 

Lawrence Anthony, The Elephant Whisperer, Learning about Life, Loyalty and Freedom from a Remarkable Herd of Elephants.

WHY SEIZE THE MOMENT?

The unique advantage of observing the gentle giants of Tembe Elephant Park, and of swimming with the dolphins on The Healing Power of Dolphins Wilderness Encounter are the transformative daily self-reflective discussion groups with Ecopsychologist, Mandy (Robinson) Young.  Mandy has spent more than a quarter of a century with wild animals, tribal people, and swimming with free, ocean-moving dolphins. Her passion is to inspire participants in these self-reflective discussions to gain personal clarity and life-changing insights because they have spent time with elephants, or swum with dolphins.

During her profession as a Psychologist Mandy has worked with those struggling with depression, bereavement, addiction, PTSD. childhood traumas, many kinds of abuse, and has journeyed with those on the autism spectrum. She is professionally equipped to engage with you where-ever you are at in your life journey.

Gay Bradshaw in her book Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach us about Humanity, reminds us that elephants can also experience PTSD when their communities are collapsed through culling. Even though they have incredible memories they are very forgiving. A participant in a recent Wisdom of Elephant wilderness encounter entered as a disgruntled divorcee. She felt abandoned and abused. Her time with wonderful elephant mothers changed her life. She decided to sell her house, downscale to a flat, and use the money to fulfill her dream to fly a small, light aircraft. Now as a pilot she flies for the Bataleurs, a conservation group gathering data to preserve wild animals all over southern Africa.

Mandy has discovered research and heard many stories of those who have swum with wild and free dolphins, and thus would like you to know that swimming with dolphins stimulates a greater release of oxytocin important for bonding and emotional responsiveness, they can bring you into a theta state of recall so that memories can be rewritten and resolved, and dolphin echolocations can even balance immune systems. Children with learning difficulties who have swum with dolphins have increased their ability to learn and focus by 150%!. Overall dolphin encounters leave you with an incredible joie de vivre as if you have been buzzed all over with a deep tissue massage. Dolphins can make those swimming alongside them feel accepted, trusted, and loved in an unconditional way.

WHAT WILL YOU EXPERIENCE?

Dolphins and Elephants are the role players in the entire Adventure. They have much in common, both species of mammals are led by a Matriarch, they are self-aware, and have amazing intelligence. Sometimes their ways of interacting and communicating are not so dissimilar to our own. They are beings you can connect intimately and soulfully with. They inspire awe and admiration. Hopefully, like me, as you spend time with elephants and dolphins they will enable you to be present with yourself, and experience the intimacy of love and connection as they chose to spend time with you.

WHERE WILL YOU STAY:

The Wisdom of Elephants

3rd-6th December 2024

You begin our Wilderness Encounter to Awaken Your Wild Within with 3 nights at Tembe Elephant Park and Lodge. This is the home of some of the biggest Tuskers in the world, as well as endangered species like the African Wild Dog. You will sleep in private, luxury tents, embedded in the bush. It is safe because the accommodation area is tastefully fenced off so none of the more dangerous animals or elephants can get too close. The lodge is hosted and administered by the local Tonga people as a local community initiative.

The Healing Power of Dolphins

6th-11th December, 2024

We then transfer to nearby Ponto D'oouro, the Bay of Gold, just across the border from South Africa into Mozambique. This bay is home to about 450 dolphins in a 20km stretch of pristine beach. We are transferred from the Mozambican border post and journey over grassed sand dunes, past smiley, friendly faces to an eco-lodge in the heart of the rustic, relaxed town buzzing with a local market and intriguing restaurants. Cloth shops flash flamboyant colour, and everywhere you can sink your toes into the soft sand. Scrumptious brunches are provided after Dolphin Launches, and each evening we will dine together.

Dolphin launches take place on 3 of the days that we are having fun in the Mozambican sun. We spend 5 days there to ensure the best possibility to locate and swim with the dolphins, as weather conditions can be unpredictable and the dolphihns are wild and have their own lives to live. Prior to our first launch, we will practice snorkeling and choose the gear that fits us best, as well as learn the dolphin code of conduct.

Daily, on both adventures - with the elephants at Tembe, and the dolphins at Ponto,  you can engage in voluntary self-reflective discussion groups that provide the opportunity to integrate and translate what you have experienced with these beatiful and intriguing mammals into personal clarity and life-changing insights.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN EACH DAY & NIGHT

Whilst stating at Tembe Elephant Park we will go on 2 safaris each day and enjoy self-reflective group discussions after game drives to gain life-changing insights from elephant and wild animal encounters.

In Ponto Do Ouro, we will launch to swim with wild, free-swimming dolphins. Our host-on-the-ground and out-at-sea has researched, swum with, and done all she can to protect the many pods of dolphins we will see. She knows how to approach them and they love to be sociable. The dolphins know her well so when we are with her the dolphins know we can be trusted, which makes dolphin swims more safe and engaging. Swimming with dolphins is an exhilaration beyond words. We follow a strict code of conduct when swimming with dolphins in their honor as they allow us into their watery domain.

ABOUT YOUR HOSTESS:

Mandy (Robinson) Young is an Ecopsychologist, who has spent more than a quarter of a century with wild animals, tribal people, and swimming with dolphins. During her profession as a Psychologist which has stretched over three decades, she has walked a healing journey with people of all ages towards more loving relationships with themselves and those they care about, and now with the earth that sustains us. Mandy's passion is to help you gain life-changing, take-home, understandings from your wildlife encounters and observations.

WHAT IS THE INVESTMENT?

The good news is that you can engage in the entire experience, or select only the Wisdom of Elephants part of the adventure, or to Dance with the Dolphins.

Your investment into the entire adventure is US$1825.00 which includes:

+ 3 nights fully catered at Tembe Elephant Lodge with 2 safari drives per day plus conservation, community and gate fees

+ 5 nights Bed, Dinner & Brunch at an eco-lodge in Ponto Do Ouro, 3 Dolphin Swim Launches (weather permitting), Snorkeling Gear Hire and Instructions.

+ Facilitation and Hosting by Mandy (Robinson) Young, Ecopsychologist to ensure you return home with memorable, life-changing, re-wilding understandings that changes your world, and the lives - human and otherwise of all you touch, empower and influence .

If you can only engage in the WISDOM OF ELEPHANTS part of this adventure, your Investment will be US$825 for the 4 days & 3 nights at Tembe Elephant Park 

If you want to solely DANCE WITH DOLPHINS for the 6 days & 5 at Ponto Do Ouro your investment will be US$1000

 I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible to ensure your adventure can begin, as there 8 places avaialble to spend time with the eles at Tembe and 6 to spend time with the dollies at Ponto.