Treading Lightly On The Earth

Sometimes one meets a person who makes the right impression. I did; he's a strange man, quiet, introspective, solitary, much like the animals he loves. At first, he is also quietly arrogant and a snob.

He's a free spirit, born free; he played his guitar in pubs in the seventies, hooked up with one of the most beautiful women I've seen, and could be in the 1980s. He's charismatic, dishevelled, brave, and incredibly passionate. He ticks many boxes, but the one we all admire him for is his love of big cats, nature, the earth, and the environment. His determination and guts are extraordinary. He is John Varty, aka JV, a human being extraordinaire. Here is a maverick songwriter, poet, visionary, and conservationist with a lust for life and the wild. I doubt he suffers fools gladly.

Can you imagine getting into your car in the early hours of a Saturday morning (4h00), driving at a leisurely pace to an almost forgotten village called Phillipolis in the Orange Free State, making a couple of left turns, and, thirty minutes later, interacting with Bengal Tigers? It sounds almost impossible. It's not! There, on a vast tract of land in the middle of nowhere, John Varty is rehabilitating neglected tigers and tigresses who have adapted so well that they're breeding again.

It all began at a zoo in Toronto, where a tigress was barely surviving in a cage. He rescued her and, at great expense and frustration, brought her to his farm, where he nursed her back to health and gave her the freedom she was meant to have. I believe there are now 24 tigers, all roaming the koppies and savannas of the Free State. Her name was Destiny.

From the Song "Destiny Child" by John Varty

We were fortunate to spend a few hours alone with JV on two game drives, one in the afternoon and the other in the morning. This man is one with nature, and the animals around him feel completely at ease. He knows their habits inside out. That's what he does; he is so dedicated that he willingly sacrificed 14 years of his life tracking, studying, and familiarising himself with a leopard.

Being a professional documentary cinematographer and photographer is one of his other passions, which added to our enjoyment and highlighted the time we spent in his company, as he was keen to track, wait, and bide his time in the veld so that we could see and photograph these magnificent beasts.

The contrast between our trip to Ranthambore National Park in India and this is a no-brainer. There, we were loaded into 6- or 8-seater jeeps and taken on a wild-goose chase at breakneck speed, rushing to meet a time constraint in a designated area, alongside religious pilgrims and clueless tourists.

We were fortunate to see an ancient matriarch ambling away from us in the far distance on our last drive.  The experience certainly didn't enlighten us, nor did it fire our imaginations or convince us that a successful conservation programme was underway.  I fear tigers are on the brink of extinction there.  Fortunately, not in Africa; here we can boast a success story.

We spent the afternoon with a white tigress and her two cubs (she has three); we watched her, gaped at her size, enjoyed her interaction with the cub, and giggled at him as he growled at his reflection in the pond. She's truly magnificent and rare, with her white coat.

Supper was a simple affair, just us, JV and his assistant, enjoying a home-cooked meal. He grew more animated as he told us about his adventures, his stints in the Mara and the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia; he shared some of his knowledge with us and spoke of his years at Londolozi Game Reserve. With pride and obvious love, he told us about his three children, his dreams of acquiring more land to expand his reserve, and his plans to enter into a joint venture with the local community. I can't imagine him ever sitting on a stoep, staring into the sunset.

On Sunday morning, we returned to the farm for our game drive and saw our first cheetah minutes after I'd closed the huge farm gate. As we drove through the veld, we spotted a beautiful herd of wildebeest, and then he spotted a pride of cheetah with cubs lying in the veld amidst yellow spring flowers. After being assured that all would be well, we were encouraged to alight from the vehicle and take up our positions, lying flat on our stomachs, not metres away from the pride. What an experience. The playful cubs became so comfortable with us, and we, in turn, were so unthreatening that they ventured right up to us. We did get a couple of hisses right in our faces, to show us who was in charge!

After a four-hour drive, we were safely returned to our vehicle; we declined the breakfast invitation because we had a long trek ahead. This journey was certainly a highlight, and I'd like every animal and nature lover to experience it at least once. It certainly opened our eyes to successful conservation in action, and it's right on our doorstep.

JV has published many books;  we bought NINE LIVES and IN THE JAWS OF A TIGER.

In our book he wrote: TREAD LIGHTLY ON THE EARTH. He does, and so must we.

TIGER CANYONS:

Sunette will book accommodation at Starry Nights Karoo Cottages -  www.starrynights.co.za

You can follow JV on Twitter, Facebook (Tiger Conservation), YouTube, and Instagram.

He filmed for National Geographic and almost died doing it, when Corbett attacked him. (It's all in the book!)

Thanks, JV, for an amazing experience.