Reignite The Desire To Travel
Halfway through Big Cat Month, the response from around the world has been incredible so far. I really hope it plays a small part in stimulating travellers to come back to Africa no matter who they actually book with.
First, we must reignite the desire to travel then we can speak about which lodges or camps are best suited to their needs.
One of those desires is romance, and mid-February is also a reminder about how meaningful relationships and love is in our lives. The question in this ever diminishing distinction between Man and Animal is whether animals can love.
Beverly and I gave a controversial lecture in National Geographic’s Grosvenor Auditorium years ago, touching on how ‘old science’ around us (Man) and them (Animals) needed to be adjusted.
Language was once the distinction, but parrots, elephants, the great apes, whales even lions combine sounds to communicate in their own language.
The ability to think in the past, present and future was once thought to be distinctly ours, but elephants have memories; lions look at a river crossing and imagine the future kill.
Empathy is evident in elephants, and so is altruism. Even the use of symbols is not uniquely human.
And finally, recently, Neuroscience tells us that many “animals possess the physiological attributes needed to enable them to experience love.”
This is a huge breakthrough. It has resulted in us looking through our film footage and considering the experiences our guides share daily on our internal WhatsApp channels for images and scenes that show this.
It informs the way animals think and now feel, and it makes no sense that emotions could evolve in just one species in the Universe and not others. It also dictates how we should be engaging with other creatures we share the planet with, animals who can also love.
This breakthrough message comes at the right moment as Valentine’s Day approaches.
Great Plains moments and experiences in camps support and promote this – a bottle of Champagne at a copper bubble bath, private dining, unique romantic settings – not because of any commercial benefit but simply because we enjoy curating these moments. These moments are celebrated when you share dedicated time together, reflect, talk about a future together, or merely give gratitude.
This coming weekend we pre-empt that by sending our managers from ol Donyo Lodge off for a bit of time together as they celebrate their wedding vows. With much delight and congratulations to Graham and Savanna!
To love.