Can it really be? Yes, Wild Yoga Africa is live!

It’s been a decade-long dream to have a website + blog, and almost two years in the making.

And here it is.

This is where I’ll share upcoming bushveld classes, trails and retreats, always with a focus on intuitive body and nature connection.

This is also where I’ll be writing (and writing and writing). At last.

It hasn’t been easy.

I’ve felt constantly frustrated, because though the vision was strong, I couldn’t always land the logistics, or gather the parts. I wondered if it would ever be done. I worried I might die before the website was ready (I often feel this about half-way into big creative projects).

I don’t know how it all came together. Slowly, incrementally. I worked on it when I could. I chipped away at the small milestones.

I found a magical illustrator (Emma Minkley) and a wizardly designer–developer team (Leandra and Alex Meintjes), who allowed me to pay in instalments as they brought my ideas and sketches to life.

And then, like so many other aspects of my life, it started gathering momentum a few months ago.

Things need the time they need.

In retrospect (but only in retrospect), I’m grateful for the space it needed and the pace it took. I’m at a very different place to two years ago: madly in love with the em dash; mostly settled into my new home in a bushveld town in Limpopo, South Africa; nearing the legal end of a beautiful 15-year relationship; far clearer on what I want to offer (and what boundaries I will need to set).

I’ve had ups and downs since relocating, and I’ve had to face my discomfort with being known and with competitiveness (both inevitable in a small town).

I’ve also had several false starts with collaborations that didn’t resonate, or that were the right idea but had wrong timing. I’ve been ghosted, slightly manipulated and mildly stalked. (Good practice for dating? 🙂 )

All of these challenges have reconfirmed that if I’m able to be myself, I’m on the right track.

So, about the writing…

All those scribbles, journal entries, half-typed ideas and fully formed pieces will finally have a home. (If you’re also a highly divergent thinker, don’t despair. Keep it all somewhere: in a folder or a journal or a box or a trunk. When the time is right and you come to create, you’ll be delighted to rediscover them, even the “bad” ones.)

I’ll be writing content not because I “should for social media”, but because it makes me content. Writing on themes like mellow movement, animal body, delicious rest, deep play, wild connection, being together and ecological grief.

I’ll be sharing from the archives initially:

1. Drafts of poetry, like this one on Lily, my lunar-lit, little she cat, or this one on yellow bellies and wobbly knees;
2. Previously published, tenderly crafted pieces like this one on walking Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park’s Primitive Trail with the grandson of one of its founders;
3. Reflections like these on my tendency to fawn-to-fit as a trauma response or on the burden of over-responsibility for our species (includes a little miracle);
4. Snippets from the bushveld almanac, like this one on being caught out by “The Bandits”.

Thank you to those who have been so present and supportive during this process. Specifically, Anna Rich, Danielle Machado, Georgia Schumann, Jeremy Schreiner, Karine Merven MacKellar, Kate Muller, Lynette Rink, Massimo Rebuzzi, Mo Thilo, Nikki Werner, Ronelle Joubert and Sabrina Krattinger. And the Hoedspruit Yogis, who have been so warm and welcoming.

You’ll be relieved to know that I won’t be talking about the “website-to-be” anymore (there’s always the book-in-progress and podcast-to-be, though…).

With love
Renata

PHOTO: Shara Burger, on location at boutique safari lodge, Serondella.