Durban conservationist on lessons from Southern Africa wildlife expedition
A Durban conservationist has described an almost 12000 km expedition across southern Africa, as a highly rewarding experience. A team consisting of all women travelled through South Africa by road, and to neighbouring countries Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia over a total of 50 days.
The project draws attention to the human-wildlife conflict, aims to educate the youth about protecting the environment and wildlife, as well as raise funds for local conservation groups.
"It's quite an exciting expedition because it's all about giving back, the ladies got to spend time with young ladies in schools in these rural communities and showcase that there are other options out there that they can choose from - that they can choose a life focusing on conservation instead of going the other route of poaching. When we were in Damaraland - [Namibia], we bumped into a group of university students that are studying eco-tourism. It was very interesting to hear their stories and interact with them.
"There's definitely more that you can do. This is like the tip of the iceberg and this is why I keep doing these all-female expeditions. I firmly believe that if you put a group of women from different backgrounds together - you can influence younger ladies to be more protective of our wildlife," she said.
The trip was separated into three legs - where volunteers distributed educational booklets, visited other non-profit organisations and met patrons involved in conservation work at a grassroots level.
Geyser says the members of the all-women team drew closer having spent extended periods of time together.
"It was broken up into three sections. At each particular time - there were five crew members including myself. It's really special when you are sitting around a campifire, you're driving for seven to eight hours a day, you get to share stories. You become like a little sisterhood and have an incredibly tight bond. We had no support team and only had each other. It's one of my favourite things to see the ladies have these life-changing experiences by simply being out there in Africa."
Geyser says a plan for the third installment of the Rise of the Matriarch adventure is already underway.
You can follow @blueskysociety on all social media networks, for snippets from their journey.
The Eco-exist Project, based in Maun - northern Botswana - is one of the partner non-profit organisations. Watch director, Dr. Anna Songhurst's story below.