Your Wild Self is Calling – You Belong Here

There is a part of you that is wild. You were born with this Wild Self. Before society taught you who and what to be, this Wild Self was with you – roaming free and barefoot in the undergrowth. This Wild Self is your most essential nature, lying dormant and quietly camouflaged under all the “shoulds” and “have to’s” of modern life… patiently waiting for you.

There has always been a wild self that has guided the spirit of Kruger Park Hostel. Some may say it started with the adventurous vision of Rene Reprich, the manager and founder, who listened to a wild part of himself that led him to establish this haven on the fence line of the Kruger National Park. Some may say it started even before that...

We have seen this wild, inner knowing repeated many times around our campfires since the hostel’s inception. What we know for sure is that Kruger Park Hostel stands today because of this wild self. When faced with challenges, Rene, along with Mayra, the once volunteer who fell in love and now serves as the assistant manager, and Martin, a local guide and ranger, followed their wild instincts to create a place where the wilderness teaches and transforms all who visit.

Today, in 2024, we witness many people on safari discover their Wild Self on the back of a safari vehicle, wading barefoot through the bush, or perhaps just quietly looking up for the first time in a long time into a night sky full of stars.

What Is The Wild Self?

There is a Wild Self inside each of us. It’s the part of us deeply connected to our essence. It’s the part that lives in a deep knowing of how to be in the world – free from the ideals and demands society places on us. The Wild Self never disappears. It may be hidden or obstructed by shoulds, coulds, or have-tos. But, when we connect with the Wild Self, life begins to feel like perpetual play. Time stands still. Hours can pass in an instant. Connecting with the Wild Self feels like an immense homecoming, a sense of deep belonging, a return. It is a reconnection to the source of ourselves. To the essence of ourselves. It feels beautiful, expansive, and true.

The first step to healing is to go away from culture for a while. Go and be wild.

Where Does The Wild Self Come From?

While this deep, essential self has been inside each of us for millennia, it was almost 2 years ago that we first began to articulate the concept. The idea emerged from the desire to describe a state of being beyond social context, allowing nature to become the central theme within us. This perspective has taught us that if the Wild Self is awake inside us, our natural tendency is to care for the planet and integrate into the natural ecosystem. We stop fighting culture and return to nature.

Ways to Find Your Wild Self at Kruger Park Hostel

Kruger Park Hostel is a place to remember that wildness is a true form of aliveness. It is a place of vitality, rest, indulgence, and awakening. Here, you are invited to reconnect with the natural world and the animals, of which we are all a part. We believe in a vitality that comes from being in harmony with the rhythms of nature. Here, we rediscover what it means to be human, what it means to be part of the natural world, and a shared humanity. More than anything, it is a place of remembering. It is a shift from the world of doing to the world of being. It is a chance to rediscover your own nature – to tap into a deep natural intelligence in the still core of your own Wild Self.

Getting In Touch With Your Own Wild Self at Kruger Park Hostel

The connection to the Wild Self can happen on many levels – from simply walking around the reserve in silence first thing in the morning and hearing your own inner voice come alive for the first time in a long time, to deeply connecting with the plants, animals, and landscapes in a wordless environment. Your Wild Self can stir when you look into the eyes of a lioness or hear the rasping call of a leopard in the night. You can connect with your Wild Self by catching yourself in hysterical laughter around the fire, making new friends from far-off places, waking up refreshed after a good night’s sleep, or eating a meal under the stars. There are no limits to where this wild part of you might show up. The entire Kruger Park Hostel experience is a gateway to meeting your Wild Self again… to coming home to your essence.

There is a part of you that is wild. You were born with this Wild Self. Before society taught you who and what to be, this Wild Self was with you – stalking free and barefoot in the undergrowth. The Wild Self is your most essential nature lying dormant and quietly camouflaged under all the “shoulds” and “have to’s” of modern life… patiently waiting for you. This wildness in you is your birthright. It knows your truest essence and expression in this world. Natural. In the same way lions know they are for the pride and leopards come in with secretive solitude. Your Wild Self knows how to bring you fully alive. The truth of who you were and are before the world told you how to be. In nature’s broad cathedral, this Wild Self, dormant for so many years, begins to unfurl, shake out its scraggly coat, and flex its clawed feet. Something cellular and primal is called forth when we gaze into the many mirrors of wildness and see ourselves reflected as cat and eagle, stone and star. As the days at Kruger Park Hostel pass, bending time to the rhythms of sunrises and nightfalls, the Wild Self takes its place in the true center of our beingness. A safari is never the new experience we thought it would be. Rather, a safari brings with it a hard-to-place nostalgia. A sense that I have been here before and all along. A safari is a remembering. A belonging to something bigger than ourselves. A remembering of the truth of who we are at the seed of our spirit. The Wild Self has been waiting for you to return to reclaim the clarity of who you are and why you are here. To live as you are. Wild as the world that is yours and every human’s birthright.

Come to Kruger Park Hostel. Reclaim your Wild Self… Gaze at your own quiet magnificence. Remember… you belong here.

2024 is going to be the year where we track aliveness. Where we explore this Wild Self together. Where we find ways to connect and play with our Wild Self a little bit more. As our extended Kruger Park Hostel family, we can’t wait to be a place for your Wild Self to be honored and given space to breathe and express itself. We look forward to doing this together, whether right here on the Kruger Park Hostel Blog or in person on your next visit.

Your Wild Self is calling. Remember… you belong here.