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WILDERNESS
If you look up the word ‘wilderness’ in the dictionary or on Google, you will find various definitions that all seem to focus on the fact that the wilderness is an uninhabited, uncultivated and inhospitable region or area. And, I suppose for most people, that is quite enough to persuade them to avoid such regions or areas and stick to the beaten and well-used paths.
None of these references make any attempt to mention the spiritual qualities of the wilderness which, most fortunately, are well covered by other great writers. The space allowed me in this blog is too short to include full reference to all such writers, so I will simply give you my own definition which is that ‘the wilderness is a place where the hand of man has not set foot’. Actually, that’s not original, but I like it!
True wilderness has qualities that are not easy to explain to those who regard unspoilt, wild and often remote countryside with some degree of concern or trepidation. A writer, much more competent and famous than old Fred Bullock, once noted that although many people may dream of ‘instant’ wildernesses and the opportunity to be transported speedily and comfortably into a wilderness area where ‘they may drink in its essence in a gulp’, the truth is that they would do better to stay away and see it through films, videos and well-illustrated books. Indeed, as Max Nicolson has suggested, that they ‘get to know some substitute wilderness nearer to home to be visited often enough and long enough for some degree of familiarity to be achieved with it.’
The pressures of the ever-expanding urban environments will increase the need by many people to escape into wild or unspoilt countryside, but I believe that it is not the real wilderness that will satisfy such apparently urgent needs as most will not have the right mental or spiritual receptors in their minds to appreciate it.
True wilderness is becoming an extremely rare commodity and the little that is left demands man’s immediate attention to its long-term conservation.
Is this little rant relevant to our area? I believe it is, because right on our doorstep is an area of mountains, valleys, streams, grasslands and forests -indigenous ones of course – which make up the 19000 hectares of the Wolkberg Wilderness Area.
