I’m not long back from leading the Botswana Animal Communication Retreat and I’ve been trying to work out how to share it with you. To describe it as magical doesn’t do it justice, words also get in the way of a very sensory experience.
I will endeavour to share some of the highlights, but these are only a few of the treasured encounters and communications we shared with animals, birds, trees, water, fire, wind, land, and other aspects of nature. To detail everything that happened with you would take a book!
Okavango Delta – Painted Dogs
The retreat began with a spectacular light aircraft flight across the Okavango Delta, then a short game drive to our private camp in Moremi. On our first morning in camp, we stood in circle and grounded, greeted the land and animals, set our intention for the day. When we opened our eyes, we saw the camp team looking one way, our eyes followed their gaze, and that’s when we saw two African painted dogs (also called wild dogs just behind the dining table.
Then we saw the wild dogs were looking at a kudu standing in the edge of the water. The wild dogs waited the kudu out, who then decided to make a run for it, and they followed. The kudu got away (which is great if you are the kudu but not so great if you are a hungry wild dog). The two wild dogs then lay down and rested under a tree. This encounter was a beautiful welcome at the start of our retreat.
Elephants, Elephants, Elephants
What followed was heavily emphasised by Elephants, so many elephants, crossing in front of us, stopping and communicating, eating beside the jeep, and babies, so many beautiful baby elephants protectively watched by their elders. We fell asleep under canvas to the sounds of hippos in the lake and elephants skirting around camp.
KHWAI
On our move day to Khwai we had been seeing a lot of giraffes, 22 on one count. We stopped at a large baobab tree for coffee when a single giraffe completely on their own walked across our view, then stopped. We fell into silence. I welcomed the giraffe and listened. The giraffe walked straight towards us and stopped just a few metres away, seeming to look into the eyes of everyone. It felt like time has stopped.
The giraffe communicated, ‘Thank you for your grace.’
I dropped deeper down into presence, breathed out, and immediately became one with the giraffe (a gestalt technique I refer to as merging).
What I then felt was gentleness in strength.
The giraffe acknowledged all of us and our presence. Then communicated, ‘Thank you on behalf of giraffe and all. Engaging with love’.
After numerous more experiences with wildebeest, common long tailed starling, crimson breasted shrike, red billed franklin, common thatching grass, blade grass, black heron, yellow billed storks, hammer kop, vervet monkeys, coucal bird, jacana baboon, zebra, and more elephants. There so many more species, too many to mention.We sat in silence for an hour deepening our connection with our environment. No photos. No other vehicles, just a passing black-backed jackal. Then a nine-elephant herd walked slowly in front of us from right to left, the matriarch at the rear. The herd turned right and walked down a gully, but then did a sharp left towards the bush. I asked the matriarch how she had communicated the change of direction and I felt she had expressed a low sound maybe like a grunt that we as humans are not capable of hearing. Once the herd was heading in the correct direction, she gave a beautiful deep purr of all is well.
The Lion and the black mane
Our last location was Savute in world famous Chobe National Park. At our first circle I felt an animal connecting, saw a large lion face with a dark outer mane with my mind’s eye, and then heard him speak.
The lion began. ‘Welcome to my land. Look me in the eyes. No photos. Communion. What you came for.’
Then I saw his image move appear above the fire in the centre of our circle, “You are protected,” he said. I saw a picture of a holographic dome coming down from him and encasing all of us.
We set off to go to one location but a call to our guide created the question, “There is a lion, would you like to see him?”
Yes, of course! We changed direction and went in search of the roaring lion. He continued to roar, calling us until we laid eyes on him, then he fell silent.
He came out of the bush between the trees and walked diagonally across the grassland directly to our vehicles. So purposeful. His face and mane was the same I’d seen with my inner eyes. He could have easily chosen a different route to avoid us or remain unseen.
The Lion King – Sekakama
He walked between our vehicles and the four other jeeps that also came to see him. Everyone one of us looked him right in the face, soaking up every second, almost breathing him in. Relaxed, majestic, powerful.
All jeeps parted and our guide took us off to where he felt the lion would appear next. Now it was just our group, waiting. Then from around the corner he came, walking directly down the middle of the golden sand road to where we were parked.
I felt his eyes connect with my own and the instruction, ‘walk with me.’ I voiced it out loud for others. Some of us walked with him, some merged and walked more closely as him.
He advised me, “Be seen.”
We were together in communion for a glorious hour from 7 – 8am before he began to walk away and I felt from him, “This will be the last time.”
Our guide commented that it has been one of the best encounters. In the last few moments I took his photo.
The second day in Savute, we were in morning circle and a leopard communicated, “Look up.”
But it wasn’t a leopard we encountered, it was a small splinter pride of the marshland pride, one lioness and two lions were on the move. She would stop, look back to us, and instruct, “Come with us.”
The Lioness
Our guide mooted it was time for a refreshment break and we unanimously responded that we didn’t need a cup of tea and wanted to remain with the lions.
They continued to walk, and we respectfully followed. The lioness would stop periodically, look back to us, and repeat, “Come with us,” as she walked on.
I asked her, “Where are you taking us?”
“We’re taking you home,” she replied.
After an hour, they walked into the bush, and we couldn’t follow so we respected the time to say farewell and headed for refreshments. As we stood there sipping hot tea by the jeep, three golden heads could just be seen across the savannah using binoculars, they were lying in the shade of a tree, still present with us, watching us, fully aware.
The Leopard
On the final day of our Botswana safari, we learned there had been a leopard walk through the camp. We headed out and got the call there was a leopard sighting. We got to the place, all eyes looking down across the grassland. No sighting.
Then we turned and looked up and there laying across the branch of a dead tree, the only tree in the open savannah, was the leopard with his back to us.
“Look up,” he’d said the morning before. How could we forget?
He communicated, “Decide what you want to do and do it with purpose. Rest when you need to rest. Take action when it’s necessary. Feel the power of my strength in rest. Use your tail to change direction at any time.”
The Botswana safari began with painted dogs and ended with leopard. It could not have been more perfect and we are so grateful.
We said goodbye to our wonderful guides and camp team, goodbye to our safe canvas tents and ensuite bathroom with toilet and bucket shower, and with hearts full we said goodbye to the land, the land spirits, the ancestors, animals, birds, and all aspects of nature.
The Victoria Falls
The falls, known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya (“The Smoke That Thunders”), is a massive waterfall on the Zambezi River, forming the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe
Our last day we visited the Victoria Falls and felt her awesome power. My solar plexus thumped and by legs wobbled, I had to sit and communicate to lower the impact. We got wet, very wet, but it was worth it to experience the widest waterfall on the planet and our first fully circular rainbow. What a sight!
The White Rhinos
In the afternoon we went on a walking safari with white rhinos. Our guide educated us on the way about different types of dung and what they could be used for, what damage to branches meant, and so much more. When we arrived with the rhinos, they were peacefully co-existing with Chacma baboons, and a large bull elephant walked in, looked at us, then continued on his way. Walking with rhinos is not only educational, it is a conservation initiative that helps protects the rhinos from poachers, fund rangers, and raises awareness to their vulnerability to dehorning.
Our final communication came from one of the white rhinos called Jack. He communicated, “You are the Earth keepers. Do your job.”
It felt like the full stop to a very moving, magical, and transformative adventure. We left with a feeling of greater responsibility to be custodians of beautiful planet Earth.
Gratitude for Everything and Everyone
I am so grateful to all the animals, birds, trees, grasses, earth, fire, water, and wind who communicated their wisdom and supported us during our shared communion.
I am grateful to different aspects of nature who accepted our healing, love, and reverence.
I am grateful to the beautiful people who answered the whisper of their heart and booked their place. You were all sensitive and spectacular – continue to be yourselves and beam your bright light.
I apologise to all the other animals and nature beings left unacknowledged here, you are in my heart, and I am so thankful for our communion – especially a lilac breasted roller, crocodiles and cheetahs.
The highlight for me? It has to be my connections with the zebras. But those stories are for another time.
Conservation in Action
Your attendance will contribute to local employment, support communities, and give politicians a reason to support conservation. Tourism in Botswana is the envy of the continent in many ways, and the expansion to areas around the national parks has gradually increased the area effectively protected for wildlife.
- Enlarging the continguos area in northern Botswana for wildlife
- Helping to ensure that game populations increase in size and become more viable
Join Pea next time!
If a mobile-camping safari retreat with an animal communication focus shared with like-minded people calls to your heart, you have an opportunity to join Pea in June 2026. Visit Botswana Animal Communication Retreat for full information and booking details. Limited places available!
Subscribe to our newsletter for courses, events, and more on intuitive animal and nature communication.
