Walking Back to Balance | What the Wild Taught Me About Healing

A NOTE BEFORE WE START

This piece is part of an ongoing series about my road from a childhood liver transplant and alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency to finding health and purpose on foot in wild places. Future chapters will go deeper. For now, I want to share why Tsala Trails exists and why our walks are about far more than sightings.

Above picture: Koenraad drawing tracks in the sand with explanations and stories being told

WHY I KEEP RETURNING TO THE TRAIL

When I was four, surgeons at Red Cross Children’s Hospital gave me a second chance at life with a liver transplant. Years later, a tough lesson during a student river-guiding season reminded me that survival is not a single event. It is a practice. Health is not only lab numbers. It is the daily rhythm of how I live, breathe, move, rest, and connect.

I tried the corporate track. It did not work for my body or my spirit. The wild did. Guiding brought my health back into alignment. Not magically. Patiently. Step after step.

Above picture: Koen and Friends in the Welgevonden Game Reserve 2022

WHAT THE WILDERNESS GAVE ME (AND WHAT IT MAY GIVE YOU)

Presence. On foot everything slows: spoor, wind, bird calls, the smell of crushed wild sage. Your nervous system listens, then settles.

Perspective. Big life events become part of a wider story when you listen to a francolin announcing dawn or stand beneath a baobab the size of a house.

Resilience. The bush does not promise comfort. It offers honest feedback. You learn to pace yourself, breathe, and move with what is.

Connection. Around a small fire in the dusk, strangers feel a little less strange. You feel stitched back into a human circle and into nature itself.

CHOOSING ENVIRONMENTS THAT HEAL (AND WHY I LEFT)

Back in the Western Cape I had everything: strong family, real friends, a good life. I also felt defined by two shadows. One was my families' reputation. The other was the label of “the transplant kid.” Moving away helped me step out from both and figure out who I was on my own terms.

Part of that choice was about less human noise: less competition, fewer performance games, and less gossip. Nature gave me the opposite. Signal over noise.

Since 2015 or 2016 I have had no major health setbacks and not even minor ones. That is notable for someone with a historically sensitive immune system. I do not credit the safari industry for that. I credit nature itself, including time in the ocean and surfing. There is a feeling you get, a kind of resonance, when your inner rhythm matches the place you are in. When you find a source that resonates, whether a landscape, a practice, or a community, spend time with it. Harmony is not a luxury. It is a health strategy.

This is not theory for me. I am not talking about things I have not had to earn. I have learned, unlearned, and practised until these ideas became daily habits. The environment you choose, including people, pace, and places, either limits you or helps you reach your potential. Tsala Trails is built to give guests a taste of that resonance.

A SOUND THAT RESETS MY DAY

If there is one moment that has become a personal metronome, it is the call of the Crested Francolin at first light and last light. That brief, rising duet is our trail alarm clock and our good-night song. It reminds me to match my pace to the day, not the inbox. It is also why our walks start unrushed: a quiet coffee, a few breaths, then footsteps in the dust.

FROM MEDICAL REPORT TO MEANING

My medical file lists acronyms, drug doses, and scan results. That is part of my truth. The part that shaped Tsala Trails is simpler: Bodies can adapt. With care and the right environment they often do better than we expect. Movement heals. Gentle, intentional effort, especially outdoors, can restore more than fitness. Community matters. Guides, mentors, guests, and the land itself become a support system. This is the heart of our walking safaris. Not a toughness test. A guided chance to experience how wild places can change how you feel, think, and relate.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT ON A TSALA TRAILS WALK

Small groups and big attention. We keep numbers low so we can read the day and read you.

Safety woven into curiosity. Trails are led by qualified professional trails guides. We brief clearly, move thoughtfully, and track conditions as we go.

Quiet rather than rush. We focus on the intimate: tracks, plants, birds, behaviour, and the occasional big moment that arrives when you do not force it.

Time to integrate. Fireside debriefs, simple rituals such as tea under a leadwood, and space to notice what shifted for you.

MAJOR EVENTS (FACTUAL TIMELINE, NO EMOTIONAL DETAIL)

• 10 July 1995: Liver transplant at Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town.

• Dec 2010 to 2011: Severe infection that led to acute liver and renal failure with graft rejection. Studies paused for about nine months. Recovery on escalated immunosuppression. Returned to university thereafter.

• Post-studies: Field guide training at Ulovane Environmental Training.

• Thereafter: Financial Administrator at Capitec Bank.

• Late 2015 or early 2016 (approx.): Bile-duct gallstone with obstructive jaundice. ERCP performed with balloon dilation and stone extraction. Returned to work, then left banking.

• Late 2016 to present: Full-time guiding and continued professional development.

• 2020 and 2023: COVID-19 disruptions. Continued guiding.

• 2023 to present: Tsala Trails. Luxury walking safaris and Tailor-Made guiding.

GRATITUDE, ALWAYS

I live this chapter because a family said yes to organ donation/receiving, because doctors, nurses, and therapists did extraordinary work, because friends and mentors believed in me, and because the African bush continues to teach me how to be human. Tsala Trails is my way of passing that gift on.

If this resonates, come walk with us. Listen for the francolin at first light. Feel what presence does to your body and your mind. Let the wild reset your rhythm. Ready to take the next step Explore our Luxury Walking Safaris and Tailor Made Journeys. Prefer to start gently. Ask about shorter introductory walks and private guiding. Browse our Trails here