YouSaid · the spoken record

Boyd Varty

lines on the record: 159
first: 2024-08-14
most recent: 2024-08-14
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“On the ground. So we would arrive and they would set us, we're in flying mode right now. And flying mode meant we could not ask any questions. We had to shut up. Kids, you kids shut up. We're in flying mode. And then they had this other sort of drill that they worked up with each other, which was called pilot in command. And when they were up front there in the cockpit, the one would say, I am now pilot in command. And if you hand it over control, you would say handing over control. And the other would say, I am now pilot in command. Pilot in command, handing over to pilot in command. I am now pilot in command. And they had this whole drill, right? The first crash that we were involved in.”
2024-08-14 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #763: Margaret Atwood and Boyd Varty · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So basically, what happened is my parents launched the Safari business and it slowly started to become successful, but they started to run into a problem as my sister and I were getting older because school started to become an issue. So there was obviously nowhere to take us to school living out here. So they decided that what they would do is they would learn to fly and then they would ferry us in to the nearest town and we would sort of attend early preschool or whatever it's called like Monday through Wednesday and then Wednesday we would fly back to the reserve and we would be here through the weekend and we were basically getting three days of schooling that seemed like enough to them at the time. So they took up flying and my memories of it are when they would pick us up on a Wednesday afternoon to be honest they weren't great pilots so they would they were in a bit of a state you know the first 50 hours of being a pilot there's a lot of stress about getting it in the air and then safely getting it back”
2024-08-14 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #763: Margaret Atwood and Boyd Varty · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of youth that just allowed them to stand up and say, Well, we're going to keep it and we'll make it work. I don't think that there was forethought in the decision. They just knew they were grieving. They had lost their father. It was their father's sacred place. He loved to go there. And they knew that if they, somewhere inside of that grieving process, they knew that if they let go of the land, they would lose the memory of their father in some way. And so they held on to it and they decided, well, we'll go make it work.”
2024-08-14 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #763: Margaret Atwood and Boyd Varty · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so he first came down here in the June of 1926 and he set up the camp, just sort of rugged canvas under the trees. And they would hunt lions. That's how my grandfather then grew up. And then that's how my father and uncle grew up coming down in the winter months, waking up at dawn, listening for lions to roar, and then going out to hunt lions. And I should say with lion hunting, there's only two outcomes, either a lion dies or a person dies. So that gives you a little bit of a sense for the mentality of it. But through those early days of hunting, already a deep passion had started to take root in my father for the land and in my uncle. They felt connected to it. It was a place of adventure. It was already a place that was infused in meaning. So when their father died and they were teenagers and the family advisors said, okay, we'll get rid of it. I think it's a bit of a combination of the brilliance, the arrogance, and the stupidity.”
2024-08-14 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #763: Margaret Atwood and Boyd Varty · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, I think it's a really good question. I mean, there's a few parts to it. The one is that my great-grandfather had bought the land in 1926 after drinking too much gin. And he heard about these bankrupt cattle farms that were available for sale adjacent to the Kruger National Park. And he was a lion hunter, and he was an adventurer. And he said, well, we're going to buy.”
2024-08-14 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #763: Margaret Atwood and Boyd Varty · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so it was that type of get on with that hutzpah attitude that I was raised in. And that was my mother through and through, just unbreakable, you know, rub some onica oil on it was the best we got if you got an injury and only call a doctor if you're bleeding profusely or you're gonna die.”
2024-08-14 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #763: Margaret Atwood and Boyd Varty · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And very soon after that meeting, he met my mother, and with three mud huts and a broken Landrover, they launched themselves into starting a safari business. This was a time in the, you know, the teeth of apartheid South Africa. There was no one coming to South Africa. If it had been an investor pitch and someone was saying, we're going to start a game reserve and, you know, here's what we want you to invest in. No one would have invested. But together out of the love that they had for each other and the passion that they had for the land, they created this amazing place. It was the love they had for each other, the passion for the land, and a real big dose of we can keep going because this is all we have. And so there was this incredible attitude in both of them to just push forward, pioneer, keep going, raise your kids with snakes and no electricity, bring people from all over the world to come stay in a couple of mud huts, give them an incredible time, flow this amazing energy into them, take them out into the wild for income.”
2024-08-14 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #763: Margaret Atwood and Boyd Varty · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, my parents met when they were 15 years old and my grandfather had just died leaving this property. And everyone in the sort of family advisors had said to my father, well, first thing, you've got to get rid of that property in the wild eastern part of South Africa. You know, it's bankrupt Catalan. There's nothing going on there. There's some lions there that you used to hunt, but lion hunting is dangerous. Get rid of that. And my father stood up in the meeting of family advisors and he said, No, we're going to keep it.”
2024-08-14 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #763: Margaret Atwood and Boyd Varty · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, so I'm on the Londalozi Game Reserve in the wild eastern part of South Africa. I'm sitting in my thatched cottage and I'm looking out the window. The river runs below me. And currently there is a herd of elephants that are moving down from the far northern bank of the river to come and feed on the delicious spongy palm trees in the river. So that should give you a little bit of a sense. They're two huge ebony trees that kind of frame the house. And a couple of weeks ago, a leopard hoisted its kill into the tree next to the kind of verandah of the house. So that should sort of set the scene for people a little bit.”
2024-08-14 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #763: Margaret Atwood and Boyd Varty · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT