Movement and nature experiences – including classes, trails and retreats – in the South African bushveld.
Created by writer, yoga teacher and earthkeeper, Renata Harper.
10/11/2025
Hi everyone
Here's the November schedule, with a few updates to note:
1. Sound Journeys
Both of our sound healers are away this month — but they'll be back in December.
2. New Friday Flow
With Qigong now finished, we’re opening up the Friday morning slot to experiment until the end of the year.
Friday mornings:
*7:30am – Friday Flow*
A gentle, exploratory movement / breath / energy-based class led by different teachers each week. Nervous-system-friendly, curious and playful.
*9:00–10:30am – Vinyasa / Budokon Flow with Catherine*
Catherine’s 11 am class is moving earlier for the rest of the year.
3. Save the date
🗓 Saturday 29 November — Year-End Wellness Celebration
A morning of different movement experiences with the teaching team. More details coming soon.
Thank you for being part of this wonderful community and for all you bring to the studio. 🌈
10/11/2025
This poem has been with me for months – a response to grief as well as a positive memory I’ll always carry: my stepdad timing my sprints in the park on Sundays.
The poem started in anger, after he received an alarming diagnosis, and over time became a reflection on loss, absence and the strength of sibling alliances and love in the face of challenge.
Part of this poem’s resolution came when my sister, who always said she couldn’t run, started running too. Soon, when she visits, we’ll run together – 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬. 💪🏽
This poem is just one angle – my own – on a complex story. (And my relationship with my own father is different to this.)
—
i’m always that girl
whose sprints you clocked
in the park on sundays
can still hear
wow, that was your best, sweetheart
i so longed to be your best
but you left your girls
with a quick exit
for a lifetime of sundays
gotta tell you
that wasn’t your best, sweetheart
we so longed to be your best
and on we walked as sisters—
later, during long chats
on the phone most sundays
we became our best, sweetheart
with each other
without you
i’m still that girl, a woman
running strong
in the world most days
and you, father-not-father:
you’ve missed it all
29/10/2025
Just five of us on this particular evening—and it was pure magic.
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘵, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘦𝘵 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴…
Rather than rush off after class, I decided to stay, pause and take it all in: the beauty of this space, this evening and the people who come here.
I really love being here. ❤️
18/10/2025
A poem about poems—which I usually hear before they become words on a page.
Some arrive quietly, asking me to wait for life to reveal more before they’re ready to finish. Many arrive loudly, 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 that I pay attention. I do! 🫡
—
they come at me:
delicious word bombs
that drop into my days
drip sweet, messy explosions
so that i say more
than i should, lots that i shouldn’t,
and, shell-shocked,
shatter the foundations
i’m tempted to surrender
all the rest
(𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘴)
to these whistling love torpedos
that demand my attention
and ignored, only escalate
all my restlessness
they are seductive gifts—
presents of presence—
deceptively tight
little word ribbons
that need to be untied
to unwrap
a mood, a story
a rage, a longing
like this lazy little missile today:
6:42 am
a cat on the bed
and a delivery
that arrived, lodged
in my head
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Wild Yoga Africa posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
I’m Renata, the founder of Wild Yoga Africa and a certified yoga teacher with a passion for the African bushveld (savannah). I’m the bushveld yogi. :)
Working steadfastly at my laptop from home, I have often found myself experiencing what environmental writer George Monbiot describes as “ecological boredom”. I crave wildness. And though the entire natural world is my muse, and I’m blessed to be based in nature-rich Cape Town, South Africa, it’s the bushveld that calls to me loudest. (If you’re a convert too, I know you know what I mean.)
Wild Yoga Africa was born out of a simple desire to spend more time in the bush, in a way that feels true to me. I see now that it’s a weaving together of the threads of my life: years of reading extensively about the natural world and writing about it for magazines... pursuing a field guiding certification (FGASA 1) with my husband (our honeymoon)... spending time on Big 5 trails with experienced wilderness guides and mentors... resigning from a contract that was making me very unhappy to do a yoga teacher training that has made me very happy... my ever-present wish to do right by the planet.
I love how a friend responded when I tried to explain my dream: “Ah, you’re bringing yoga home to South Africa.” Yes, to home as I best appreciate it: through the lens of its wild nature.
Wild Yoga Africa is also an expression of my lighter side, and a desire to be myself while teaching and practising yoga. Like other primates, I love to have fun, be cheeky, play.
Thanks to my training with Jim Harrington and Toni Westaway, my approach is rooted in sound fundamentals, and informed by the principles of Yoga Synergy. I focus on nourishing, exploratory and functional movement. I also encourage you to be yourself, to follow your curiosity, to find the right approach for you. When we’re out in the bush together, we practise responsive yoga based on our energy levels, on our needs, and on cues from the natural world, like the terrain or temperature (or who’s checking us out!). We also experiment during creative movement sessions that integrate what we see, hear or sense around us.
By offering yoga trails and retreats in spectacularly wild places, with partner guides who are connected to the land, and by running nature-inspired yoga workshops in my urban life, I get to share two of my greatest passions with you. Nature, of course, is the original yoga shala...
