Since I started sailing old wooden boats, I’ve connected with water a little too closely on several occasions. Every seam has the possibility of leaking and some seems leak more than others. My worst experience was mid-channel from the Scilly Isles (15 miles from land), when a crew member went below deck and was horrified to discover water sloshing above the floor boards! This is one time that I connected with water intimately for several hours, as we bailed, pumped and jammed hemp into a seam. To me, water is an adventure, it’s virtually uncontrollable and demands total respect at all times. Looking back, my connection with water started on Lake Malawi, in Southern Africa. The lake was referred to by Dr David Livingston as the ‘Lake of Stars’. Approximately 365 miles long, 54 miles wide, it’s the fifth largest fresh water lake in the world. It is deep, mostly crystal-clear and still retains the charms of a bye-gone era. I was born here and our family still own several acres of its foreshore. We were overlooked by lush hills filled with wild animals and fish eagles, however, at the bottom of the garden, there was a golden beach and several uninhabited islands. This was our home and the lake was our playground. Life here, or exploring its southern river systems towards the ocean was always an adventure. As kids growing up, we were taught to dive, fish, water ski, track animals and so much more. People often find it hard to believe that hippo regularly grazed our lawns at dusk and the occasional crocodile was seen passing by in the moonlight! I feel privileged to have lived in and explored wild places, where water was the source of all life. I went on to study tourism before the phrase sustainable tourism was really a thing. With that mindset, I headed off and worked in the safari industry for nearly two decades. Thinking back about connecting to water, three of my top wilderness destinations that I’ve explored, include the Skeleton Coast in Namibia, the Zambezi River which drains much of southern Africa and the Antarctic peninsular. All of them are wild-water places, creating and sustaining life in every form.