Gary Booth - Karl 1963

What happens when a curious boy from Manchester decides the conventional path isn’t for him? In this episode, I speak with Karl about his brother, Gary—a man who, at 21, walked away from Thatcher’s Britain with just £150 and a self-taught smattering of French. That leap launched a 35-year adventure spanning continents, languages, and brushes with death, transforming him into a near-mythic figure among Namibia’s Himba people.

Karl gives his account and a glimpse of how Gary, growing up in a typical Lancashire working-class family, and stifled by a comprehensive school education system decided to break free from the “rat race” as a young 21yr old and embark on a lifetime adventurer that Hollywood could only dream about.

After leaving home in the early ’80s, he vanished for 15 years, working across Europe before making a perilous journey across the Sahara, through war-torn regions, and finally into Namibia’s vast wilderness.

Gary’s extraordinary letters home—often 50 pages long—document his life tracking endangered rhinos, surviving lion attacks, and earning the tribal name “N’garikatuki”, the man of the mountains. Perhaps most astonishing was his decision to buy a yacht despite minimal sailing experience and navigate solo across the Pacific, enduring hurricanes while relying on Karl for weather updates via satellite texts.

Today, Gary runs his own safari company, guiding small groups to Namibia’s hidden corners. His knowledge even caught the attention of filmmaker Eric Valli, who based a film on his experiences. This episode explores not just Gary’s remarkable life but the bigger questions about conventional paths, courage, and what happens when curiosity leads the way.

brothers

Send us a text

Stories you'd like to share?

Instagram @longtimeagopeople

Click here for RSS Feed

"In a world where you can be anything, be kind."