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Global Travel Planning
Epic Africa Adventure (Part 1): South Africa
Tanya Munro shares her incredible multi-country African adventure, focusing on South Africa in this first episode of a two-part series. After 35 years on her bucket list, she finally travelled through Johannesburg, Kruger National Park, Cape Town and the Garden Route, experiencing wildlife encounters, cultural discoveries and stunning landscapes.
• Best time to visit South Africa for wildlife viewing is during the dry season (June-July)
• Starting in Johannesburg provided important historical context through a Soweto township tour
• Thornhill Safari Lodge near Kruger offered incredible wildlife viewing including lions, cheetahs and elephants
• Cape Town surprised with its beauty, perfect weather and Table Mountain backdrop
• V&A Waterfront area provided safe, convenient accommodation with good security
• Garden Route tour covered 1,200km of diverse landscapes from mountains to coastline
• Blyde River Canyon (third largest canyon in world) was an unexpected highlight
• Game meats like kudu, springbok and ostrich were culinary standouts
• Cape Malay cooking class in Bo-Kaap offered cultural immersion through food
• Learning about South Africa's history early in the trip provides essential context
Join us next week as we continue Tanya's journey through Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
⭐️ Guest - Tanya Munro
📝 Show Notes - Episode 70
🎧 Listen to next
- Episode #48– Moroccan Adventure: Highlights, Culture, and Travel Tips from Our Intrepid Trip
- Episode #52 – Travel Safe Travel Smart: Real Tips for Every Type of Traveller
- UKTP Episode #82 – Trip Report with Tanya Munro [Insider Tips, Memorable Moments, and Unexpected Discoveries]
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In this episode I chat with Tanya about her recent African adventure, starting in South Africa. From city stays and scenic drives to unforgettable safari experiences, she shares the highlights and stories from the first leg of her trip. Hi and welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. I'm your host, tracey Collins, who, with my expert guests, will take you on a weekly journey to destinations around the globe, providing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, practical tips and more to help you plan your next travel adventure. Hi and welcome to this week's episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast with me, tracey Collins. Today I'm joined by guest Tanya Munro, who some of you may recognise from episode 82 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast, where she joined me to share her UK trip report.
Speaker 1:Tanya recently returned from an incredible multi-country trip across Southern Africa and there was so much to cover that we've split this into two episodes. In part one, we're focusing on her time in South Africa, including Cape Town, the Garden Route and safari experiences in Kruger National Park. We talk about how she planned the trip, where she stayed, how she got around and her top tips for anyone thinking of visiting. Make sure you follow or subscribe, because part two is coming next week and that's when we'll continue Tanya's journey through Namibia, botswana and Zimbabwe, including desert landscapes, border crossings, wildlife encounters and a visit to Victoria Falls. So hi, tanya, great to have you on another episode and welcome to the Global Travel Partner Podcast. Would you like to introduce yourself for listeners who haven't met you before?
Speaker 2:Yes, my name's Tanya and I'm married to John. We've got two adult children, and they're two lovely partners, and an overindulged fur baby. John and I we're adventurers and we love to travel. We've nearly always got our next trip or three trips in the pipeline and I try to live by the mantra collect moments, not things. I love connecting with people and places and just learning about people's stories.
Speaker 1:Yeah, after my own heart there, tanya, because we have exactly the same thoughts about travel and you've been doing a lot of travel over the last few years. I've chatted with you, as I mentioned, on the UK Travel Planner podcast, but you've just done an epic trip that I absolutely loved following along with this trip, so I'm so glad you were great to come and chat about this. So would you like to tell our listeners where you went? I know you traveled with John, but where did you go? Kind of give us a brief overview of your time away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, this trip was. It's been number one on my bucket list for the last 35 years, so it was amazing to finally get there, because we'd had a couple of false starts over the years. So we went to Southern Africa and we went pretty much for the whole. We went at the end of June. We were gone pretty much the whole month of July. So yeah, and we went lots of places while we were over there. We started in South Africa, so we started in Johannesburg and we spent lots of time just tripping around sort of various places. Then we went to Greater Kruger National Park area where we stayed four nights in a private reserve and then, following that, we flew from Hoidsproit, near there, down to Cape Town and there we set off on a four-day garden route tour. It was a small bus tour. We saw heaps of places on the garden route and then from the garden route we went back to Cape Town, where we had another three or four nights in Cape Town. So we did little bits here, there and everywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah and then you went on from that to yes oh yeah, so from there, so that was kind of the South Africa part, and then from there we flew up to Namibia, to Walvis Bay, and from there we went up through the top of Namibia, so sort of straight up to the top of Namibia to a national park, across Namibia to Botswana some time in Botswana, through Botswana into Zimbabwe, where we finished at Victoria Falls.
Speaker 1:Wow, it was an epic, epic trip and obviously I used to live in South Africa and I used to live in Botswana, but I've never been to Namibia. So I cannot wait. Next week we're going to chat all about that second part of your trip. Can't wait to find out all about Namibia because hopefully we'll get there next year. But, yes, it was so exciting to follow along. So this episode we're going to focus on South Africa and next week's episode we're going to look at Namibia, botswana and Zimbabwe. Um, so let's talk about that, that South African portion, in a little bit more detail. So now you've let's just talk about the flights actually just thinking about that because obviously did you live in Brisbane, so did you fly over to Perth and then that way over to Janisburg? Um, no, we didn't.
Speaker 2:so so when I sort of came to book the flight, I had intended to fly via Perth and actually do a bit of a stopover in Perth because I've not been there yet. But then when I got looking at the flights I saw that you could fly via Sydney. So that was probably a little bit shorter for us and I think it was more cost efficient and I think they go most days of the week. We're going via Perth. There wasn't as much flexibility time-wise and we had to fit around work and things. So we flew from Brisbane to Sydney and this was all on Qantas Brisbane Sydney, johannesburg.
Speaker 1:And how long did it take to fly from Sydney to Johannesburg? Is that quite a long flight?
Speaker 2:It's about on the way over there I think it's about just under 14 hours and on the way back, with the winds and things about 11 and a half. Yeah, so it's not a bad sort of length fly. No, I spoke to other people and saw other ways you could go, sort of via Singapore and Dubai and that sort of thing. So if you're coming from this sort of east coast of Australia, I'd highly recommend just straight to Joburg.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a great. I honestly didn't know that. I was kind of planning to do that Perth route and obviously going. I think if you go through Singapore, dubai it's going to take you longer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot longer, a lot longer, it's really across.
Speaker 1:So that's really good. So let's talk in a little bit more detail about the itinerary. So you landed in Johannesburg. Did you spend any time actually around the Johannesburg area?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we landed in Johannesburg, sort of. Actually this was the other good thing about the flight. It landed kind of late afternoon, so as far as your sleep schedules and things, that was good too. So, landed in Joburg, we caught the. They've got like a I think it's Gour train, it's called like a tourist train. So we caught that from the airport to Santon. So we got there early evening and then just stayed the two nights in Johannesburg, which really only gave us one full day, which was ideal for us because you know, lots of people had told us to be very careful in Johannesburg. It's not safe, it's probably not really designed for as a big tourist kind of Mecca, and but we wanted to get a bit of a vibe for South Africa, so we just did a tour like everyone does. That's just sort of highlights of Johannesburg and takes you out to one of the townships.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you went to Soweto.
Speaker 2:Yes, we went to Soweto and that was actually really great to do that, because I didn't have a lot of idea of the history of South Africa. I remember seeing it on the TV as a kid and lots of trouble and you know, I remembered obviously Nelson Mandela and apartheid and all of that sort of stuff. But it was really just interesting to go there and to hear the history, to see sort of the remains of that history, to see how the situation currently is. There was a lot more kind of, I guess, overhang, a lot more impact from that history still currently than what I had been expecting. And I think that was a really good way to sort of disposition the whole trip with just learning a lot more about this country before we dived into the really super exciting parts of, you know, animals and all of that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2:And I think the other thing with that too, it was quite hard to see and hear a lot of this sort of stuff. And and I think the other thing with that too, it was quite, um, it was quite hard to see and hear a lot of this sort of stuff. Um, you know, so it was a that day in Joburg it was. It was a heavy, heavy day, um, but yeah, it was good to to see it and then to be able to then follow it up with a lot of lightness, with animals and fun stuff, but always having that in the back of your mind as you're traveling through South Africa.
Speaker 1:I think it's a good thing to do. So I actually lived in South Africa in the 1980s. I actually lived under the apartheid regime, so I remember exactly what it was like and I actually went to university in Johannesburg. Oh, wow, yeah, yeah. So I kind of lived through that. So I'm glad you did that and I think it is important to kind of understand where South Africa is now based on the past and the impact of the past. Yeah, definitely. So after Johannesburg, you went on to Kruger. So did you drive?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did. So we found a four-day sort of package sort of thing to Kruger. So we caught a bus from Johannesburg to Kruger to sort of around the central Kruger area. So I caught a bus. That was a long trip. That day, I mean, you did get to see places along the way and the landscape, that sort of thing. I found the landscape not highly different from Australia, to be honest with you in the scenery. Probably in hindsight, if I was to do it again, I would actually fly from Johannesburg out to Hoisbrook because it really was a long day. So we got out there and we arrived at Thornhill Safari Lodge and that's where we had four nights there. Fantastic, and it was fabulous. We loved it.
Speaker 1:We'll talk a little bit more about the kind of the safari game drive experiences, and then you flew down to Cape Town.
Speaker 2:Yeah, more about the kind of the safari game drive experiences. And then you went down to, you flew down to cape town. Yeah, so from there, fortunately, we could have, as part of this package, caught the bus back to cape, down to johannesburg. I'm so pleased we didn't. Um, we flew from hoidsport down to cape town. Um, we just had one quick night in cape town and next day we hopped on a small bus garden route tour, which was also fabulous. So we had four days around the Garden Route. We, you know there's lots of places you can see on the Garden Route and you know you can do it over four days or three weeks or what have you.
Speaker 2:So I guess it was a matter for us. You know, there were a lot of decisions around that about do you drive, do you do a bus, do you, you know, whatever? So we were kind of happy with what we landed on. We saw lots of places Neesna, mossel Bay, I think. It's called Tsitsikama National Park, which is amazing, yeah, tsitsikama, yeah, yeah, stoney Point, hermanus, so lots and lots of places on that route. And when you look at, so from Cape Town, we sort of went sort of inland. For the first bit, so I think it was Outshawn, outshawn. Yeah, yeah, that Fix up my pronunciations because they're all wrong so we sort of went a bit inland and then out to the coast, so all up we did about 1,100 or 1,200 kilometres in that four days. So it was quite a big trip, but we really got to see lots of things so yeah, so that was sort of the garden route bit.
Speaker 1:And then we got back to that bit as well. That's an extremely famous route to go because it is so beautiful. I think the first time I did that I was probably about 14 and did that a few years after, maybe 14, 15, and then did it a few years afterwards. It's actually quite a while since I've done it. I've taken my daughter a couple of times along that route as well, and it's a beautiful, beautiful destination, and I think, one you kind of mentioned. I know, about the kind of scenery when you were in Gauteng in northern South Africa. The thing with the scenery in South Africa it changes, yes, so much. Wherever you go, it kind of is very different climates, very different vegetation. Yes, and obviously when you're on the coast you've got the beautiful views as well. It's just lovely beaches. I mean, I know we have lovely beaches in Australia, but they also have gorgeous ones in South Africa too. And then after that you spent some time in Cape Town itself.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I think we had four days in Cape Town then and, yeah, we loved Cape Town, and that was a surprise. Yeah, we, I think we had four days in Cape Town then and that, yeah, we loved Cape Town, and that was a surprise. Yeah, we really liked it. One of those days we went out to Cape of Good Hope, so that was kind of full-day track trip out there, and the other days we just looked, oh, we did various things actually in Cape Town. We didn't end up going out to the wine country, unfortunately, which we kind of had hoped to, so we'll have to have another trip back obviously.
Speaker 1:I was going to say you'll have to go back. Wait a minute. Did you manage to get up Cable Mountain?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did go up Cable Mountain. We did take the cheats way and go, you know, in the cable car. Yeah, exactly, I wouldn't do it anyway. We did play for a minute there. Do we intend to climb this or do we climb Lion's Head? But no, we didn't. And you know what? We were super lucky with Cape Town because we, you know, going at this time of the year, on lots of online forums and stuff, people are like oh, cape Town's terrible at this time of the year, don't go, it's windy, it's rainy, it's cold. The whole time when we were at Kruger on the Garden Route, you kept hearing stories from people of the atrocious weather in Cape Town. But we got these. Well, they're actually three full days and they're beautiful and sunny and blue skies every day, so we're very lucky, yeah.
Speaker 1:It can be like that. I used to go in August because of, obviously, the school holidays when I lived in the UK and took Dominic over a couple of times in August and I was looking at my photos the other day and it was blue sky and I've just got a fleece jacket on and actually linen trousers, so it was absolutely fine. I think sometimes it's waiting for you know, the tablecloth is over Table Mountain and you want to go.
Speaker 2:So I always say to people like book Table Mountain, like check out the weather, but book it because it can get booked up, especially on a day where it's clear, and we booked it for the first day of our trip for that reason, because I think when you buy the tickets they last for seven days. So if you can't go the first day, you've sort of got more days that you can go. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And that's what you want. You don't want to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you need to just keep checking and we I remember we did that last time I was kept checking because you don't want to go when the cloud you're not going to see is yes, obviously, yeah, and it's up.
Speaker 1:You want it, you want to see? Yeah, absolutely, it's a beautiful view from up there. So let's talk about your highlights and standout experiences while you were over there, so kind of what now you're reflecting back. It's not that long since you came back.
Speaker 2:What are the things that you think, wow, this is such a hard question because you know, we've been home for about just under three weeks and everyone asks it and honestly, it was this trip and I've done a reasonable amount of travel the whole trip was the highlight of my life. I was so scared going over given it was my number one bucket list and I'd cancelled this trip twice previously that it wouldn't live up to expectations, and it fast passed the expectations and the whole idea of the trip for me prior to going was the safaris, the animals and Victoria Falls. So, and look, they certainly were my highlights, but there were so many other highlights. So, um, yeah, so the safaris were just mind-blowing and I just had so many pinched yourself moments where, wow, this, this is Africa, I'm in Africa. But another place that I loved was Blyde River Canyon. Yeah, it's beautiful, which is stunning, and we went there as a bit of a when we were tossing up the entire trip and, as you know, we went through Namibia. We were looking at going to the Fish River Canyon, which is the second biggest canyon in the world in Namibia. But look, there's so many kilometres You're talking thousands of kilometres to get through there and I just wasn't up for all that travel, to be honest with you. So we thought, well, we'll go to Blyde River Canyon, knowing it was a very different type of landscape. It was green rather than desert, because Blyde River Canyon is the third largest canyon in the world, because Blyderoo Canyon is the third largest canyon in the world. It's absolutely stunning, like so beautiful. So we went on a day trip from our safari lodge with our driver up there and saw it sort of from on top and there's a few other sort of bits that go with it. There's the three rendezvous and there's Burke's Potholes and a few bits and pieces of like that. Up in there there's a place called God's Window, beautiful scenery. Anyway, we loved it so much that a day or two later, just in the middle of the day sometimes, you know, at the Safari Lodge you might not have much on. So then we actually took another trip out there and saw it from down low and did a boat cruise through there and the boat cruise was amazing it. It sort of was that sunset and oh, there were hippos and crocodiles and um, yeah, just yeah, breathtaking. So that was a highlight.
Speaker 2:Um, cape Town again, cape Town wasn't really on our list of things to do. We were going for the animals and we knew that the middle of the year was a good time for animals and we knew Cape Town was probably, like I said, going to be rainy. We got to Cape Town and we're like, this place is beautiful. Table Mountain is just a backdrop everywhere you go and it's so gorgeous. And then the coastline and the beaches and again gorgeous, that whole garden route. So many sort of beautiful scenic places there and, like you said, the scenery is quite diverse and the first bit of that was a bit sort of desert-y and there are a lot of mountain type areas and there's a lookout in there called the map of Africa, which I think's in the wilderness area. It's called and, no kidding, you stand at the top of this lookout and behind you the way the landscape is and the rivers, it looks like Africa. So I've got this photo of us standing there with this, you know, like map of africa made out of trees and that was beautiful.
Speaker 2:Um, on the garden route we went to an elephant sanctuary where they, you know, rescue elephants. So that was an addo. No, it wasn't addo, it was another one. We didn't go up as far as addo. Actually, on the garden route. We missed that out because you know these trips you've got to prioritize, prioritise I can't think of the name of it. Yeah, so we sort of went for a walk with elephants and got to hold this elephant's trunk and touch it and touch its tail, so that was pretty cool In South Africa sorry, cape Town. Another highlight was doing a Cape Malay cooking class in the Bocap area and this lady, fadala, shout out to her. She was fabulous, she was such a character and we just had such a fun time doing the cooking class and seeing the African poor. What did you make.
Speaker 2:What did you make? Oh, it was a chicken curry and a few different. I can't even remember now, to be honest with you. There was like four or five different things. But there are samosas and roti and um, so, yeah, whole meal sort of from free to post. Um, there was a dessert and so, yeah, quite a few things and um, yeah, it was just lots of fun and um, yeah, it was really good. So that was good too. We ended up actually doing that in place of going out to the winery regions for the day. So it was a real toss-up about, oh, what are we going to do. But you know that's travel. You've got to make your choices.
Speaker 1:So yeah, Exactly, and you can go back the next time and do the wineries.
Speaker 2:There's some of the highlights, but you know I could have a a podcast just on the highlights, really.
Speaker 1:What about any surprises? Obviously, you've mentioned Cape Town and actually, to be honest, I think Cape Town its aspect is probably one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I can't think of anywhere that I like Split. Split's another one that I kind of think if you're coming in from a boat and you see Split. But Cape Town it's spectacular.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is spectacular and just from every angle. Really, it doesn't matter where you are. There's nearly always this mountain in the background and you know the beaches and yeah, so beautiful. Yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah, look, I think the biggest surprise to me is that South Africa is so much more than the animals and the safaris. Like, that was my biggest surprise. I didn't expect that. I've probably already talked about that a bit. I didn't realise how excellent the food would be too.
Speaker 1:Oh, food's amazing and I know it probably is well known for the food.
Speaker 2:But because I went into this trip with you know, probably 90% focus on the animals, I didn't look a lot beyond. Food was amazing and I think for us too, our exchange rate, the cost of things over there and the exchange rate's good, and so everywhere we've travelled in recent sort of history our exchange rate has been terrible and everything's so much more. You know like I went to Hawaii last year and was paying the equivalent of 12 Australian dollars for a cup of cappuccino and whereas in South Africa everything was cheaper. So that was a nice surprise. I didn't really know what to expect from the people and they were just lovely, helpful. Everyone went out of their way to help us out so much. Another big surprise was I felt much safer than I thought we would.
Speaker 2:But I probably need to put a caveat onto that and say that's because we were in touristed areas and we really were seeing. For the most part, you know the best sides and you know I've got some South African friends and look, you know, I know that often when you look, I know even in the tourist areas there's dangers around. But I think when you get off that tourist track particularly there is, and you know, for example, we were going to a restaurant one night which was a little bit out of the tourist areas in Cape Town. It would have been just over a kilometre from where we were staying but you know everyone said, oh no, don't walk there, like you need to catch an Uber there and that sort of thing. And even when we went sort of downtown Cape Town, in the city, we pretty much stuck to walking tours with people that knew where to go and where not to go. So I certainly would say to people, if you were going to Cape Town, you know, be very, or anywhere in South Africa, be very aware of those safety aspects, because you do hear some awful stories. But the places we went, we went, we felt very safe the whole time.
Speaker 2:And I think the other thing that really shocked me was just the ongoing impact of that awful history that South Africa has and I just didn't realise just the financial, economic, the deep divide there that you know there was a seemed to be a lot of wealth but just a huge amount of poverty and the townships, you know, that are just out of town really, and then these millions of people that are living in, you know, really poor living conditions and that sort of thing and the high unemployment too. I think unemployment's up around 50%. So I probably learnt a lot about that while I was there and just some of the corruption that's occurred in the government and all of that sort of stuff. So that was quite a surprise for me too. I had no idea and it's stuff I've been looking into a bit more since I've got home and spoken to some South African friends about it just to get their perspective, because I wasn't really aware of it.
Speaker 1:Oh no, that's interesting. I think it surprises people in lots of ways because it's that you know and it's described as a world in one country, and it really is. But the perspective of putting it in the beauty and everything that's there is still putting it in a historic perspective, I think is really important, because I think you've actually got you know generations of people who are living still with the trauma. Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think that's it. It's that generational trauma, yeah, and you can just really feel the impact of that. And you know, talking to people you know from various walks of life, like it's just so there and it's going to take a very, very, you know, couple more generations, I think, for you know, for that to lessen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I definitely agree. Now let's lighten the topic a little bit and talk a little bit about your safaris and safaris, game drives. So what did you see? What animals did you see in South Africa? Oh it, was amazing.
Speaker 2:There were so many animals. I was going to say what didn't we see? But you know what we did not see? It was a leopard, ah, interestingly, yeah, look, we did so many safari drives and oh, like I couldn't even tell you how many safari drives we did in the whole trip. There were so many and we sort of started seeing animals, you know from when we got to our safari lodge on the way there. So, yeah, just all the you know elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, rhinos, pretty much heaps and heaps of, like different sorts of antelope, kudos, springbok, crocodiles, lots of different types of birds, which is kind of interesting for me because I have a phobia of birds, but I've.
Speaker 1:Seriously, it's a bit embarrassing and I've put it out there to everyone, but it was kind of, but you know, you grew up in Australia where you know they can actually go after you. So there is justification in that.
Speaker 2:That's why it's the magpies over here and you know, when you're swooped as a little kid and you've got this bird chasing you down the street. So that's why. So I've got this real thing about birds, but I did get more of an appreciation of birds. There's more beautiful birds over there yeah, warthogs, wildebeest, the whole lot. You know, we saw so much.
Speaker 1:So lion, che wildebeest, the whole lot. You know we saw it so much and like so lion, cheetah, and you didn't manage to see the, the leopard. I know you did see it later on in the trip because I uh maybe maybe we'll find out next week's episode, if you did maybe you did um you obviously so.
Speaker 2:So lion and cheetah yes, so, um, the cheetah experience, that was that pretty cool. We were in a private game reserve one morning and you know I found the safari drive super interesting, actually, because you know, sometimes the animals just didn't show up as much as you'd hoped they would, you know. So we're in this game reserve and we've seen a few things, but you know, not sort of the big ticket items and yeah, next minute I think there's a cheetah. It was sort of walking down a path and you know, we just sat and watched. But then it came up really close, like right beside us and right beside the safari truck where I was seated, to the point if I'd just sort of leaned down, it was like right beside me. I could have just leaned down and touched it. It was so close and it sort of stayed around there for a while. So that was really super cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and it wasn't interested in us at all. So I wasn't scared at all, which probably there's quite a lot of things. That's a question people ask. Well, you're scared and I don't know. I think you're just so much in the awe of the moment and that sort of thing, you don't think too much about safety factors. But in hindsight I'm like, yeah, probably were a few hairy occasions really yeah, I think.
Speaker 1:I think there's been one or two times when I felt a little bit too close to a leopard one time because the Jeep was between the leopard and its cub, which was not great and that was a little bit.
Speaker 1:But actually the times where I've been most wary and a little bit worried are more with the elephants, when being charged by elephants. In fact, I was in Zimbabwe once. We we weren't charged, but we ended up with this bull elephant. He was basically just about sitting on the front of the jeep and the guide was like do not move, do not say anything, and we were all just because it was huge and it was absolutely massive.
Speaker 1:You know that they can turn over the jeep if they decide to um. So that was a bit of a scary. The funniest one that I remember was taking Dominique, my daughter, when she was about maybe about 14 at the time and we were in Kwamoratan and a rhino charged us and we were driving with the main. Dominique was sitting in the back and this rhino was like charging the jeep and the jeep's going fast and the rhino's going faster and we're leaning over going. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:Anyway, eventually it kind of like you know, know, it couldn't keep up.
Speaker 1:But it was so funny because we were in the back looking at this rhino kind of behind us. So that was funny.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there are absolutely some real dangers there. There's actually a YouTube clip of I think it's probably in the last 12 months or so of a sort of a youngish leopard that's leaped up onto the front I don't know if you've seen it of a safari vehicle and sort of on the dashboard, essentially, and look, we did feel a bit scared.
Speaker 2:There were a couple of times I did feel a bit scared about lions, I've got to say, and hippos and warthogs, but not generally we didn't think about that Well, we'll talk about that next week, because you've done something that I'm too scared to do in Botswana, so I'm going to talk to you about that next week.
Speaker 2:You mentioned something because I want to find out the experience. Just in one of the things where we're a bit scared of lions and it was one of the early days we hadn't been there long we came across a group of lions pride of lions that had a kill, so they had a zebra there and it was interesting. It was in a sort of bushland sort of area, so we couldn't see it real like super well, but we were very close to it, like a couple of meters away, and this sort of probably the you know the king of the pack sort of thing. He was letting one of the females eat first and not the rest of them, which I'd see.
Speaker 2:I found a lot of these interactions between the animals quite interesting actually. So he was sort of almost standing guard on this. You know female, this lioness with this zebra, and whenever another lion came near from the same pack, he would just go for them like rah and they'd have a big fight and this sort of thing. And this was all happening just, you know, literally a couple of metres from where we were, and they were just so strong and ferocious and vicious with each other. So you're like, oh, if they turned towards us you wouldn't stand a chance, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it was interesting, but probably sorry.
Speaker 2:I've got lots to say about the animals. Do you want to hear the standout of what happened with the animals?
Speaker 1:Yes, Go on then, Tommy. I can't stand it.
Speaker 2:So this one night we went for like a nighttime safari drive in Kruger National Park and, you know, we saw a few animals. We saw a couple of lions I had a couple of lions right beside me or eyeballing me a bit scary, yeah and we saw, you know, some of the usual animals you'd see. But all in all, the actual safari drive was probably a little bit underwhelming because we were expecting that we'd see much more at night time and different things from the day, and just wasn't as good as the daytime. So we're like, oh well, we probably shouldn't have done that, you know, might have been a bit of a waste of time. So we're driving home um, we were still heading to in the Kruger National Park area but heading towards the outer gate and it was 10 30 at night and there was, um Bobo, our driver, who was fabulous and he brought a friend with him. He wasn't the one who'd taken us on the actual safari. You had to do that with the Kruger staff at night in after hours.
Speaker 2:So we're driving down the road and next minute there's this pride of lions sitting in the middle of the road. So it's totally dark, there's no one around and here's this massive pride of lions Like at least 20, but there would have been more and they're just sitting there and at the top of them, out near the front, there was a white line, um, so that was very cool and they're just all sitting there and then off to the side there's even more, and so we're able to just sit there and watch them. It was hard to get photos because it was so dark at night. We were a little distance away, but, um, yeah, it was kind of stunning. And um, next day, sort of back at the lodge, we're telling the people and it's apparently a well-known pride of Lyons called the Birmingham Pride. That is sort of, yeah, a really big pride and, like I said, I think it's got. We only saw the one white line, but I think there's two or three in that pride and apparently we were very fortunate to see that. So that was amazing.
Speaker 1:Wow. Well, it's always so lucky, I think. The thing is when you go out on a game drive, you never know what you're going to see wherever you go, because they're wild animals. So it's always a bonus. When you, doug and I did a game drive in Sri Lanka, went out the one morning, saw hardly anything, and we went out the next day and there was the leopards hanging out.
Speaker 2:We were like wow, with a kill and it was like so exciting. Actually, I just listened to that podcast yesterday and I'm like, oh, I wouldn't mind going to Sri Lanka. I can meet some leopards in Sri Lanka On the garden route too. Like I've talked a lot about Kruger and we did lots of different times of the day game drives in Kruger, but for those people that probably just want to stick around Cape Town, there's a place called the Garden Route Lodge which is a few hundred kilometres out of Cape Town and so that's like a small private reserve and it's just lovely and it's not as many trees and things, and so the game drives there were fabulous because it was a private reserve.
Speaker 2:You know you could go off-road so you could get up closer to them than what you can within Kruger. And, yeah, you sort of had really good vision, I think, because there weren't as many trees and things blocking it. However, in saying that it's a much smaller place and some of the animals there, it probably wasn't as organic as Kruger. Some of the animals there actually had been brought in and they actually supplemented the feeding of the elephants and the lions because there wasn't enough within that reserve. So you know, if you're after absolutely super organic one. It's probably not the place um, but it was fabulous yeah oh, that's good.
Speaker 1:So um did it. I'm assuming what you're going to say here is it. It went beyond your expectations and seeing animals, that the game, yeah yeah, absolutely beyond my expectations.
Speaker 2:um, however, this is a bit embarrassing to admit, when you know, when people come to australia and they expect that they're going to see kangaroos hopping down the street, you know everywhere you go and that's actually not our reality. So probably, you know, in some places in Australia you can see kangaroos everywhere, but it's not all over. And I think maybe I had not to that degree, a little bit of that expectation for South Africa that maybe I might have seen a few more animals in a few more places than what I did. So yeah, that's almost a bit embarrassing to admit that, but more places than what I did. So yeah, that's almost a bit embarrassing to admit that.
Speaker 1:But anyway, I know it's funny. When I moved over there in the 80s I thought there was going to be elephants everywhere.
Speaker 2:So you know? Oh, that's good to know.
Speaker 1:You know, I think it's one of those things. I did expect that in Australia, but then there have been places in Australia where there are and that's it.
Speaker 2:And places in Australia where you can't this kangaroo's all over the shop. But you know, for the most part I don't regularly see them in my daily life, same as all those other tales of, you know, spiders and snakes and all the rest of it that people often say to us, oh, it's so scary there. Yeah, and I think this is how it was for me in South Africa. There were places I mean, when you're in those sort of bush areas, you know the national parks areas, you know the national parks, you know. But by the end of the trip I unfortunately did get to be one of those you know, like your zebras and your giraffes, and you sort of just keep driving, which at the start of the trip I thought I'd never be like that.
Speaker 2:I said to John I don't know why everyone's carrying on about having to see leopards and lions and things you know. This is amazing, like looking everywhere you look, there's giraffes, there's kudos, you know. But by the end it was kind of like, okay, let's keep driving, let's find this leopard, yeah yeah, no, that you do get that kind of um safari kind of I don't know underwhelm after a few trips out because it's them animals, but it's a bit like.
Speaker 1:You know, my mom came to australia last year and she really wanted to see kangaroos so we took her out to stanthorpe. So the first night she sees all these kangaroos.
Speaker 2:By the third day she was like, oh, kangaroo, whatever and that's exactly how it is in africa and, like I'm telling you I can't tell you how many photos I took of like zebras and giraffes in the first few days, but yeah, by the end I'm just like, oh yeah, keep talking to the person beside me as we're driving past them, you know no, that is.
Speaker 1:That is so true. Now talk about your accommodation choices then. Were there any standouts with that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we like to stay in a variety of accommodation probably not unlike you guys, I think. So we'll basically stay anywhere, as long as it's clean and has a comfortable bed and it's close to the main attractions. Because we were in a lot of tours and things too, we didn't actually get a lot of say in this. But we love the thornhill safari lodge and look, it wasn't like super fancy, it was fairly mid-range but it was. It was peaceful and it was in the middle of in the bush and um, so it's just really relaxing and because, other than the two nights in johannesburg, it was our first place we stayed and it was four nights after the long flight. It was kind of a good, good sort of just a peaceful resting place before things got too busy and crazy and we were treated like royalty there. One night we were the only people there, but we also had this whole safari lodge and the staff, the cleaners and the driver and all to ourselves. So that was amazing and they had a beautiful treehouse, so that was a standout.
Speaker 2:We stayed at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town and I think that's always a question where are you going to stay in Cape Town? So we decided to go to the waterfront, which probably is touristy, but anyway, we really wanted safety and we wanted close proximity where we could walk. So we stayed in an Airbnb there, right near a couple of the big hotels that are quite well known. So if people wanted to go to hotels they could. So it was in the marina complex and that was fabulous for us because it was beautiful.
Speaker 2:It was an apartment for a start. We had a washing machine, and this was by now about mid-trip, so you know it's safe going to laundromats. We had the washing machine, we were on a canal so we had beautiful views. We could walk to the waterfront and the safety there, um, it was second to none. You know there was security on every gate and had an Uber driver. You know you had to sort of call security and yeah, so that was good. And I've mentioned already the Garden Route Safari Lodge. That was actually really very cool. It's probably a bit more of an upmarket Safari Lodge Fabulous restaurant, beautiful fireplace, sort of right at the game reserve too. So they'd be my standouts, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I stand in the V&A area as well because you've got all of the shops and lots of great restaurants as well to choose from as well. I know you mentioned about food, so were there any kind of standout meals?
Speaker 2:I loved the game meats. Actually that was my big standout. So any sort of game meat, give it to me, I loved it. Kudos, springbok, warthog, cape Buffalo, the whole lot. If I could taste it I would Loved it. I also love the ostrich and it's very healthy for you, ostrich. If we could get it here I would have it a couple of nights a week. And the crocodile I love the crocodile. John wasn't so adventurous. I did try the baboti Is that how you say?
Speaker 1:it. Yeah, baboti, is that how you say it? Yeah, well, I don't even pronounce it well, but I I make that here.
Speaker 2:I love making it and so many people raved about it. I didn't dislike it, but to me it was like very much like cottage pie, shepherd's pie, except a bit spicier in taste, and so I was like, oh yeah, it's okay, but I wasn't something where I was like you absolutely have to have it again oh, I can't talk to you now.
Speaker 1:Tanya, and you've said that I'm sorry first you've just, I know, I know. So anyway, you know they're quite honest.
Speaker 2:So um, in if anyone's in cape town, there's a time out markets it's called in cape town which is a selection of all different types of food, because the cuisine is very sort of multicultural over there and, um, it was excellent. So you can just go there and then it's inside, which was great at that time of the year because it was cold and you can just try all sorts of different food and that sort of thing. So, yeah, that was a really good place to go. And there's a restaurant too, not far from the waterfront called the Gold Restaurant. So they give you, like it is a touristy thing, but I think it's about seven courses of like a degustation type menu and all different sorts of African foods and fabulous entertainment and a really fun night. So I'd highly recommend that.
Speaker 1:Oh, that sounds great, and we already talked a little bit about how you got around. So most of the time, obviously, you took an internal flight and you did the kind of tours, so that makes it easier, so you weren't actually driving yourself, which I think is probably not a bad idea, to be honest.
Speaker 2:And we're not really tour people, you know, but it was called the Bok Bus, the tour that we did around the Garden Route. There was only us and one other American woman on it and the driver, Chrissie, was fabulous and felt kind of like family by the end. But just in Cape Town, like Uber, Uber's fabulous, Like it's really, it was really cheap, really efficient. Yeah, so lots of Uber.
Speaker 1:Oh brilliant. Now what about anybody planning a trip? Because obviously I know you're good at planning. You spend a lot of time doing the research and putting stuff together. So if anybody's planning a first trip to South Africa, have you got any advice that you'd share about kind of you know the timing of it kind of budget and planning the safety?
Speaker 2:that's kind of stuff yeah look, I think I probably have covered a lot of it but like you said, I do the research.
Speaker 2:I'm like research it well, like talk to people you know, get yourself on forums and websites where people have actually been there and actually ask questions of of local people. Um, I always go to your website, global Travel Planning, and to see you know what you'd recommend the various places. So I went there. I find YouTube very helpful too, because you can actually look. I find there's a lot of guff on YouTube and you've really got to search through what's good and not. So I went there. But look for us, the middle of the year was good for us, like they say, especially if you're getting further north.
Speaker 2:A lot of those safari areas that, um, it's not as green um, so you're able to see more animals um so that's right, because it's drier as well, so that I don't want to come down to the water holes, whereas if you go over the kind of summer months, wet season, they're not as likely to and also I don't really I don't do super well in the heat and so probably some of the other parts of the trip I would have found the heat um, I would have enjoyed it you look at australia I understand the air conditioning here.
Speaker 2:I'm not outside tripping all around at all, yeah but I kind of feel like you know, if you're in a cold climate you can rug up, but when you get to a hot climate, yeah. So for me probably that time of the year was good. And, yeah, my advice always is you know you can't do everything, yeah, so narrow things down, but have a really well-planned itinerary. So I'm a massive over-planner, but then I know that if I don't get to do everything, it's okay. I find when I have free days I get all muddled up and I'm like, oh, what are we going to do? And then I spend ages researching it and waste too much time. So I find it actually better to be over plant and then kind of trim back.
Speaker 1:I think that's a good idea because you know, sometimes if you don't exactly what you're saying, you end up then doing the research, thinking about what you're going to do, and then half your day is gone before you've actually got out of the accommodation because you've been thinking oh, what am I going? To do. We do that with food all the time, doug and I. It's our big thing about figuring out where we're going to eat, because if we don't, I can guarantee we'll spend three hours walking around trying to find somewhere to eat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we do too, and actually this trip was the very first time and it was only about two days before I left. I researched the food I got on a South African forum, asked for advice, booked myself into restaurants and things, and so that actually was much better. I didn't plan that, but actually was much better. I didn't plan that but I'd left one spare day in Cape Town with a few different options on what maybe we could do, but then I spent, you know, all the night before spending all this time trying to research further, and I wish I hadn't have done that. I wish I'd just, you know, had something lined up before I left. But I always say to people you know, remember, you can sleep at home, so make the most of absolutely every opportunity. You know, I think these sorts of holidays are really for rest, therefore, to get out, see the world, have experiences, and things like yeah, so make the most of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely now, without giving too much away. Can you give us a quick teaser of what's coming in part two, when you traveled into namibia, botswana and zimbabwe?
Speaker 2:okay, I've got a couple quick ones. Did we see a leopard in the next part of our trip, yes or no? Second one what was something I ate that most people would balk at? And third one what happened on the light plane trip?
Speaker 1:that was unexpected, oh exciting, and I'm going to put in a number four. What did tanya do in botswana that I am too scared to do?
Speaker 2:I'm super curious about that too, so I'm looking forward to the next step.
Speaker 1:Absolutely right Now we're going to end this episode. We've been talking I can't believe it but a good 40 minutes, tanya, which is, I mean, brilliant. We've gone into a lot of information about your trip to South Africa, which is brilliant, honestly, it's been. You know, I love talking about South Africa anyway, but what would be the one tip you'd share with somebody planning a trip to South Africa?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a bit of a serious sort of pointer, I guess, but it's learn about the history of South Africa early in your trip, and we've already discussed this. It's an awful history, but the impacts are still widely felt and it really just helped us to understand things from a cultural viewpoint and just position the trip well. So start your trip in Johannesburg.
Speaker 1:Perfect, perfect. Well, thank you so much, Tanya, for joining me for part one of your amazing African adventure.
Speaker 1:So, we're going to chat in a second. We're actually going to record episode two now because you won't get it when you're listening until next week. So don't forget to follow along so that you don't miss what happened with Tanya's second part of her African adventure. Thanks again, Tanya. Thanks Again, a huge thank you to Tanya for joining me to share part one of her incredible Africa trip. I hope you found her stories and trips about traveling through South Africa, including Cape Town, the Garden Route and Kruger National Park, both helpful and inspiring. Don't forget, part two is coming next week, where we'll pick up the journey in Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, with more wildlife, spectacular scenery and one of the world's most iconic natural wonders.
Speaker 1:Do you have a question or your own travel story to share? Head to Speakpipe and leave us a voice message. We'd love to hear from you and if you'd like to sponsor the show or simply support our work, you'll find the links in the show notes, whether it's buying us a cup of tea, leaving a review or sharing the episode with a fellow traveler. Thanks again for listening and, as always, happy global travel planning. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today. Check out the show notes at globaltravelplanningcom. Remember, if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app, because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts, just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always happy global travel planning.