Day 10

South Africa

Following on from Uganda, we joined family in South Africa for ten days of safari and some pool time. The contrast with Uganda was evident as soon as we arrived in the hustle and bustle of Johannesburg Airport before taking a short flight to Mpumulanga where we spent three nights in The Rissington Inn, owned by Chris Harvie, a fascinating travel writer and host. We spent the days visiting Gods Window, Blyde River Canyon, lunching in the village of Graskop at Harries Pancakes (the Duke of Kent walked past the window as we ate!) and visiting the silk workshop over the road to buy a natural silk duvet that we still use to this day.

Next stop was Cheetah Plains Sabi Sands and more wildlife punctuated with early dawn starts, large breakfasts and long days without lunch. As this series develops, we are reminiscing both about times where food has been the main focus but also where it has taken a back seat. In fact, we seemed to spend more time seeing wildlife eating than we did ourselves!

Our guides did a wonderful job and we ticked off the “Super 7” of lions, rhino, leopard, water buffalo and elephants plus cheetahs and painted hunting dogs alongside giraffes, wildebeest and loads of other fascinating creatures. A recent kill by a lioness was a raw and harrowing insight to nature taking its course and something that was not for the faint hearted.

Also not so enthralling was the close proximity of the giant yellow orb spiders and a random snake encounter on our way back to our villa, but no harm done. Just a lot of ducking under the webs hanging from trees and a clever guide on our front bonnet with a giant stick to sweep away the more precarious webs. There was only one minor medical incident when Bob found himself in the pool alongside a floating caterpillar. We all thought it was absolutely hilarious and took no great notice until Bob said he felt like he had sunburn and we realised it had actually been a bearded fireworm that sheds its venomous bristles and they get lodged in your skin. Bob spent the night wrapped in Calamine Lotion and we spent the rest of the holiday apologising for not taking him seriously.

We headed back to Jo’burg to spend the night before a trip highlight the following day. We headed off to Ukutula lion sanctuary where we walked with teenage lions, fed toddler cubs at playtime and fed baby cubs with bottles. It could have ended here, quite frankly, and we would have been happy.

There were times when we were apprehensive about what the food might be like in Africa, but this probably just showed our ignorance of the destination rather than anything else. We felt like we cheated slightly by being catered for in tourist spots, but every person we encountered was welcoming and we were polite and courteous in return.

Whenever we did eat in restaurants, we made sure to try local classics such as Bobotie and most nights included a braai. We sampled various different types of biltong throughout the trip and we found an amazing place that served fresh, piping hot vetkoek.

We are blessed with not having any food allergies and since we opened our own café of course, our minds are now focused on our customers’ dietary needs. In hindsight, we count ourselves fortunate that we weren’t trying to navigate these countries with an allergy in mind. We literally ate anything that was put in front of us and the privilege associated with this freedom is something that is not lost on us.

For the final leg of our mega-break, we headed west to spend a few nights in Camps Bay, south of Cape Town. We were self-catering but distracted by bagging a pretty cool pad with its own pool on the shore front so food, once again, fell to second place whilst we concentrated on switching off and relaxing. Two weeks of dawn starts for safaris had taken their toll and some much-needed downtime was the perfect way to complete the holiday. A quick trip to catch sight of some penguins for Bob and visit the Cape of Good Hope before we headed back to Kosovo, our hearts full, our cameras full, our minds blown and bursting with gratitude.

This is Day Ten in our series sharing 31 Food Memories for the 31 Days of August.

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