Latest / Wander the World with Pippa Hudson / Wander the World: Finding SA’s hidden gems

Transcript

Wander the World: Finding SA’s hidden gems · Wander the World with Pippa Hudson

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: You're with Cape Talk.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: This is Papa Hudson on Lunch.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: First of September, can you believe it? And that means
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: it's the start of Heritage Month. So in Wonder the
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: World today, we want to chat to a local travel
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: specialist who has an absolute passion for showcasing our country's heritage.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: Cultural heritage, natural heritage, food heritage, food. Our people's heritage
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: as well. We are so spoiled for choice in South Africa.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: There are so many diverse landscapes and sites and stories
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: and people to meet that even if you set yourself
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: the goal of visiting a different South African destination every weekend,
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: you still wouldn't be able to tick them all off
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: in a lifetime, I suspect. Janet Pillay is doing her
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: very best, though, to get through that bucket list as
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: quickly as she can. She is with me in studio
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: today to help us fine tune our South African bucket
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: list list. She is the founder of the travel platform
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: called Jet Setting with Janet, and she's jet-setted right into studio.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Lovely to have you with us.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Pippa.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: It's wonderful to meet you.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Janet, before we talk about suggestions on places to go
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: and heritage to explore, just tell us a little bit
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: about yourself and this platform.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Well, I started this platform during COVID. I'm a heritage
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: specialist by training. So when you work in the unglamorous
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: world of transport, you need to find those things which
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: keeps your soul happy. And so during COVID, when we
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: couldn't move anywhere, I started the podcast and then we
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: could armchair travel and we could take people along with us.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: And having an essential services certificate is a powerful thing
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: because you can wave it at people and say, no,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I have official business. So that's how we started. And
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: we just celebrated our fifth birthday.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: And you've been inspiring people to be travelers in their
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: own backyard because so many people, when they plan a trip,
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: they think if the trip is going to be special,
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: they're it's got to be overseas. You're all about saying
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: actually right in our own backyard or a little bit
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: further away than our backyard, but still within our own borders,
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: there is everything you could want from, okay, apart from
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: maybe the snow and the ice that one finds, you know,
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: the ice in Antarctica, fair enough. But almost every kind
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: of travel that you can imagine is possible within South
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Africa's borders.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. You just have to step out and you can
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: sometimes feel Like you're in a completely new country, we
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: have the best views, the most amazing vantage points. And yes,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: discovering your hidden gems in your own backyard is actually
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: where it starts. So I grew up in a family
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: where we didn't have a lot of money. And silly me,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: grew up thinking we were fabulously wealthy because we packed
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: that car with sandwiches. I thought that mixing Oros was
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: the most elegant thing to do until I realized that
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: there are soda pops that you could buy. And we
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: just never did that. Being one of six kids and
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: with my parents, we packed that Peugeot station wagon and
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: off we went. So there are loads of black and
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: white photos of us in different places, just marking territory
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: and exploring vistas. It didn't take a lot of money.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Everything was made at home. But what it helped me
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: do is develop an absolute sense of adventure.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: I would argue that that was rich indeed to have
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: that opportunity to travel and see the country with the
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: people that you love in that way, because there are
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: many people who've never had that experience.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: But I take your point about the spirit of adventure
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: that it evoked.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: In you, Janet.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Yes. And so Sundays are really drive days still in
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: my life. And, you know, talking about places to discover,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Hidden Gem is not really an undiscovered place or place
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: that isn't crowded it's really a place that leaves you
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: with a feeling a story a connection a taste or
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: a smell that is going to stay with you and
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: inspire you to tell others about it so it stays
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: with you long after the experience and South Africa has
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: so many extraordinary destinations so everybody talks about Cape Town
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: but there are little towns that surround us that are
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: absolute delights.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: And the same applies in almost every major centre. So Janet,
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: I was privileged to spend a lot of my childhood
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: in the Eastern Cape with a grandfather who was a
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: passionate fisherman, which meant that every holiday we also piled
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: into the back of a station wagon and off we
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  Speaker 3: went to the most far-flung places. semi-abandoned parts of the
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: wild coast river mouths so that he could fish. And
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: I got to see parts of the country that were
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: completely untouched because of that. And again, not fancy. It
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: was never, we never stayed in a hotel. It was
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: nothing like that. It was Marmite sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: in the car. And the arras, I'm with you on that.
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  Speaker 3: But I mean, it's a privilege to have the opportunity
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: to see all of that and to be able to
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: explore all of that. Now, when it comes to populating
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: a podcast and social media platforms and giving people advice
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: on where to go within this concept of heritage travel,
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: let's start with how you even define that concept. What
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: is heritage travel? Because for some people, it's about cultural heritage.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: They think that means it must be a site where
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: something historic happened or perhaps a site that is special
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: to a particular religion or culture.
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  Speaker 1: For others, it might mean something.
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  Speaker 2: Else, though. Well, heritage is a very broad term. So
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: heritage could be anything from traditional beadwork or food waste,
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  Speaker 2: the way something is prepared, or a story tradition that
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: is in a community. I mean, we have wine and rooibos.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: We have beautiful rock formations. It just really depends on
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: the thing that you love and that resonates with you.
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  Speaker 2: It's anything that has a story, a narrative under it.
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  Speaker 3: That's not just going to look at it because it's pretty,
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  Speaker 3: but there's.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: More to it than that.
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  Speaker 2: There's more to it than that.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: So we're going to pick out some examples.
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  Speaker 3: And Janet has chosen an incredibly interesting list of destinations
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: that we're going to talk about. And if you want
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: to add to it and tell us about a place
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: that for you. has most symbolized the concept of heritage
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: travel within South Africa, where you discovered that story or
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: that cultural touchpoint or that food experience that made you
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: feel something and not just enjoy a beautiful view.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Where was it?
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  Speaker 3: What was the thing that moved you so and made
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: you feel connected to your heritage in some way? Send
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: us a WhatsApp to 072567. Janet, seeing as I've mentioned
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: the Eastern Cape, I'm going to go straight to the
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: one item on your list, which.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Is familiar to me because it's.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: The Hogsback and the Kai River. And those are two
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: areas I spent a lot of time in as a child.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: What makes that part of the country so special to you?
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: So I lived and worked in the Eastern Cape for
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: about six years. So I got to discover, we did
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: the most amazing morning walks in the Hogsback, discovered those
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: beautiful waterfalls. And then usually ended up at lunch at
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: some friend, some fellow academic at the university. And it
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: is the stories of the people behind those experiences. I mean,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: we would go to the guy from the Caribbean who
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: would tell us that he went to all the gender
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: meetings because that's the best place to meet women. He
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: was big and burly and he had this massive beard
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: and he cooked the same way. He was just so
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: generous in everything that he made. So I associated his
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: stories with just his generosity of heart. And then There's
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: a certain mysticism about the Hogsback. You know, in every
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: single light, it has a different mood, a different nuance.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that living and working at an academic
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: institution in the Eastern Cape, you have holidays, you have weekends,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: and many of my friends didn't have wheels. So we'd
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: pack my car like we did with my dad, and
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: we'd just drive and discover something new. And it was
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: an amazing revelation. Because we got to visit communities. We
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: got to see the inside of homes, eat with people.
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  Speaker 2: And that is the actual beauty, is the warmth, the
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: generosity and the personalities behind communities.
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  Speaker 3: So if you've never been to the Hogsback, I mean,
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: beautiful mountain scenery, wonderful forests and around every corner, another
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: waterfall to go and explore. The last time I was there,
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: we spent half the week shrouded in thick mist. And
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: as you say, the moodiness, that sense of something beautiful.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: Embracing you beyond the forest was incredible. Also have to
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: give a mention to some of the tallest redwood trees
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  Speaker 3: you will see anywhere in the country in that incredible arboretum.
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  Speaker 2: And as you turn around the corner, there's all these
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: crafters that come to you with these handmade items, which
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: are so precious. I think I still have some of
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: them many, many moons later. And it captures the story,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: the enthusiasm as a car takes that corner and they
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: see somebody arriving. It's like a warm place. They are
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: the unofficial welcome committee to hugs back.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, so that's one to add to the list for
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  Speaker 3: the Eastern Cape. Where would you like to take us next, Joyce?
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  Speaker 2: I'd like to take you to Chatsworth in Durban, my hometown.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: So we moved to Chatsworth to a massive house and
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Chatsworth developed around us. And the beauty of Chatsworth, I've
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: lived outside of KZN since 1999. is that when you
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: go there, everybody looks familiar. Like you either went to
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: school with them or it was a friend of the family.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: And when you go to the market, which is called
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: the Bangladesh market, I can buy pretty much everything from
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: toothpaste to tablecloths and food and spices and fresh vegetables.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: But the beauty of it is to be able to
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: stand there in the hustle and the bustle of the market,
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: have a hot cup of tea that has just been
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: brewed on the stove. Mm-hmm. And savories that come off
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: the fire as you sit there. So it's amazing. And
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: then you bump into somebody that you know. And it
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: gives you a memory throwback to when I was a
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: little child going to the market with my mom. And
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: she would go to the butcher and the grocer. And
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: it was a whole cultural experience for me. I was
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: wide-eyed and always excited. And then the traders came. I
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: grew up being a little bit afraid of how hard
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: their bargaining skills were to becoming one of those people,
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: you know. And now I'm in a different phase of
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: my life where I realize these market gardeners, you know,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: it's a subsistence farming. And I'm so interested in the
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: men and the women behind these stalls because you look
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: at their hands and you realize this is years of toil.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: But it's also a harking back to our community and
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: where we grew up.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: So add Chatsworth in Durban to your list of must-visit
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: destinations for an authentic heritage experience. Just for anybody who's
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: come in halfway through this conversation and doesn't know who
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: my guest is, with me in studio is Janet Pillay
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: of Jet Setting with Janet. If you're familiar with the
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: podcast or her online presence, That is the name you
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: might associate with her, Jet Setting with Janet. Although actually,
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, we're not doing any jet setting today because
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: the only jet you're going to hop on is at
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: most going to take you to another part of South Africa,
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: not beyond our borders.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: We're very much focused on.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: Places to visit that express some part of our shared
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: heritage or perhaps a visit to somebody else's heritage and
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: culture for you to learn about for the first time,
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: which can be an equally fascinating thing. Now, Mapungubwe is
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: a part of the world... that I'd never heard of
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: until my children came home from primary school with their
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: history books, Janet, and started explaining its significance to me.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: It simply never featured in the version of history and
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: South African geography.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: That I was taught at school.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it was not in our history books. And it
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: is so fascinating because you can trace back the first people.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: I mean, Mrs.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Pless is there.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: And it is like, it's fascinating. Facing your own longevity, actually,
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: because it's a capsule of time. And you realize as
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: you do the exhibit that that particular hundred years or
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: thousand years was just a little light bulb that just
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: flashed in the exhibit. And besides all of that, we
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: also did the most amazing adventure experiences. We went on
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: a glider. A glider, and I have a fear of heights, Pippa,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: as much as I climb on a flight so often.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: I'm a little bit afraid of heights. And this glider operates, literally,
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: it glides. And you see things from a completely different angle.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: It flies very low. You feel like it's really confined.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: There's no space for luggage. Forget the second and the
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: carry-on bag and the 23 kilos. It's just literally you
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: in the air. And it is so liberating. And especially
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: for somebody who's afraid of heights. It's so liberating. There's
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: a little airstrip that you can leave from. There's the
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: most amazing, quaint, almost like you're in a novel. Those
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: kinds of places that you discover. Like you're on the
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: set of The Hobbit, for example. So it's very special.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Lots of family-run businesses. Amazing cuisine. Great hospitality. You can't,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, the history, the archaeology there is just fascinating.
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: So if you've not considered it, please add it to
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: the list of destinations that are, I mean, this really is,
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: it's a sacred site to many people.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: It is.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: It deserves to be added to your South African travel
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: bucket list. I'm embarrassed to say I have not been
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: there myself, Janet.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: If you've been, I mean, everybody talks about Stonehenge and
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: there is that otherworldly quality. It's a similar feeling at
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: Mapangubwe because you feel like the sense of, okay, I'm, Yeah,
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: but I'm very small in the scale of things. I'm
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: a moment in time. And that's wonderful because then you
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: take yourself less seriously.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: And you put your life in a little bit more perspective.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: I hear what you're saying, Janet. And the size and
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: scale of your problems sometimes become.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: A little bit more diminished as.
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: You recognize where you stand in the long tradition of
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: the human race, as it were. Our first WhatsApp is
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: through WhatsApp and voice notes through on the subject of
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: places that you have felt symbolized important sort of heritage
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: travel for you. Let me start with a text and
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: then we'll go to a voice note. Geraldine writing in
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: to say, we did a road trip to the Eastern
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: Cape a few years ago to show my kids where
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: their grandmother grew up near Fort Beaufort. Part of the
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: trip was to Hogsback where their great grandfather had helped
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: to build homes in the 1960s. We were hoping to
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: see snow, but we just missed it. The Eastern Cape
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: is still largely untouched and so beautiful, says Geraldine. Geraldine,
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: I did a very similar trip with my kids to
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: take them back through the rural Eastern Cape and to
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: the Hogsback for a week, also in the hopes of
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: seeing snow. And like you, the snow fell the day
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: after we left, but it didn't matter in the end.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: I'm so glad you had that experience. Let's listen to
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: a voice note as well from Melanie.
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: Hi, Papa. A wonderful experience for anybody is.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: A restaurant in Hout Bay called Quentin at Oakhurst. You
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: walk in there and the feeling is just unbelievable. It's memorabilia,
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: South African history. It's really, it's like a museum. And
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: then to top it all, the chef is just phenomenal.
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: It's Quentin at Oakhurst and he's an excellent chef. So
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: besides great food, you're just blown away by this history.
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: It's something else. It really is. Thanks for a great show.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Thanks, Melanie.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad you sent that voice note in.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: I was sitting here in the background going, but you've
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: got to talk about the food because the food.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: At Quentin's is so good that you almost forget.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: And, you know, you spend the first half of the
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: evening staring at all the things on the shelves and
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: on the walls and reading the little documents behind those frames.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: And then you end up sitting down and, of course,
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: you forget about anything else except how absolutely fantastic the
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: food is. But thank you for the suggestion. If you
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: want something of a dining experience that comes with amazing
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: heritage background to it, That's one of the places to consider.
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: Please keep your WhatsApps coming to 0725671567. We're in conversation
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: with Janet Pillay of Jet Setting with Janet, focusing specifically
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: about destinations which showcase an aspect of South African heritage
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: that might not be on the sort of mainstream bucket
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: list travel, but should be. The Northern Cape, Janet, is
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: a part of the country I've seen very little of.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: I've done one road trip up to Kuruman as a student,
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: and I've seen the Urg van Kuruman and thought it
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: was very beautiful. But apart from that, I've never spent
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: any time in that province. And I think like most people,
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: I think Northern Cape, desert and stars. But there's more
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: to it than that, isn't there?
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: If you are into the stars, the Northern Cape is
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: definitely the place for you because they're I think there's
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: a quality to the skyline that is completely different from
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: anywhere else in the world.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: There's a vastness.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: And the reason why I love the Northern Cape is
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: because I feel a little bit like Christopher Columbus, exploring
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: new vistas, discovering amazing hospitality, lots of spaces between places.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: And the beauty of that is that you have thinking
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: time and everything digests. You ruminate on it. And the
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: kind of hospitality that I've experienced in the Northern Cape
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: is unparalleled. People are genuinely excited. They have stories to tell.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: And they'll pull up a chair and sit down with
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: you and say, you know, we arrived here in X year.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: And I had the chance to spend time with a
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: third generation hotelier. And he had traveled the world and
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: come back home. And he was just talking about the
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: need to come back home. And why that homecoming was
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: so important for him because he couldn't get the Northern
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Cape out of his DNA. So if you've been to
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: the Northern Cape, you will want to continue to go
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: there because there is wide open spaces, warm hospitality, rock formations,
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: and adventure that is unparalleled.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: Adventure, I mean, do you want to elaborate a little
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: bit on some of the experiences that are available out
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: there that people.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Might not know about?
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: So there's rock climbing. Yeah. There is, you can get
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: on a SUV and just climb the dunes. Yeah. It's phenomenal. And,
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: you know, it brings out a certain... A certain need
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: for speed and adrenaline rush, which really is quite amazing.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: Because once you've done that, it's like you've crossed a Rubicon.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: And it's not about the place. It is about the
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: feeling that you left with after the experience. And, Pippa,
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: you and I know we're always looking for that amazing
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: anti-aging formula to preserve us, you know, for stage and
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: screen and keep us looking vital and young. But I
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: promise you, do a shark cage dive. Get into a
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Raptor and ride those dunes, ride those mountains in the
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Northern Cape. And it cuts off 10 years, trust me.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: So highly recommend it as an anti-aging treatment.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Who would have thought? Who would have thought?
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: But just carry lots of sunblock because the sun is
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: unforgiving in the Northern Cape. It's either extremely hot or
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: extremely cold.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: And freezing cold at night and in winter.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Freezing cold, yes.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: I'm still, I'm working on the family. One day I'm
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: going to convince them to take a mid-winter break to
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Sutherland and beyond and into the Northern Cape. So watch
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: this space.
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: Now, you mentioned rock formations and the next destination you
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: picked out for us, Janet, is one that I associate
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: with beautiful light on red rocks and that's Clarence. Am
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: I right in thinking that that is one of the
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: selling points of Clarence?
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: It's what I call a watermelon sunset because it's got
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: those beautiful pink hues. And it's not just about Clarence.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Clarence is also one of those places which are like
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: a film or a book where you turn pages and
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: you discover new things. We've done every from beer tasting
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: to doing a selection of smoked sausages. And I mention
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: this because we have so many resources, so many offerings,
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: that it doesn't have to be the fancy things. It
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: can be simple, homegrown things that actually make you happy.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: And I remember Clarence so fondly because we did a
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: family holiday. And here was this massive house bustling with people.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: And each day we'd get up and we'd go and
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: discover a new corner of Clarence. And Clarence is one
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: of those places where you just literally feel your BP drop.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: You can go for that early morning walk. It's so amazing.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: And there's, again, wide open spaces, so much to discover.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: That little quaint dish that you need to try at
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: a particular restaurant. And just spending time communing with nature. Again,
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: wide open spaces, it promotes great thinking, great creativity.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: It's a privilege that many of us take for granted
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: having those wide open spaces. And sometimes, Janet, it takes
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: leaving South Africa and experiencing how people live in the
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: rest of the world to realize how lucky we are
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: to have that. Because there's nothing like a trip through
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: a really crowded part of Europe, for example, to make
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: you realize, gosh, it's something we should take greater pride
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: in and revel in, the ability to drive for an
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: hour in that direction without seeing another settlement, another human being,
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: let alone a bustling town, a train station, a.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Mass of people.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: There is something about those wide open spaces that maybe
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: we take for granted until you realize what it's like
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: to live without them, Janet.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: For sure, Papa. And you know, there are places that,
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: where time literally stands still, we did a holiday to
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: Rodrigues Island, just outside of Mauritius, completely uncommercialized, where you
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: can go to the market and there are 10 women
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: selling pickled limes or homemade honey, you know, their own
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: little aviary. And we visited this amazing women-owned, women-run aviary
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: where I bought the most amazing honey sweets, t-shirts with
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: the honey logo on it, beautiful bee wall hanging honey
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: and beautiful creams. And the beauty of it wasn't just
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: the fact that it was woman owned and run. It
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: was how far we traveled to find them and how
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: deep inside the forest they were and how there's this
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: whole thriving community. And what that trip did for me
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: was to teach me to stop and just enjoy the moment.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: It didn't matter how long it took because, you know,
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: we're all so scheduled. I'm very scheduled. So I have
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: to schedule time to have fun like this. And you're
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: in a country where time is not an issue. And
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: then we were in the middle of a cyclone. So
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: we lost two days. We stayed in the hotel. We
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: got all these alerts and it was fantastic. We missed
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: our flight. But it was beautiful because everybody, there was
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: a sense of community because we were experiencing this together.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: So definitely not something you add to your bucket list.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: But what a revelation to be able to sit there
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: in your room and watch the sea change as the
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: weather changed. And quite often when you live in a
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: big city like ours, there's so much pressure. You know,
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: everything is a 30-minute time slot. And to be able
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: to not have those bookends of a day where things just,
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: go one into the other. Clarence is the same kind
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: of energy.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: It unfolds around you.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: It unfolds around you, absolutely.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, you've got me. Thinking of my next holiday already, Janet.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: I wish we could carry on and on ticking off
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: destinations like this. Our listeners are starting to contribute a
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: few as well. And what I'll do is share your
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: messages after the eyewitness news. But Janet, before we let
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: you go, I mean, you've done a wonderful job of
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: painting these pictures for us today and sparking interest. Your podcast,
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: your platforms and social media, if people want to explore
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: more of the travel you've done and recommend, where should
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: they be looking?
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: They should look for Jetsitting with Janet on Instagram.
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: We're also on Facebook, on LinkedIn. And then our podcast
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: syndicates to Apple iTunes and Spotify. So they just need
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: to punch in Jet Setting with Janet and come along
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: with us for the next adventure.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: Well, thanks for taking a turn into our studio. I'm
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: glad you considered us part of the fun part of
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: the day, Janet. It's been really fun chatting to you.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: And thank you so much for the wonderful suggestions you've
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: shared with us today.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Great being here. Thank you so much, Pippa, for
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: having me.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: It's our huge pleasure, Janet Pele, of Jet Setting with Janet.