Ask an Indian about South Africa and you will get two things: cricket and more cricket. Personally, I will throw in a tiny crush on David Miller too. But as a travel destination? It never made the cut
on my bucket list because we Indians have a very specific list of places we would like to visit. But fate took me to South Africa and I am still thanking my stars with all my heart, even weeks after being back.
Ten days in South Africa, I came home sunburnt (more on that shortly), nursing a small scar I have been told to wear with pride, and completely in love with a country that refused to let me be a passive tourist for even one afternoon. South Africa, put together for me by the brilliant people at South African Tourism, was a full-body experience. So if you’re young, adventurous, have the budget for it, and need your trip to be more than just content for Instagram, then buckle up because I know you will book your tickets soon.
FOR YOUR INSTAGRAM
Can we just agree that a lot of us travel for Instagram? Nothing like putting your life out there for the world to see. So yes, when you post your postcards from South Africa, the people on your feed are going to be jealous and you should feel no shame about it whatsoever.
Hours after landing in Cape Town, I was at Table Mountain, which is the kind of landmark that looks fake in photos and somehow even more unreal in person. My ride to the top was the cable car which is a rotating glass pod that spins 360 degrees on the way up, which means you’re essentially doing a slow pirouette above Cape Town and the Atlantic Ocean does its whole thing in the background. I am a main-character girl and as I stood up there, it felt like the opening shot of a movie about someone with a very interesting life. Did I mention sunscreen? Because I got the most vicious sunburn of my entire existence as I walked in amazement on the top, trying to capture everything on my phone and with my own eyes. Six weeks post-trip and my skin is still reminding me of the good times!
Then there’s Muizenberg Beach, with its row of candy-coloured beach huts that exist, I am convinced, purely as a gift to anyone who needed a great photo.
The thing about South Africa is that the weather changes in a moment. It’s sunny, it’s pleasant, and suddenly it starts raining. The same goes for the infrastructure. It’s posh and quaint somewhere, it’s a full city buzz somewhere and then there’s Franschhoek, where I believe you will get the best pictures of your life. Rolling vineyards, Cape Dutch architecture, and mountains sitting in the background like they were personally hired for the aesthetic. This is where you get the wine glass in hand, soft afternoon light, and the chic travel photo that makes people back home feel complicated emotions. You’re welcome!
But you know what separates South Africa from every other pretty destination? The picturesque moments come with actual stakes. The hour-long helicopter ride over Cape Town wasn’t just beautiful… You’re inside a glass bubble watching the coastline curl beneath you, the mountain suddenly at eye level, and the city looking like someone built it lovingly by hand. The photos from up there looked so fictitious that people assumed I had edited them or used AI. I didn’t. South Africa just looks like that.
FOR YOUR THRILL
Am I a thrill-seeking person? Yes, but on this trip, I got to know things about myself that I didn’t know going in.
First confession, I am a bit scared of motorcycles, yet I comfortably sat through a scenic Harley Davidson ride with the amazing rider Mr Tyrone Dadd. Chapman’s Peak Drive, a coastal road carved dramatically into cliffsides above the Atlantic, revitalised me completely. When I got on that Harley Davidson, something shifted. Is it okay to enjoy a thrilling ride on a Thursday morning when most of the world is busy working? Oh, and I got a very unconventional tattoo! Yes, a small burn on my knee from the exhaust. Tyrone took one look at it and said, “That’s your Harley Davidson tattoo”. Weeks later, it has healed but the mark is still there.
Second confession, I almost didn’t get into the shark cage in Gansbaai, the experience I had been most excited about from the moment I saw the itinerary. I mean, how do I even explain this to someone who hasn’t heard about it or hasn’t experienced it? Shark cage diving has to be one of the highlights of my life. But a few minutes on the speedboat and my body decided to stage a protest. Motion sickness! Full, committed, embarrassing motion sickness. I came up once, gulped some air, considered my life choices, and thought seriously about calling the whole thing off. And then I looked over and saw an equally sick fellow thrill-seeker absolutely losing the plot over the side of the boat, but still waiting for his turn to go shark cage diving. I realised that it’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I mean, is it every day that you can be so close to sharks in the ocean? So, readers, I got in the cage.
Thank God I did! Multiple sharks glided past, completely unbothered by my entire existence. I felt an almost absurd gratitude for showing up despite my body giving up. I am glad I did. I am so glad I did. You will too when you experience it!
Third confession, I was nervous about the quad bike because I am terrible with automobiles. Like, really terrible, thanks to playing Grand Theft Auto for hours in childhood which taught me to drive as I please.
The Atlantis sand dunes are massive, some reaching up to 50 metres high, and the quad bikes are exactly as powerful as they look. I sat on mine for an embarrassing amount of time convinced I was going to flip it immediately. My guide Thomas looked at me and said, “Listen, you can, it’s very easy”. That was it. Six words. And then something clicked, and I went, and I flew. It turns out there’s a version of you that exists on the other side of “I don’t think I can do this”, and South Africa introduced me to that person.
FOR YOUR SOUL
Now, this is the part where it gets harder for me to put into words, but I will try. I mean it was a bit unreal for me to believe that I am in an African safari, something that I only saw on TV. It still feels that way when I watch my Instagram reel on repeat.
Mpumalanga arrived after all the adrenaline of Cape Town like a long exhale. I flew to Skukuza and the energy changed completely. It was quieter and warmer. I was staying at Lion Sands Tinga Lodge inside Kruger National Park, which is a lodge perched on the edge of the Sabie River where wild animals stroll past your suite casually. You fall asleep to the sounds of hippos, hyenas, frogs, and insects building a full orchestra in the dark and wake up before sunrise to climb into an open jeep and head into the bush. And guess who got lucky enough to spot the Big Five in just the first two game drives?
Game drives rearranged something in me that I am still figuring out. It felt like being allowed into a world that was never yours to begin with, as an observer who has been granted temporary permission to exist in it. Two lionesses sitting royally just 5 feet away from my open jeep felt unbelievable. I sat in complete silence as a leopard napped comfortably on a tree branch. Having a marula fruit that fell freshly from the tree first thing in the morning was just so random.
As I said earlier, I saw all the Big Five, but none of it felt like ticking boxes as each encounter felt like a privilege.
There’s something incredible about being in a place where animals exist entirely on their own terms and your presence is, at best, a mild inconvenience to them. My pro tip from this experience would be to wear earthy coloured clothes only and not to go out exploring on your own because it’s their turf, not ours.
I don’t know how to sum it up but South Africa gave me stubborn sunburn, a scar I am calling a tattoo, 500+ ridiculously pretty pictures, and a collection of moments that I will be enthusiastically talking about for the rest of my life.
So, just go. Go young, go all out, go willing to say yes to the shark cage, and the open jeep at 5am. This one piece can’t contain everything I experienced so I will be back with more.
Love you, South Africa.
