MilliOnAir Magazine July/August | Page 225

Our trip to Africa came totally out of the blue. Two weeks prior to going I was approached by a friend who owns a stock image company, Image Source. She was planning a shoot in Cape Town and needed a couple to get involved, so naturally Jean and I jumped at the opportunity when asked to go to South Africa. Wanting to make the most out of our trip we decided to contact the lifestyle and tourism company Pure Africa, to help us plan the remainder of our travels. As this really was so last minute we really didn’t have enough time to even think about what we wanted to do whilst there. All I knew was that there was no way I was going to Africa and not going on Safari! Thankfully the guys at Pure Africa dealt with everything, and when I say everything I mean, from the moment we touched down in Cape Town to the car rental to the vineyard tour right through to booking our internal flights into the bush in Zimbabwe plus all of our restaurant bookings in- between. All we had to do was say yes to the proposed itinerary. So leading up to our adventure Jean and I started watching a tonne of documentaries on wildlife. That however, could have never prepared us for how truly spectacular it was to experience first hand everything Africa had to offer. So lets start at the beginning with Cape Town... THE ULTIMATE ADVENTURE We managed to find very reasonable flights with British Airways. The flight was eleven hours and thirty minutes in total which compared to our trip to Tahiti was a breeze! We arrived on the over night flight which landed at 7.45am well rested and excited to explore South Africa. We had hired a car from the airport as we were advised that with all we had planned this would be the most convenient.  We then headed to our friend's apartment where we would be spending the first night before heading to the villa for the shoot. So after quickly showering we started to make our way towards our first stop, Babylonstoren vineyard. Self-described as one of the oldest Cape Dutch farms which houses not only its fruit and vegetable garden of beauty and diversity, but also accommodation, fine food and wine plus lots more. Already Cape Towns beautifully versatile landscape was blowing us away and That is even before we had laid eyes on the magic of the vineyard! We were in a slight state of trance that we were actually there. The exceptionally quick lead up seemed to have flied by in the blink of an eye and here we were driving through the South-African countryside surrounded by an aggressive mountainous back drop which was unassumingly draped in clouds as the sun relentlessly burnt through. WINTER ESCAPES