I’ve always loved stories of intrepid women who went from England or Australia to places like India or Africa in the 1900’s or 1930’s. Brave women in big hats with long skirts and field glasses and a steely, determined chin who said things like “fiddlesticks!” when confronted by an elephant far closer to her mosquito net than was comfortable.
With all the risks in that kind of travel – typhoid and malaria, residents who did not agree that white people should trample their country, probably a lack of women’s loos – I wonder whether I would have ventured further than my front door if I had the same opportunity.
Tomorrow I’m going to Africa for the first time and my inner Nervous Nelly is carrying on like some turn-of-the-century pale-faced debutante. All fainting and smelling salts.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade travel advice for South Africa puts it at Level 2 “Exercise a high degree of caution”. This is currently the same advice as for Belgium where the National Terrorism Threat Level is Level 3 of 4, indicating that a serious and credible threat exists. In South Africa the caution is due to the high level of crime, rather than risk of terrorism.
My university, when giving me permission to travel, required me to fill in a “DFAT 3” form, which asks me to list security precautions due to our corporate travel advisory company having a high risk rating for the country. I had to demonstrate that someone at the conference knew my movements, I had a known roaming phone number, that I was staying at accommodation of a particular star rating and that I had a transfer from the airport to my accommodation. I have been sent warnings about what to do if I am mugged. I have been advised not to use ATMs in public, or to show my phone obviously in the street. And if I travel in a car to make sure the doors are locked and the valuables are in the boot.
I am sure all will be OK. If those women in the 1930’s could do it in long skirts, then I am sure that me and my iPhone will be just fine.
What a great adventure and opportunity for you to travel to South Africa
It seems like such a vast contrast from the early 1900’s to now. I’m sure you will be ok too. Safe travels!
I read one of those books recently – Return to Laughter, by Eleanore Smith Bowen. It was an extraordinary read, I was as interested in my own reactions to her narrative as she sought to understand the people she was living amongst, as much as the story itself. Safe travels!
Sounds like you will have a great adventure and I am sure you will be perfectly fine. My personal trainer went to South Africa last December and she had no trouble at all.
Travel well, adventurer!
Have an awesome time, Kat! Looking forward to reading your travel posts. 😀
Well written post with minor typographical errors. 1900s or 1930s are plural and require no apostrophe. Please proofread work thoroughly before submitting (or go in afterwards, and edit like mad like me).
I like the Lady Stanhope analogies. Be brave, have fun, enjoy the cheetahs.
Love this. You will be just fine. Of this I am sure!!
Thanks everyone. Sorry about the lack of response so far – wifi at hotel is very patchy. So far, so much fun 🙂
Here is the warning you don’t want appended to the government travel advice the day that you fly to a country…
“On 4 June 2016, the U.S. Government issued a terrorism alert to its citizens in South Africa. The warning notes that ‘the Government has received information that terrorist groups are planning to carry out near-term attacks against places where U.S. citizens congregate in South Africa, such as upscale shopping areas and malls in Johannesburg and Cape Town.’ You are advised to be particularly vigilant in areas frequented by foreigners at this time. See Safety and Security”.
I read that at a Tourist attraction. About to spend the afternoon at a law firm opposite a huge upmarket shopping mall. While standing next to an American citizen…