Vegan eating on a South African tour and on Turkish Airlines

Travelling to South Africa and going on a safari has always been on my bucket list, and finally last week I fulfilled this. I went with a company called TSS travel, that organised the flights, hotels and route. I normally prefer designing my own route but this South African tour was on special offer. So for £1000 and in 10 days we travelled from Cape Town to Knysar to Port Elizabeth to Addo Elephant National Park Johannesburg to Pretoria/Thswane to Kruger National Park.

In Cape Town we went up Table Mountain and had the most beautiful views over Cape Town. We drove along Chapman’s Peak Drive to Cape Point, the most south-westerly point of Africa.

We went to a touristy dance and dinner show of Africa at Gold Restaurant, and even though it was touristy I did enjoy eating the vegan dishes from Africa. We tried lentils, beans in different ways, sweet potato balls, sweet potato fritters, tomato soup and cornbread, rice, fruit.

In Knysar we had a boat tour of the bay, and then later we went to a township to see the real Africa as my tour guide kept telling me. It was interesting to see how people in the township lived, the Mandala houses and how businesses are developing.

In Addo Elephant National Park we got to see many elephants, zebras, kudos, water buffalos, impalas and warthogs. I was worried about going to national parks because I had heard that some rangers drive off the road and go right up to the animals, but here and in Kruger National Park I did not see this, and the animals were given distance and space. I just wish I had a better camera!

In Port Elizabeth we saw wild dolphins swimming along the waters edge.

While driving to Kruger National Park, we went to Blyde River Canyon to see the canyon and The Three Rondavels.

We also stopped at a Petrol Station called Alzu and there were many animals in the waterhole nearby including water buffalos, rhinoceros, emus, kudos, ostriches, zebras.

In Kruger National Park I was really hoping to see lions and leopards but we unfortunately saw none, but we did see a plethora of elephants, kudos, giraffes, impalas, rhinoceros,  monkeys, baboons, cape glossy starling, spurfowl, yellow billed hornbill, water buffalo, waterbucks, hippopotamus and crocodiles.

The food was often from buffets and we could choose from salad, cooked vegetables (cooked in oil), maize with tomato sauce (very South African and filling, called Chakalaka and pap), fruit, bread. And even passionfruit sauce one time. Breakfast was again buffets but here we could choose from breads, jams, cereals, salad, oats, coffee and fruit. I often made trips to supermarkets to stock up on fruit, dried fruit and nuts as my fall back. In one restaurant we had to order from the sides menu and had mushrooms, spinach and sweet potato fries.

We flew with Turkish Airlines and their vegan meals were better than other airlines, but I was definitely glad to have snacks with me. The meals were often rice or couscous, vegetables in a tomato sauce, salad and fruit. A couple of times we had a vegan chocolate cake or a vegan coconut pudding.