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Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast

First time in Africa for senior travel writer Natalie Wilson

Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast

The Independent

Places & Travel, Leisure, Society & Culture

3.6628 Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2026

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Travel desk Tuesday – and the joy of working at The Independent is that my excellent colleagues are constantly returning from exciting places. Senior travel writer Natalie Wilson tells me about her first experience of Africa. She visited Borano Conservancy in Kenya – and can't wait to return to the continent.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder. It's Tuesday the 24th of February.

0:09.5

Travel Desk Tuesday, of course. Africa is a continent that absolutely does not get as much attention nor as many travelers as it should, considering its many wonders. Yes, of course,

0:23.3

Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt. Very well developed for tourism, as is South Africa and some parts

0:30.5

of East Africa. But there is so much potential there and I'm delighted to be talking to

0:36.3

senior travel writer.

0:38.4

Natalie Wilson just returned.

0:41.2

I understand from Kenya and your first trip to Africa.

0:44.7

Hello, yes.

0:46.2

First time anywhere in Africa.

0:48.3

I've never been to Morocco, Egypt, anywhere like that.

0:51.1

And so yeah, it was a big one for my first time to go to Kenya.

1:00.0

Tell us your first impressions. First impressions. I was quite groggy. It was a long flight, but so worth it. And flying in over Nairobi National Park and even seeing giraffes from the plane

1:06.4

was pretty impressive. You know that you are in Africa. Yeah.

1:16.5

Things like the logistics of getting in, there is a bit of bureaucracy.

1:17.2

Yeah.

1:20.4

The visa application I found really smooth, really quick.

1:22.5

Travel through the airport, I was quite lucky.

1:26.4

Obviously, Nairobi had some problems recently, but we were quite lucky in and out.

1:27.9

Other than a lack of aircon coming back, we were quite a smooth journey. The logistics were quite manageable.

1:33.5

Tell us about your trip. I stayed in central Kenya. I think it's Le Cupia, Le Cipia,

1:40.0

on Burana Conservancy, which is sort of in the foothills of Mount Kenya, so you can see all of that.

1:45.6

And it's 32,000 acres, I believe, of just beauty and animals.

...

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