For some kids, a family vacation means a week at Disney World or a day at the beach. For trip designer and South Africa native Michele Harvey, it meant…well, something else.
“Our family holidays growing up in what was then Rhodesia, were spent in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. We would travel in convoy with the army as the civil war was at its height, and all civilian movements were under armed convoy,” she recalls. “I think wanderlust bit at around the age of eight years old on those early road trips.”
As you can imagine, she also developed a deep appreciation for travel that didn’t include accompaniment by an armed guard. No surprise, then, that she served as the local guide on B&R’s first South Africa trip in 1996, beginning a relationship that would span two decades and culminate with her joining B&R’s talented team of private trip designers.
“I mentioned to the guide manager at the time that I could speak Dutch and would be available to guide their biking trips in the Netherlands and Belgium,” she explains, before confessing, “I failed to mention that it was 17th-century Dutch (as Afrikaans is sometimes referred to). But that led to great things!”**
Vital Stats:
Years in Travel Business: 21
Years with B&R: 19 (on and off for the last three years)
Countries/Regions of Expertise: Southern Africa, Greece, Turkey, SE Asia, Bhutan and Nepal
Countries visited: 40-plus (nine in Africa, 10 in Asia, 21 in Europe and CANADA!)
Countries lived in: Zimbabwe, South Africa, UK, France
Trips planned: 50-plus
Trips guided: 150-plus
Q&A with Michele
What’s your preferred method for immersing yourself in a country or region?
I spend the first few days exploring under my own steam and creating my own impressions, rather than having too many preconceived ideas going in. Wherever possible, I find an ‘in’ to engage with the locals; I try to learn a few greetings of the language and find out what the national obsession is (like a sport or politics). I tend to take a lot of cab rides and engage the drivers in topics of national obsession. I also love fresh food and produce markets and spend hours wandering the market places sampling local coffee.
What’s the best thing that ever happened to you while travelling?
The best moments for me on the road are those authentic cross-cultural exchanges, often in broken languages over a cup of tea. Moments of great hospitality and simple exchange. Perhaps my fondest memory of such an exchange was with a Buddhist monk in his hermitage, above Taktsang Monastery in Bhutan. I had been hiking with a local guide and we were invited into the monk’s home for a cup of tea. He had a great presence and warmth, sitting in his meditation corner, surrounded by prayer texts and ritual objects, completely self-sufficient with a flask of tea and a plate of cracked rice. We shared our trail snacks over tea in the humbling shadows of the mountains.
Time for favourites. What’s your favourite trip you’ve ever taken?
I did a three-week research trip around the Greek isles, including the Turkish coast. The main objective was to find the greatest swim spots, followed by the most authentic tavernas. (Ed. Note: Life’s tough, eh Michele?)
This is my favourite question to ask savvy and experienced world wanderers like yourself: What’s the top destination you haven’t been to, but want to visit?