There are moments in life that you imagine so many times that, when they finally arrive, they almost don't feel real.

For me, stepping off the plane in Johannesburg was one of those moments.

I was in South Africa - finally.

My first South African breakfast

40 hours of travelling and no sleep, eventually, exhaustion gave way to hunger.

I spotted a Wimpy restaurant, something I'd heard of but never actually visited before, and decided my first meal in South Africa would be breakfast.

Running almost entirely on excitement rather than sleep, I finished eating, stood up...

I hadn't done it deliberately.

My brain simply wasn't functioning particularly well after being awake for so long.

A lovely member of staff came looking for me and I'd actually got quite far (down a lift and towards the entrance🙈), before I'd realised my mistake. We met in the lobby of the airport, and she escorted me back to pay - how mortifying?! As I apologised profusely, she explained that if I hadn't paid, the cost could have been deducted from her wages.

That encounter stayed with me.

Not because it made me think badly of South Africa, but because it reminded me that travel isn't only about landscapes and wildlife. Sometimes the smallest interactions quietly reveal that life works differently elsewhere.

The adventure had already started

Looking back, it's funny that one of my strongest memories from arriving in South Africa isn't seeing my first elephant.

It's accidentally walking out of a Wimpy without paying.

And somehow, it felt like the perfect beginning.

Planning your own arrival?

One of the best pieces of advice my uncle gave me was to buy a local South African SIM card before leaving the airport. It made navigating my first few days much easier and saved expensive roaming charges.