Lukhanyiso is a dynamic young South African woman who tells us about following her dreams through good times and tough times: from South Africa to Switzerland and back again. She now runs a travel company giving visitors the chance to meet local South Africans – and thereby get a deeper understanding and love of our country. We chat about what South African food is, and where to find the loo with the best view…

Deutsch: Du kannst diesen Podcast auch auf Deutsch hören: “Africa with André auf Deutsch”

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Lugi Design Travel: https://lugidesign-travels.com/

Tim & Angelique’s Eco Lodge near Sedgefield: https://reflectionsreserve.com/

Sculpture Garden near Stellenbosch: https://www.dylanlewis.com/studio/sculpture

Beau Constantia: https://www.beauconstantia.com/

Constantia Winelands: https://constantiawineroute.com/

South African Tourism: https://www.southafrica.net/

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Episode 11: Lukhanyiso - Stories of “Following your Dream” and “The Best Loo with a View”

[00:00:08] André: Welcome, welcome everyone. I am very excited to introduce you today to a dynamic young woman whom I met at a travel show in London in November. Lukhanyiso is from South Africa and runs her own business called Lugi Design Travel. She arranges tailor made holidays for visitors to Southern Africa, but her itineraries go a little deeper than what most travellers book or experience, especially on their first visits.

Hello, Lukhanyiso, and welcome to my podcast.

[00:00:41] André: Tell us a little bit about who you are.

I am a single mother of two. I'm a twin and my professional background, strangely enough, when I really look back has always been linked to the travel industry. I began my journey in the aviation sector for seven years.

I've got zillions of passions and I'm truly passionate about South Africa as well as the continent and the differences in our cultures, and, my magic power is connecting like-minded people, and my worst pet hate is bad quality service. There's nothing that I can't stand more than bad quality service in my life.

[00:01:40] Lukhanyiso: Right.

[00:01:52] Lukhanyiso: It’s really not so difficult.

[00:01:57] Lukhanyiso: So Lugi Design Travel, it’s been a project of two years now. So, implementation started then, the thought of it is a completely different journey, which dates back probably 2013.

[00:02:13] Lukhanyiso: Yeah, and just to give a little bit of what we do at Lugi Design, I like to look at it as an amalgamation of all my passions. We like to think of ourselves as our guests personal travel designer, collaborating with our clients to understand their unique travel aspirations.

We then co-create, a personalized and bespoke travel experience that explores the lesser known destinations in South Africa, specifically the Western Cape. That blend adventure, luxury comforts, as well as the opportunity to mingle with the vibrant and creative local people, the essence of the South African spirit.

Let's take a step back Lukhanyiso. Where did you grow up? And what was your dream job when you were a child?

When I say KwaZulu Natal, think of Shaka Zulu. So, I am both a warrior and this genius and…

[00:03:28] Lukhanyiso: …highly as Xhosa people. Both my parents were super clever people. they were both doctors.

But I predominantly grew up with my mother, who is Xhosa. So, I've got a lot of Xhosa influence. And my mother, she's a single black strong woman who raised four children, on her own with big ambitious dreams. And we used to travel together, she's my best travel buddy.

She's the one who opened the world to me.

Why are you so excited to see someone from Switzerland?

[00:04:20] André: I can hear it,

[00:04:23] André: Yeah.

I had my first international work experience; I made amazing friends. I went there to study hospitality; however, I gained much more. I understood my strength, my entire being was formed and shaped through the experience I had in Switzerland.

[00:04:58] Lukhanyiso: Okay. So let me tell you my story.

[00:05:26] André: Yeah.

You asked me earlier on what I dreamt of becoming when I was a child. I don't have recollection of that. I only have recollection of wanting to be a chef once I was in university. And I remember how I went to speak to my African mother, and I told her my big dreams of being a chef. And my mother looked at me and she said, "excuse me? After all that I do and the monies that I spend, you want to cook? Can you go back to your room and study your books?"

[00:06:27] Lukhanyiso: So, she could see how miserable I was, and we started having conversations and she encouraged me a lot to go back and study. My mom is a learned person. She loves books. For me, this was the perfect opportunity to bring back that, that conversation we had many years ago.

I was like, "okay, I'll go back to study. But this time I'm studying hospitality. I'll have an MBA in cooking. How's that sound?" And she was like, "okay, an MBA" speaking prestige, black mother. Excellent. She's loving the idea.

Then the next part was to look for a school. My aunt sent me a WhatsApp with the screen grab of an article, it was a presentation about a Swiss hospitality school and for me that opened up a new world now.

I was like, "Whoa, okay. What world is this"? So, I was very curious. Anyway, I parked it, as one would think, Oh, not enough money. You put your dreams aside and your life just continues.

Anyway, my mom then gave me this opportunity: “I'll look after your child. You find a school and go do your MBA". And, um…

[00:07:37] Lukhanyiso: Not at all. And at the time, my father had just passed away.

So, I had inheritance. I took my inheritance, and I deposited to go to the school. So that was my part of, financially investing in this journey. And my mom had agreed that she was going to do the rest.

[00:07:55] Lukhanyiso: Anyway, the year went by, I got accepted, I closed off Johannesburg, moved my daughter to Knysna, the Garden Route

[00:08:22] André: Yeah.

[00:08:33] André: yeah.

I faced loads of challenges. It was my first time living outside of my own country, I'm highly excited. You should have seen me at the train station. I used to walk around smiling. I was so excited.

However, I had this dark cloud behind me, you know, I've never lived without my daughter. So that was horrible.

So, I'm performing extremely well at school. I'm on top of my game because I am doing what I actually want to do. I'm living out my passion, but I, I'm worried. Fast forward to six months later. I get kicked out of school, right?

Luckily, I had met a friend, she invited me to take space in her couch. She gave me shelter and food. And I met another beautiful South African girl, she taught me everything I needed to know about Lausanne.

I had one friend printing out CVs. I was staying at one friend's couch. The one friend was taking me everywhere, trying to find a job. Of course, my French language was not that great, so it was very challenging. Eventually I did though, somebody took a chance on me and my first job was at a restaurant in Pully, right by the lake.

And then the following year, my mother's financial situation was better.

[00:10:03] Lukhanyiso: I enrolled back to school, and I had a full time job, at a restaurant.

[00:10:15] Lukhanyiso: So very good question. I really desperately wanted to stay in Switzerland, it's so beautiful.

[00:10:21] Lukhanyiso: It really is, and like I said I really, really wanted to stay. But at that time, trying to find a full-time job in hospitality is practically impossible.

And again, I have a daughter waiting for me back home. She's always been my first priority. So that's how I ended up coming back to South Africa. But I remember, right before I left, it was very, very sad. I was actually broken to be honest. It took me some time to, to find my ground again after coming back.

I was at the lake, and I can even remember exactly what I was wearing on that particular day, I was standing at the lake, and saying to myself, "the next time I come back to Switzerland, I'll have a business". And I left and I've never been back until beginning of this year, when I have this particular travel offering that I have to promote, and my clients are primarily in Switzerland. How incredible is that?

[00:11:16] Lukhanyiso: Right?

[00:11:31] Lukhanyiso: Not even a day, have I ever experienced a discrimination. Not once. It was amazing. So, it was also a very lovely time to be out of that experience.

And I always think that there are too few black men and women coming into the industry in positions higher than guides, restaurants, at ownership level.

What's your experience with that?

[00:12:36] André: Yep.

I'm a big fan of Johannesburg, for example, I, I love Johannesburg, not only because of the food and the music, but the history, the culture. And I always say, it's the one city in South Africa where you can see a young black woman driving a Ferrari. Not that that should be everybody's aspiration, but it's the melting pot of the country where everybody comes together and where it doesn't matter if you're black or white, everyone is working and partying together, much more than in Cape Town.

And that brings me to the point that, I think, where you and I connected:

It's very important that when people come to South Africa that they take the time to see more than just Table Mountain and a wine estate, but if they can, that they actually spend two nights in Johannesburg, and do a cycle tour in Soweto and meet the guides that live there and understand how the history of the country has affected how people interact with each other even today. And I think that you have a similar mission, shall we say, that people understand the country on a level that's more than just pretty mountains and beautiful beaches.

And that's exactly what we do at Lugi Design Travel, we curate unique experiences that showcase the heart of South Africa. We immerse our guests, if we are going to Table Mountain, we don't, take our guests to those long queues waiting for the cable car.

We walk up Table Mountain. You're walking, immersing with nature. There's loads of other people that are climbing the same mountain. So, we all have one common goal and we're all climbing this mountain and we're breaking into song. We are taking photos together. We are laughing. It is, it's just a joyful experience.

[00:15:33] Lukhanyiso: And that's how we do Table Mountain. But we don't stop there. We explore everything that is around the Western Cape, because I literally swear, two hours away from Cape Town, the landscape changed so dramatically.

[00:15:57] Lukhanyiso: So, one of the things that you will definitely experience without fail is you would meet a lot of local people. You'll have deeper connections with local people. So typically, instead of going to a five star hotel all the time, you would also end up in a small town right before Sedgefield, at a friend's place where we share and break bread together and tell stories around a braai. They own an eco-lodge in Sedgefield.

His name is Tim, and his wife is Angelique. Tim is the most amazing person, he's a tour guide. The knowledge Tim has, he's a white man who speaks Xhosa. He understands Xhosa, everything about the culture and South Africa. He's the most fascinating person I've ever met in my entire life. And we would literally sit there and just share stories.

[00:16:49] Lukhanyiso: So that would be one of the special things; my guests love that. Or I've got a friend who owns a beautiful gallery up in Hout Bay. We would sit on his balcony, he's got the most stunning views. We'll sit and enjoy seafood together and share stories and look at art.

We'd have a local artist, coming to talk to us about the process of his creativity and we all sit and share and have conversations together.

For those listeners who don't know, Hout Bay is a suburb of Cape Town. And you also just mentioned that you would have a braai at this eco-lodge of your friends. A braai is what the Americans would call a barbecue. So, it's all about meeting local people and getting a better understanding of different elements of the country through that.

[00:17:36] André: When you explore the Winelands, do you do anything interesting, in the Franschhoek, Stellenbosch side?

[00:18:10] André: You've travelled with quite a lot of your clients around the country. I'm sure that you have one or two funny and heartwarming stories.

[00:18:41] André: What do you mean by South African food? Just for our listeners, to picture the same thing.

[00:19:11] André: The food is incredible in the country. I mean, there's a reason we have a number of world class restaurants. I hate it when people say, "so what's your national dish?". I'm like, there isn't one…

[00:19:22] André: maybe cow, maybe because, you know, we eat a lot of meat, but, you're right, it's just the quality and the fusion of the different flavours that are put together on your plate.

[00:20:16] André: Do you take your guests to go and have traditional Xhosa meals as well? I'm thinking of when we were offered a dish of chicken feet. And chicken feet are a delicacy on many plates; and my partner was in South Africa for the first time, he just devoured these chicken feet.

[00:20:37] André: …and I admit I didn't try it.

[00:20:41] André: I feel, I feel very guilty.

[00:20:44] André: No, with your guests? Do you give them the opportunity to try that as well?

So, when I take my guests there, it will be literally immersing ourselves in the Xhosa culture, food, as well as the fashion and the dress sense and the traditions of when we break bread. So that's the next experience that I am putting together.

Right: What is your favourite restaurant in South Africa?

It's bathroom. The bathroom is incredible. When you walk into the bathroom, there's a welcome mat, it's written "a Loo with the View". André, you walk in…

[00:21:45] Lukhanyiso: …and the view you are looking down at the valley of all these wine farms that have been developed there since 1685. It's the most amazing experience, you don't even want to leave the bathroom to be honest.

them, but let's see if anyone picks up.

[00:22:14] André: I'm sure. And just for those of you who are not familiar with the Winelands in and around Cape Town. Most people are familiar with Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, which, are the more well-known areas about an hour's drive outside of Cape Town. Constantia is an area along the back of Table Mountain, and you can reach it in about 20 minutes from the city centre.

And my last question for you. Who is your favourite South African person? Someone that has taught you something or inspired you in some way. And why is that?

[00:23:08] André: I knew it.

[00:23:09] André: was going to be your mother. I knew it.I had a feeling.

[00:23:13] André: …like, I was like, is she going to say Nelson Mandela? Like I've had before.

Your mother. Tell us why.

She's just a unique person, and she has taught me courageous, resilience and strength. And I appreciate that woman from the bottom of my heart.

Lukhanyiso, thank you so so much for your time and for joining us and telling us your story.

[00:24:17] André: I'm very grateful to hear that. Thank you, because this is exactly the type of thing I thought of when saying that I want to tell stories that celebrate Africa.

And thank you also to all the listeners for hearing my conversation with Lukhanyiso of Lugi Design Travel in South Africa and hearing about some of her favourite spots and funny stories.

If you enjoyed the show, tell your friends and family about it. Give us a follow on Spotify or Apple, send us your questions on Instagram, and see you next time.