Sunday Times Travel

MultimediaLIVE — Rusty Labuschagne was jailed for 10 years in horrific conditions in a Zimbabwean prison for a crime that did not happen. In this espisode, he speaks to Paul Ash about prison life, humility, forgiveness and the healing power of the bush.

MultimediaLIVE — The Dinosaur Park in Mpumalanga province in South Africa should be much more famous than it is. The life-size animals, which include a brontosaurs, were created by one of the country's top wildlife artists and live out their days in a gorgeous piece of sub-tropical forest at the edge of the equally wonderful Sudwala Caves. The caverns are packed with fossils and bats and were once the refuge of a great Swazi king and his people. This is the story of how the park came to be. The Dinosaur Park · Mpumalanga Tourism · Fortis Hotel Malaga · Sunday Times Lifestyle - Travel

MultimediaLIVE — Sunday Times Travel editor Paul Ash has always travelled with a tape recorder. Long after cleverer people dumped clunky tapes for the brittle efficiency of solid-state flash-memory recorders, pundits have been shouting "Tape is dead!" from the rooftops. Yet, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of tape's death have been greatly exaggerated. The National Audio Company of Springfield, Missouri, USA, makes about 10 million cassette tapes a year for tapeheads and artists as different as Pearl Jam and Arianna Grande. Those musicians have helped ensure that there's life the old dog yet. In this episode, veteran tapehead Ash speaks to Sunday Times colleagues about the considerable punishments and slow-burning joys of cassettes and making mix tapes for the objects of your heart's desire. The interviews were recorded on a Marantz PMD-420 two-head cassette deck, using a Rode M3 "direct fire" condenser microphone. Field audio was recorded on a Sony WM-D6C Professional Walkman and an Akai micro-cassette dictataphone. National Audio Company

MultimediaLIVE — Every dreamer loves a train. Maybe it's the sheer moxie they represent as they curl around mountains and cut across plains; maybe it's the human progress they signify. For the curious, their slow pace and on-board freedom of movement encourage strangers to mingle and connections to spark. For the nostalgic, they hark back to travel's Golden Age, when the likes of the legendary Orient-Express carried society's ritziest across continents under clouds of luxury, exoticism and entitlement. Certainly, in an age of instantaneous everything, of night flights and sleeping pills and waking up on runways, there can be no better way for a romance-seeking traveller to relive a time when the journey was the thing than to go by rail. And if by rail, then what better travelling companions than fine dining, exemplary service and a multitude of comforts dressed up in a coat of bygone charm? In this episode, Sunday Times Travel editor Paul Ash speaks to Rohan Vos father of the renowned luxury Rovos Rail. Rovos Rail

MultimediaLIVE — The makers of "Dynasties", BBC Earth's five-part series on the epic lives of five animal families, spent years filming with the African wild dogs, or "painted wolves" as they are now widely known, in the Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe. "Painted Wolves", one episode in the series narrated by David Attenborough, follows the story of a family of African wild dogs as they battle a rival pack for territory and food on a wide floodplain along the Zambezi River. The episode is an epic production in every way. During long periods on location, the crew heard and saw animal behaviour that had never been witnessed before. But to capture that they had to endure punishing heat and humidity, lashing thunderstorms in the rainy season and days that stretched into weeks when they had not one sighting of the dogs. They also had to be on their feet, with cameras and microphones, in a place crawling with opportunistic predators such as hyenas, crocodiles and lions. The park is one of Africa's secret gems, a fertile habitat of dense thickets of acacia, mahogany, fig and ebony trees in whose glades gather elephants, eland, zebra, buffalo, kudu, and lots of impala. The antelope in turn support the predators: lions, hyenas, leopards and, of course, the painted wolves. This family drama ends on a truly beautiful note as the dogs do something that has never before been heard. Listen on. Dynasties on BBC Planet Earth · Vundu Camp in Mana Pools National Park

MultimediaLIVE — Jock Safari Lodge is one of eight privately-run camps in the world-famous Kruger National Park in South Africa. Staying in a private camp may be expensive but it offers unbeatable luxury and private game drives with some of the best rangers and trackers in the world. Paul Ash discovers why Jock Camp is so special. Sunday Times Travel · Jock Safari Lodge

MultimediaLIVE — The island of St Helena is a tiny speck of volcanic rock in the middle of the South Atlantic. It may be one of the remotest inhabited places on Earth and until 2017, the only way to get there was by ship which took five days to motor there from Cape Town. Now the island has an airport. Exactly one year ago, Paul Ash flew in on the inaugural flight for a 24-hour whistlestop tour. And what a place it is! St Helena Tourism · Airlink

MultimediaLIVE — The South African summer cruise season is just around the corner. This year, MSC is bringing a bigger ship to local waters. As a taster, Paul Ash recalls a voyage on the much-loved MSC Sinfonia in 2016. MSC Cruises

MultimediaLIVE — The game rangers and guardians of South Africa's Kruger National Park are engaged in a bitter and dangerous struggle against armed gangs of rhino poachers. Paul Ash spent three days in the world-famous wildlife reserve, listening to their stories.

MultimediaLIVE — Paul Ash boards a traditional square-rigged sailing ship for a voyage from Cape Town and speaks to the crew about life on the ocean wave. Sea shanty sung by Ordinary Seaman Dikembe Dio, aboard the Picton Castle in February 2015. Sail training on Picton Castle

MultimediaLIVE — Paul Ash speaks to some Lisboetas - people born and raised in Lisbon - about what makes their city so magical. The original hang drum music was composed and performed by Lisbon-based musician Nuno Moreno. The track "1116" is from his album Groove A Zen Sound, available directly from Nuno, e-mail grooveazensound@gmail.com.

MultimediaLIVE — The battle of Spioenkop was one of the bloodiest of the Anglo-Boer War. Just outside Ladysmith, KZN, a guide shares his heartrending stories.

MultimediaLIVE — In this podcast, iSimangaliso Wetland Park's lead wilderness trails guide, Mandla Buthelezi, tells Paul Ash about buffaloes and lions, the warning snarl a leopard makes - and what you should do if you get charged by a hippo. iSimangaliso Wetland Park