My Favourite Holiday Michaela Strachan

“On safari, I think the beaten track is best!”

Michaela Strachan has been known for TV wildlife programmes for two decades now.

She presented The Really Wild Show for more than a decade and was also a regular on Countryfile.

In the past couple of years Michaela’s become part of the BBC’s Springwatch and Autumnwatch presenting team.

Her latest six-part series is The Great Penguin Rescue on Eden (Sky 532, Virgin 208) on Wednesdays at 8pm from November 27. It follows her work as a volunteer to try to save the African penguin, whose numbers have declined by 90% and now face extinction.

Michaela, 47, lives in Cape Town in South Africa with her partner Nick and eight-year-old son Oliver.

“My first memories as a kid are going to Sandbanks in Dorset, which is now a really expensive area.

“We used to stay there every Easter and I remember it seeming a long way and my brother being sick in the car.

“But, as you would expect, my holidays now tend to be somewhere with a lot of wildlife. I’m not one for sitting on a beach sunning myself and reading a book.

“I think the holiday that really sparked my passion was going to Kenya when I was about 12.

“Then, it probably wasn’t as accessible as it is now.

“We went to Treetops and the Masai Mara and I felt so at home sitting on top of a Jeep looking at this vast expanse of savannah and stunning wildlife.

“We saw all the typical African wildlife like lions and zebras and I don’t think you ever forget the first time you see a huge herd of giraffe on the plain.

“Now when I go on safari I’m fascinated by the little stuff.

“Lions are great but they generally aren’t doing very much so I’m as likely to be looking at a dung beetle.

“People tend to be really snobby about getting off the beaten track, but often the beaten track is just that because it’s brilliant.

“I’ve been to lots of private game reserves and I’m not knocking them, but nothing beats seeing the great migration in the Masai Mara even if there are 20 vehicles around you.

“I’ve just been on one holiday that surpassed all my expectations.

“It was a five-day trip with Nick and Oliver to the Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side and then to a reserve in Botswana.

“It’s a little package deal lots of people who live in South Africa do. It was superb.

“The other type of holiday I love is diving but I haven’t done that much recently since I have a family.

“I don’t see the point of going away together and then leaving your son behind while you and your partner go off diving.

“One of the best ever diving holidays was in Sipidan just off the Malaysian Borneo coast.

“We stayed in a very simple lodge with shared showers but the diving was amazing.

“You just walked off the beach and there was a mile drop-off coral wall.

“There were turtles, fish and sharks everywhere it was like diving in some enormous tank.

“It’s such a privilege to be in that environment.

“It’s so tranquil and all you can hear is people breathing. It really is another world.

As told to Bill Gibb