Today, Condé Nast Traveler joins Lucy Edwards at Sabi Sabi in South Africa to share what it’s like to experience safari blind. Lucy lost her sight twelve years ago and for a long time felt as though there was no point in traveling if she could not see it. However, as she adapted to her new way of life, Lucy learned how to experience the world through her other senses. From feeling the luxury of her room at Sabi Sabi to hearing an elephant munching just meters away, Lucy shows how to experience safari through sound, smell, and touch.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00i'm blind and i'm currently on south african safari and you're probably wondering
00:04why would you go on safari if you can't see
00:19i can hear them you hear them how close are they 40 meters away wow they're going down to the
00:28are they my name is lucy edwards and i'm here on safari in south africa with sabi sabi behind me
00:36currently elephants are grazing i am in true heaven i lost my eyesight at 17 years old i
00:44always really loved traveling but i thought the world of travel was shut out to me the
00:50day that i lost my vision as i can hear right now there's an elephant crunching leaves about
00:5610 meters behind me i'm just so lucky to be able to use my ears and all of my other senses to
01:04understand this gorgeous gorgeous landscape as soon as we landed at the airport we were escorted
01:11by a jeep to sabi sabi by our lovely guide jameel and his colleague louis sometimes you really have
01:18to hold on the big male elephant he's standing feeding underneath this big tree so now he's
01:27walking right towards us so you can just sit very still it's right next to us now
01:35oh my god that's so cool that was an amazing welcome
01:41oh
01:52when i lost my eyesight i was so so low that i didn't actually travel a lot and i thought that
01:58because i lost my vision i wasn't going to enjoy holidays in the same way
02:02which now i know is totally totally wrong well a big warm welcome so lucy this is nikita she's
02:09got a nice refreshing drink for you thank you so much you're very welcome i could drink that too
02:15quick the places and destinations that i travel to are saying hey it's okay to be blind loose
02:22like it's really cool to be here i just feel so so lucky to be here i feel a bit teary even saying
02:31it people are often scared to help me they're scared of blindness but the whole team here
02:38are so lovely and accommodating anywhere around here they will just take my arm which i really do
02:45appreciate so it's a beautiful open area so you can see over the bush the whole vibe of this place
02:52is just so relaxing so as soon as i walked in these doors to earth lodge which is where we're staying
03:00i was guided around the whole room in a tactile way every landmark that the team saw i was able
03:07to touch and feel they even told me where all the teas were which is very important for this
03:13british blind girl they told me where the windows were the fact that they could see the gorgeous
03:21bush beyond our pool i know bougie but gorgeous so there is a water hole right in front there
03:30it's actually got hippos and a crocodile yes so if you hear a snoring sound yeah it's not oliver
03:38i don't have to see this place to know that it is just truly beautiful the walls in this
03:45lodge are gorgeous they're the most tactile walls i've ever felt in a lodge
03:51lighting is super important when you have a visual impairment and because the lodge isn't
03:55filled with bright whites it doesn't hurt my eyes it's actually really woody colors earthy
04:02tones in here so i'm able to really move around and not have a headache which is important
04:08i'm totally blind and i have been for 12 years nearly i have a condition
04:13named non-24 which means i can't regulate my circadian rhythm in the natural way by
04:20seeing sunlight that's what all humans do so for me having a wake-up call to be like hi lucy
04:26you're coming on safari it's half five that is amazing for me
04:41the pace of the safari really helped me just stop and listen and really take in my environment
04:49that was epic it's cool isn't it they're actually not as frenzied as i thought normally
04:57it's like they're cheering and ripping and growling and snarling but they actually got
05:00good table manners today the buffaloes are surrounding us so you're hearing them grazing
05:11well i have a lovely statue of a buffalo here and my lovely guide has just told me all about his
05:18ears you can see the ears actually it's interesting they sit underneath the horns
05:21yeah they don't sit above on top they sit right underneath the horn they're completely black in
05:26color actually where they get their nickname the black death from and they've got these
05:29heavy set horns right on top of their heads almost look like powdered wigs they curl back over the
05:35top oh that's such a good description like a little wig we're hearing them all around us
05:41you don't have to see the world to enjoy it and i think statues and
05:46senses and sounds and smells that's what it's all about
05:52what sabi sabi really does well is just allows us to be one with nature and understand that you
05:58don't have to rush towards the different animals to be in their environment like you need to soak
06:03up the tracks the skeletons this has been chewed by hyenas oh wow it's quite rough you're bound to
06:09see an animal when you're on safari but there are other things about the environment that are
06:13really unique to this part of south africa and that's what sabi sabi is giving me the opportunity
06:19to experience we have the lower mandible of the elephant that is incredible i love it because
06:25when i walked in you guys said welcome home why do you say that so we say welcome home because
06:30we really want you to feel like you're you know comfortable and in your home you're not
06:33just on holiday but it's sort of your your your second home in the bush because for us when we
06:38live and work on the reserve for all the years that we've done we as the staff sort of become a
06:43small family so we want to welcome you into our home and part of the family thank you so much
06:47i do feel it yeah no we're happy to have you we're happy to have you
06:58blind girl sandowna hearing the sabi river just sounds beautiful
07:18so
07:26we're here at dinner in the bush outside and these gorgeous flowers are raining on me
07:31as we eat they're just beautiful they're falling off the trees and it's such a tactile experience
07:37when we're at dinner last night they don't actually hand you the menu by default
07:42they read it out to you your starters your first option is it's an initial salad we also made you
07:47a vegetarian bobotti it's a south african traditional dish which we use beef mince but
07:52for you because you're vegetarian we use vegetables it's quite a very lovely dish
07:56and now we got your dessert a south african milk tart so this is worth trying yeah and they did
08:02that to every single table and i found that so different because usually in restaurants i just
08:07get given a menu and it means that i can't be equal i have to have it read out or
08:12i have to have it in braille but here they just read it
08:21there is a part of you on safari when you're blind that thinks oh would it just be amazing
08:27if i could take a quick peek but i think that what is amazing about this trip is that we really are
08:32seeing the ability and disability the animals don't care that i can't see them so why should
08:38i care that i can't see them either rhinos also have very poor eyesight since they cannot see us
08:45they move through the world by smell and by sound my kind of animal