Annabel Croft | Inside Taipei’s Snake Alley…

0:00And you had to get out of the plane and walk along the wing and press a buzzer at the end of the wing and let a flare off and then come back down the wing and get back in the plane. I've never experienced anything quite like it. And the worst part was because I didn't want to watch what was going on. So I would turn away and then I'd be looking at all these faces going, oh, oh, oh. I can only imagine it's what heaven looks like. Because we got there and the clouds were pouring over the side of the mountain. And they're like, it's like a tablecloth just dripping over the side. And it was just breathtaking.

0:35And there was the hotel area where the buses came in with all the new clients. and they were sort of checking in from all the buses. And all they saw was this man chasing the hotel security guard. Welcome to Travel Secrets with me, Tanya Rose, the podcast sharing wisdom for fellow travellers. Each week, I ask my guests to reveal their six travel secrets and the holidays and adventures that surround them. I would just like to say thank you to Mason Rose, the sales and communication agency that represents some of the finest hotels around the world for partnering with Travel Secrets, the podcast.

1:21Today, my guest is the beautiful and lovely Annabelle Croft, superb British former number one tennis player from a very young age of like 14, even probably before to 21. She won almost every championship imaginable. She is the most familiar face and voice in tennis broadcasting. She has wooed the world with her strictly come dancing with Johannes, Johannes, Johannes. And I think most of the British public were in tears watching your public choice dance, which was superb. You have a Annabelle Croft Tennis Academy in Portugal, which I'm sure you'll tell us about. and you have a tour coming up called From Tennis Balls to Glitter Balls, which I can't wait to hear about.

2:08Well, what a wonderful introduction. Thank you so much. I think I need to follow you around all day because you give me such a lovely introduction. Oh, it's so lovely to meet you. And I feel like we know each other so well because I love watching Wimbledon and obviously you do such a fantastic job there. Oh, thank you. And I particularly love the things you were wearing when you were presenting the prize or, you know, doing the ceremony. they were amazing oh thank you well I'm absolutely a fashion fanatic actually I spend far too much time like searching websites for fashion because I'm obsessed about it well so am I so when I go to Wimbledon my husband gets really cross with me because actually I have my binoculars on the fashion and the royal box not watching the tennis ball tennis is in front of us well it's it's a great people watching plays but I'm a bit like you I'm always noticing everyone in fact the outfit that I wore for the women's final ceremony.

2:58I had spotted on a lady in the crowd at Queen's and I literally was locked onto her and I just thought she looked so fabulous. And are you somebody that takes pictures and then Google searches? All the time. All the time. Well, I actually thought I recognized it and I found what it was. Did you? Yeah. Well, you look wonderful. I want to wear that. Yeah. Before we get into your travel secrets, can you just tell us a bit about yourself and how travel has impacted the person you've become? That's such a great question because travel came into my life very, very early. I mean, obviously, you know, you have the odd family holiday and I remember family holidays were, in those days, actually, you weren't going on planes.

3:38We went on trains down to Spain and I can remember going in the carriageway and sleeping overnight and how exciting that was. But then as a young tennis player, once I'd picked up a racket and started to play tournaments and, you know, started to become involved in national training. Then I was being invited to go and represent my country from the age of 12. So suddenly I was traveling a lot from age 12 to play tennis. And that just opened up this whole new world. So I was going to France and Germany and Sweden, even went to Israel. I went all over the world, America, you know, then obviously into Australia and I mean everywhere.

4:17but it was tennis that opened up those doors for me and actually I was so excited by the cultures that I was visiting you know all the different cultures that you're experiencing and in a way because tennis almost took away an entire education for me in those days I you know I just sort of gave up education and was just hitting tennis balls every day but I learned my education through the travel and actually also through my children's education watching their education was sort of a way of revisiting education for me but how amazing you were 12 when you started traveling yeah and you know you can imagine at that age it was just so exciting and I was staying with different host families I was you know obviously going through lots of airports and then going to the the venues where the tennis courts were or the tournament was going to be held but I was very intrigued by everything about travel I just thought it was so exciting and it was also making me think that the way you do things in you know UK where you're brought up it's not the only way to live you're suddenly seeing how other cultures exist or how do they do health care or you know how do they eat or what do they do well how do they dress what you know all sorts of things connected with that country or that city and I was very very intrigued by all of it so I loved it I almost enjoyed that aspect of being a tennis player more than I did the actual competition and the tennis because it was very hard I would imagine I talked about it the other day I'll never regret anything about being a tennis player I mean it's opened up so many wonderful doors for me and it's been an amazing experience but um and I'm still very much in love with the sport always have been ever since I picked up a racket funny enough on a family holiday to Spain that's why I first picked up a racket in Marbella but um the sort of lifestyle of that traveling circus and living your life competitively was something that dawned on me very quickly when I was then an international sort of professional tennis player.

6:15I was like, I'm not sure I want this into my 30s. I sort of realized that I didn't. So that was something I was having to wrestle with in my brain quite early on. I loved tennis when I picked it up. I dreamed of playing at Wimbledon. I visualized all of that. I was sort of absolutely hell-bent on trying to become a professional tennis player. But when the reality of what the lifestyle was and what I'd chosen and how I was being taken down this track suddenly I was questioning what was happening and so I mean it took me a few years to figure out that maybe. But 21's very young to have made those decisions so that's incredible that you had the foresight to really realize.

6:54I do realize that but I also think that at 21 I'd lived the life of somebody like 35 yeah so my life had been around lawyers and um you know managers coaches all sort you know sponsors and dealing with a lot of very adult things when you're not very adult but you're kind of being thrust into that adult world and also it's a little bit like a student going off backpacking or something and spending quite a bit of time going traveling and exploring the world so you know there are similarities in that regard but I mean it is an extraordinary upbringing isn't it going into international sport at such an early age I mean I think any athlete or anybody who's been in that kind of world you're not going to have a normal childhood or normal life so um yeah we're glad you did have that because you were wonderful and also I'm very glad that you decided to then become a pundit because you're fantastic I think the way you interview people is very different from a lot of people who are just presenters because you know how it feels you know the game yeah um so I really enjoy listening to you thank you people well I I feel like I've learned on the job and um there were many things to learn about interviewing uh along the way I'm sure you feel the same way sitting there well we're all still learning um but I realize that when you're interviewing somebody it's never about you is it and so when I'm interviewing a player you must always remember take yourself out of the equation and try to what I call pass the ball and let the audience learn from that person is how I view it um keep it simple so um well let's get into your travel secrets and I'm going to pass the ball over to you okay what's the number one destination you think everyone should go to once in their lifetime well I'm going to take it back to when I was 13 actually and my dad was very well traveled and we did this incredible family holiday when I was 13 and he took us out to Argentina and Brazil and I just remember going to the Iguazu Falls when I was 13 and it was spectacular and it is something that actually I'd like my own family to go and visit because if you haven't seen those pink waterfalls for yourself it's just breathtaking and you can't quite believe that it is real and it's natural and the color and everything about it it's extraordinary I mean I saw it a very long time ago so I'm not sure how it's changed over those years I'm sure it is still as spectacular as it was but it's never left me and you know I think that part of the world is really interesting anyway I mean I'd like to go and explore it more to be honest but that will stand out for me and I sort of think I think everybody should go and see those pink waterfalls I think that's a wonderful answer and I haven't been I've seen them obviously in the mission the film you know where they have amazing yeah i think to see it in real life it's it's incredible it's the color i mean it's like wow pink pink waterfalls i mean and it's just so vibrant and the noise and the sheer scale of it it was breathtaking did you have a lovely holiday when you went with your parents yeah i mean we went to guarija and rio and a place called barilocci which was actually very similar to Switzerland in a weird way which um yeah I mean that was and actually since I've you know all these years later I've sort of spoken to the odd people about it and they say oh my goodness everybody should go to Bariloche it's incredible um and I went to Buenos Aires and I went back there to film something many many years later but I loved all the sort of tango in the streets and the artistic areas and the um the food there I mean I'm a big meat eater anyway and uh I love my red meat but I mean the red meat and the red wine this big yeah I mean you go to a restaurant in Argentina and they'll have a picture of the cow up and it's like which which piece are you going to eat we're not used to viewing menus like that in in our part of the world but um You know, the food there is really incredible and they're very, very cultured and red wine is absolutely delicious.

10:58And what did you go back and film there? I went back to film a program called Fear Factor. Do you remember Fear Factor? I didn't know much about it at the time, but oh my goodness, it was extraordinary. It was a very fearful program where they're going to take you in teams to do strange things. so we went to the casa risada and we went to the mausoleum where um evita evita that was quite spectacular and we filmed in the sort of the graveyard there quite late at night and they made it very atmospheric it was quite creepy but i also did wing walking there which i never thought well exactly it was being taken up in a biplane and you had to go up on your own well the pilot it was there and you're in the plane and then you were kind of clipped in with a couple of I think they're called o-rings and you had to get out of the plane and walk along the wing and press a buzzer at the end of the wing and let a flare off and then come back down the wing and get back in the plane and honestly when I did it I could not believe I put myself in that position I was thinking what the hell are you doing and Andrew Castle a very good friend of mine Wimbledon commentator as well does the finals every year um he was in my team and he did it as well but not something that I would want to repeat because even when you're in the plane and you're trying to get out of the plane you can't breathe when the wind rush is coming at you so you have to turn your head to the side to get air but anyway I suppose I've done some mad things in my life and I would put that right up there is one of the most mad things I've ever done but I'm I'm sort of glad I did it, but I wouldn't want to do it again.

12:38That's very much, what is it called? Face the fear and do it anyway. Yes. I mean, there's things like bungee jumping and jumping out of a plane, which my kids have all done on their travels, which I was so grateful I didn't know about it until after they'd got back down safely. And they were safe. But I would never do that. I just know that as I've got older, I've got more fearful of things like that. And I just would never do a bungee jump because I know it would be me that the rope does something funny and I go splat at the bottom or oh I do my back in I wouldn't be able to do any sport again or something I would definitely jump out of a plane parachute if I had someone with me you know where they have oh well maybe yeah if you're harnessed but I would never get on the wing of a plane wouldn't you I know I mean that's terrifying honestly it was really terrifying and yeah anyway I did well I was going to ask you what's your most unexpected travel tale which Maybe that's it.

13:31I know. Maybe that is it. But maybe you've got another one. Well, that probably would be right up there, actually. But I very distinctly remember when I was young. I mean, the tours changed a lot over the years. But in those days, back in the 80s, we went all over different parts of the world. But one particular trip was in Taipei. And I played a tournament there. I remember it being incredibly hot and humid. And I was traveling with a couple of other players. And we sort of said, oh, what's the local thing to go and do? because I quite liked to go and see a few things culturally and they said oh you have to go to Snake Alley and I didn't really know what it was and I'm sort of a bit squeamish anyway anyway I won't go into detail and what goes on there but it was horrific and in fact I had to turn away because I know that it's very cultural there and they'll sort of drink the blood of the snakes and turtles and it's supposed to give you virility is that the right word I'm not sure but there's a lot of locals that go there and you know there'll be piles of snakes all the way along the walkway and oh my god what just loose yeah in piles and they would kind of like hook them all up and they didn't people were just drinking oh it was honestly I've never experienced anything quite like it and the worst part was because I didn't want to watch what was going on so I would turn away and then I'd be looking at all these faces going oh oh and that was almost worse because I still can visualize all the people around watching what was going on and that's unfortunately a memory that will stay with me forever but I'm sure it still probably exists in Taipei yeah it was very famous but it's where the locals all went and for their virility yeah I'm not sure I'll be drinking snake blood I hate snakes anyway two things I hate are snakes and rats and you know when people do the jungle celebrity thing they ask you your fear and then they make you if they put me in a coffin with rats running over me or snakes I think my heart would give up anyway I would say I'm like you I just couldn't do it and in fact you've reminded me that when I was very young when I had just stopped playing tennis the very first job that I was offered was a Janet Street Porter show called Network 7 and they had asked if they could well they said are you interested we're going to send three people to the jungle in Sri Lanka and we're gonna well they wanted a female that was me I was going to represent sport I suppose and they had a city stockbroker a parkhurst prison inmate and an actor from Brookside so actually it was four of us um and I was then dumped in Sri Lanka on this desert island and it was just like see if you can survive and in those days again we didn't really have health and safety like they do now and filming set and there were snakes and monitor lizards and everything and we didn't have a studio there was nothing they were just literally just dumped on this island which was monsoon season so we were being absolutely drenched every night until we worked out how to build a camp but um yeah it was utter madness and many many years later uh i met a tv producer for my tv said you do realize that was the beginnings of get me out of here that's what we based the show on i bet they do but i think it's much more luxurious celebrity get me out of here Well, they have a studio.

16:43Not a studio, but it's kind of a set, isn't it? Whereas we were literally just like, it's like going out into the jungle and just going. How long were you there for? Oh, it was probably about 10 days or something, but there was no food and it wasn't water bottles or anything. It was just like a well. They gave us some pills to stick in the well and drink some of that. Very intrepid. Yeah, it was very intrepid. But actually, I loved the fact that I felt like a cavewoman. And I thought, oh, this feels like, you know, I don't have a credit card to sort anything out. there's no light I can't turn the light on to see anything so when it got dark at four or five in the evening we had to build a fire and kind of talk to each other and we just sang and sang songs around the fire and told stories and I'd hear you know everybody else's life so yeah that was very interesting.

17:25And that was your first thing out when you had stopped playing tennis? Yeah that was the very first thing I did and that did get some publicity back in the UK while we were out there and then that's when I ended up doing treasure hunts so the producers had seen that and then I was very fortunate to be asked to do treasure hunt did you know you wanted to be a broadcaster um I knew I didn't really know what I wanted to do because I stopped playing tennis and I decided uh I knew I needed to go in a different direction but I knew I didn't have any education and it's funny when I look back I think how could you be so not ballsy but kind of just have confidence just to go out and find what you wanted to do and I just made lists for myself of people I wanted to contact.

18:07And I knew I had enjoyed being around cameras and sort of meeting producers. And, you know, I enjoyed that world. But don't forget, in those days, it was only four channels. So it was a much smaller world and sports TV didn't really exist. So the opportunities were very, very few. So I just was finding my way, really. But it was fun to go and do lots of other things that I had never had a chance to do. And Treasure Hunt was amazing. It was really fun. I mean, I was traveling all around the whole of the UK, visiting all these country homes and castles and stately homes, various different locations, which had been so well researched.

18:48And that program was fantastic because it brought a lot of parts of the UK to an audience back at home of places they probably never knew they could go and visit. And so that was very much travel in the UK. and actually the program did take us to New Zealand as well which was amazing oh I'd love to go to New Zealand oh you must go I actually still to this day of all of the travels I've done have thought that New Zealand is the most beautiful country I've ever visited everybody says um and when we filmed treasure hunt there there were like the great you know these lakes which are the blue lakes and the I mean honestly it's just breathtaking did you go to Wajiki Island which is opposite Auckland apparently it's absolutely gorgeous I don't think I went to the island and they have vineyards there and apparently it's absolutely wonderful I don't think I did go there but I we did there were a lot of like ceremonies that they did with the locals and went to the place where all the geysers go off and it smells of sulphur and eggs and it was just amazing it was really spectacular my husband says he'd like to go and live there but I say it's a bit far yeah it is a bit far very beautiful but very far very beautiful but in many ways it was sort of very like going back in time but there's something quite nice about that I sort of always think I wish we could go back in time because everything is going in such a direction you know digitally and technically and you know I just not sure if I like it's all becoming so homogenous as well you know all the streets in every country have got the same shops yes exactly it's actually nice to go backwards so I sort of feel like actually when I went to New Zealand even all those years ago it was going back in time and I sort of think it's quite refreshing so lovely yeah what's your most underrated or overrated place you've been to um oh gosh there must be so many places but quite recently um I was doing a talk on a cruise which I really enjoyed way more than I thought I would and we stopped off in Pisa and I went to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa which I had always heard about everyone's always and everyone's seen the picture seen the picture but when you go there and you see it in real life it is quite spectacular and you're looking at it and it's so large and it is so leaning and it was so much more impressive than I had visualized myself so I would definitely recommend people went to see it but the funny thing was I mean this is how naive I am I just thought I went with my friend Fiona and I just sort of said oh let's go and see the Leaning Tower of Pisa thinking it was just sort of going to be on a piece of parkland and be quite open and spacious and everything of course when you get there's thousands of people that want to see it so it's quite packed and crowded and you have to kind of wait your turn to try and get a gap to be able to get the picture and see what it really looks like but it is right there in front of you and it's extraordinary have you seen any no I've only seen it in pictures and I've been to Pisa not Pisa but you know Tuscany and all around but I've never actually gone into Pisa to see it I will do so you must do it it's I just can't even explain it it's extraordinary how lovely and what cruise were you on I was on Cunard and Queen Anne and I did another one very recently Queen Victoria where I went to split and traveled through and I've now decided that cruises are actually really fun I get it now yeah um and they're they're so well organized and they have like you know i i do my talks in the theater but the theater is like going to the western theater i mean it's really so it's like a proper theater oh it's like huge and very ornate and beautiful velvet seats and and also what i like is that um you know i go and watch everybody else speak or dance or sing and i went to watch an amazing pianist called dominic ferris the other day who was extraordinary i mean it was just breathtaking his performance so I quite like going to watch other people what do you talk about well I talk about um I always say to people when you watch Wimbledon you know it's like watching the glamour side of of the sport and of course we have four grand slams in our sport which is Australian Open French Open Wimbledon and US Open so when you're watching those grand slams you're seeing the pinnacle but what you don't know is what it took somebody from age nine which I was when I picked up a racket that journey and what I call the apprenticeship that gets you to Wimbledon so I sort of take people on that journey because I think it's quite an eye-opener to see it's not the glamour side of it it's all the kind of background and traveling around on red eyes and greyhound buses across America and you know staying in strange places and not the very unglamorous side and then a lot of people don't even get to the don't even get to exactly they don't even make it to the tournament so it's sort of trying to open people's eyes to what you're watching when you are watching these tournaments is you know give you an insight into actually what those players have all been through to get there and then I've as you've mentioned already when I stopped when I was 21 and moving into broadcasting I'll just tell people a few stories about broadcasting and some of the funny things that have gone on and and then how that led me to Strictly Come Dancing which was such a wonderful show to be a part of so I just like to take people on a bit of a journey really and and throw a few stories ever written a book about your life no I haven't um for my speaking tour we've produced a kind of a pamphlet well yeah it's kind of like a little small little book but it's got archive of you know lots of press cuttings and photographs and kind of my journey along the way so we've kind of put that together with the tour and actually when I put it together it was quite strange for me kind of going up into the attic and just laying out and what was my life you know in front of me over all these years and it was quite a quite strange doing that and putting that together but maybe one day I might may or may not do a book I don't know I'll see how it goes.

24:41Everyone has a book in them apparently. That's what I always say that to other people actually so yeah well you've done a book. I have but did you enjoy doing it? I did it was really fun really really fun but I think yours would be much more interesting. Oh I'm sure it wouldn't. And actually before we started this podcast you You showed me an amazing letter that you found recently that you wrote yourself about things you wanted to achieve. So just tell us quickly about that. Yeah, my mom gave it to me and she'd found this essay that I wrote when I was 11. And it was the title for all of the pupils was, What Would I Like to Do?

25:13And when I reread this letter that I'd written, it was, I would like to play tennis and I'd like to travel all around the world playing tournaments and I'd like to win a cup at Wimbledon, but I'd also like to dance on stage and I was looking at it thinking this is extraordinary I had no idea I'd written this but I obviously had it all mapped out in my head what I wanted to do when I was older your visualization your vision board yeah it was amazing reading it and actually when I do my speaking tour the gentleman called James Cutler who's going to interview me he is a ballroom dancer and he won at blackpool um but i think after i read that letter i thought oh that gives us a reason to dance together because i miss the dancing actually i loved it so much and you know i think that letter gives us a reason to just do a couple of numbers otherwise i think for people coming to a theater you know a speaking tour you you know you want to see something maybe a bit more than just two people sitting in chairs so we're gonna we're gonna dance a bit so lovely did you actually keep your dancing up I did for a period of time because Johannes uh Radebe who I danced with on Strictly asked me to dance with him at the Palladium and I thought and he had his own tour and um he wrote a dance for me in his uh show and I was so honored that he asked me to do that and I just thought when would I ever get another chance to dance well certainly with him but at the palladium it would just be once in a lifetime opportunity so I did dance uh with him and I absolutely loved it how wonderful no it was really wonderful so um we did that and actually I think it's one of the most amazing things I've ever done in my life actually when I look back just the atmosphere in the theater I wish I'd come to see that that sounds amazing it was amazing and um to be in that theater and with him on stage and then receiving the reception that we got and just the feelings of being on stage in that environment it was unbelievable so I don't think it will ever be repeated again actually and he's from South Africa isn't he yes so I think you need to do a tour of South Africa with him he'd be the best person to show you around wouldn't he yes he would I mean I'm just so admiring of his story you know because he came from a township and you know I I know I've read his book and I I actually used to say to me you're like Novak Djokovic because his detail towards his own dancing and his own career and I admire his journey from going from a township onto a cruise and of course when I was doing the cruise recently I was like oh wow this is what Johannes did for seven years before he got an opportunity to to dance on Strictly and I just think it's incredible what he's done but South Africa is a place I did play tennis in and actually it was well I went to Johannesburg and Durban I played in two tournaments there and those two tournaments actually lifted my ranking so I look back on it as a place that really moved my career on and so I went back quite recently with the family um to visit and it was amazing I went to Cape Town which I'd never been to before and actually that was one of the venues I was going to talk about because it was just so spectacular Table Mountain and I think it was more spectacular than I could have you been there yes I love you would understand it yeah it's amazing I thought Cape Town well we went as a family it was the most amazing holiday and it was it more than lived up to expectations and we all climbed Table Mountain which is quite a hike I mean I haven't done oh my goodness I mean you need some stamina and you need to be strong and it's exhausting but it's so worth it when you get up there and we went sort of quite late in the day when the sun was just coming down it was just starting to set but also it was less hot then but when we got up there I mean it was like I can only imagine it's what heaven looks like because we got there and the clouds were pouring over the side of the mountain and they're like it's like a tablecloth just dripping over the side and it was just breathtaking and of course you're yeah I don't know how to describe it it's like heaven and more spectacular scenery and you're looking out over the whole of the you know the vista where did you stay in Cape Town?

29:24We rented a place out there and we just had a house that was quite near the water and we just loved it. Yeah, we stayed near Camps Bay, but it was a spectacular holiday. And did Johannes give you any tips whilst you were in South Africa or in Cape Town? Yeah, I spoke to him when we were out there and he was sort of like, oh, my heart is, you know, feeling it you know he just loves his country so much and uh he definitely gave us lots of tips along the way but i think he just yeah he loves his home country so i can understand why i can understand why people fall in love with it i love it let's go on to food and drink it's so much part of travel yeah um what's the best meal you've ever had where's where's the best meal what cocktail let's just talk generally about what you like eating you've already told me you're a huge meat teacher but let's just talk about food and drink well i love food generally i mean i just yeah i love all flavors all colors you know i love healthy food i love uh non-processed food but actually one of our most favorite places it sounds so simple but it's called signor frango in in the algarve and it's basically piri piri chicken and chips with tomato and onion salad with oregano and garlic and olive oil and they do lovely pickled carrots and we've been going there for 30 years my husband Mel absolutely loved it and it was always our favorite place to go if we land at the airport in Faro drive straight to Signor Frangos and it's a secret recipe we've tried so hard to get the recipe from them but they'll never tell you what it is and it's just the chicken just tastes so amazing and the tomatoes are so delicious and with that oregano and there's some sort of lemon in there I know there's lemon and chili in the in the dressing of the obviously they've marinated the chicken but um it's amazing and is that near your tennis um it's quite near where the tennis academy is um which is another sort of I say another 20 minutes down the road but whenever we're there we always tell people to drop in on it or some of the pros that we have down at the tennis academy we we've taken them there occasionally for some team dinners and things so yeah it's absolutely wonderful it's delicious that sounds fabulous and we have a fantastic hotel in the Algarve called Villa Vita Park yeah which is wonderful and so next time I go there yes oh you definitely yeah you've got to sample the chicken and chips because I think it's it's so simple and it's not expensive they do delicious wine in fact if you go there in the winter you can go inside I mean we tend to sit outside and they have these sort of um it's all always like great big planks of wood that of the you know that you sit at for the table and it's It's kind of in their car park, but it's under olive trees and things.

32:08But if you go in the winter, you can go into the restaurant and they've got lovely kind of like labels of wine everywhere. So they're, I think they're foodies there. So they've got a very, very good recipe for success and it's packed out in the summer. I mean, honestly, it's. Do you go every year? Yeah, I do. I mean, I'm down there to see the Academy regularly anyway, but I will always stop there on the way down to the Academy. um but yeah I always if people ask me for a recommendation I'll always say I probably shouldn't have said it on here because now it's not a secret I won't be able to get a table there um and with the academy are you very involved with it or how does that work um well my husband Mel used to run it uh so obviously you know now that sadly he's not with us um we have an amazing lady charlotte who runs it uh for me we speak nearly every day um and we're just across everything that goes on with running an academy and sort of uh you know keeping a team of pros going and uh we've just taken out a tennis court actually and put more paddle courts in oh yes so we've now split it into four tennis and four paddle because paddle is growing as a sport and you know we needed there were so many demands on the academy at the hotel at pinecliffs so we we yeah we've sort of grown it really and it's fun I mean I really enjoy it so I try and get down there as much as I can but it's I think it's lovely to see actually what goes on there is how I started playing tennis you know very similar setup a very sort of charming charming setup very casual relaxed but just teaching young kids and adults how to play tennis in a very relaxed so hopefully happy atmosphere and I don't want people to think oh just because it's a tennis academy that it's for producing world beating tennis players it's the opposite it's literally for families and people to come and enjoy learning how to play the sport and have fun at the same time oh that sounds sounds perfect there used to be one in Portugal called was it Roger Taylor Academy yes yeah he used to run an academy that was a little bit back towards where chicken frangos is uh yes in your frangos but um yeah i think that's called something else now actually i can't remember the name of it but well i'm definitely going to your chicken and chips place and if i have time i'm going to go and play paddle i want to learn yes let me know oh you have to learn paddle it's really fun yeah everyone we played it as a family in south africa and the wonderful thing about paddle is it's it's much easier than tennis i mean i don't want to stop people playing tennis that's why i want to play i know well actually you need to be really fit to play paddle because you get a sweat up really quickly and um people who've played squash can play it very easily because you play off the back wall and I haven't mastered that at all I keep running at the ball when the ball's going to go over your head and go past you but um you get great rallies and it's like playing beach tennis really because it makes a you know a thud sound when you're hitting it but um it's fun and you get good rallies and you laugh a lot and that's the most important bit you laugh a lot so it's actually fun and people are playing it and having a good time which is wonderful what is your top travel tip well I have lots of travel tips because I feel like I am an expert in how to pack um what to take you know working out your outfits and everything I mean I have a globetrotter suitcase which has been with me all around the world it's been everywhere I love it it's very old-fashioned and very uh beautiful the suitcase actually and you know I I have people coming up to me in airports going where is your suitcase from it's so smart because they do stand out because they're very different they're beautiful aren't they are kind of like works of art really but I can get my tennis racket in there but my tip is to pack flat um my mom was an air stewardess for pan-am and she always taught me you have to lay everything out flat which is what I do so I've sort of become an expert at how to lay everything flat um and I always do take melatonin with me actually because when I've been broadcasting and I've sort of had to go to Australia and then the next day start commentating.

36:14I have learned that melatonin does really help you to get into that sleeping pattern. That takes us nicely onto the poignant story. So what is the most poignant travel experience or story you have? Well, I was trying to think about this with my daughter Lily. And she reminded me of this trip where we went to a wedding in Thailand. and it was an extraordinary story really because we were staying at this lovely hotel where the well just not too far away from where the wedding was going to be I think in fact this happened after the wedding so the wedding had taken place we were then going to relax at the hotel and we'd all been to the gym my husband Mel stayed behind and went to the gym a bit longer and we all went out to the hotel pool and we were sort of looking at our watches going where the hell is dad what was he doing and about an hour later he appeared disheveled at the pool and he goes guys you're never going to know what's just happened to me and he then proceeded to tell us the story and he'd gone back to the hotel room showered and while he was toweling down he heard the door to the the sliding door to the hotel room open and when he peered around the door a security guard had entered the room and was starting to snoop around the room to take things so mel came out of the hotel room to kind of have a look and sort of say hello and the security guard legged it so my husband mel wrapped his towel around him he was still a little bit wet from the shower traced started chasing him around the hotel and so he said it was quite extraordinary because he said there was the hotel area where the buses came in with all the new clients and they were sort of checking in from all the buses and all they saw was this man chasing the hotel security guard and he was barefoot as well he was wrapped in a towel and he was a big man my husband he was six foot four so he was chasing the security guard past all the new like clients coming into the hotel and all the buses then the security guard darted through a bush and mel said we're not going through the bush so he went around the side of the bush they went up onto a golf course and there were people putting out on the on the green and that's like a benny hill classic he went past them and these people were putting out going what the hell is this client really sounds like benny hill it was ridiculous anyway he then kind of like went past the butting green and then onto the golf course and the guy was gone and of course then he came back to the hotel disheveled and anyway the hotel were incredibly apologetic and sadly I mean this is the part that's very sad you know we were all very sad for the security guard because no matter what he was doing we knew he was obviously doing out of desperation and the hotel were very very apologetic and they obviously went to sort of like track this guy down but when they went to where he lived he'd fled and we were very sad about it because we don't know what happened to that man and we don't know what happened to his family and also why he did what he did and obviously in Thailand that would be not not accepted at all so you know I sort of think in life sometimes you look at circumstances I mean you know you just don't know why people do what they do I mean it's a very funny story it's a very it's a sad story it's a legendary story in our family because it was so funny how mel kind of turned up at the pool and he just had this extraordinary scene and he said you just would never know that this had happened but anyway it was very that is very very amusing and actually talking about your lovely husband and i'm so sorry you know we all know that you lost him just before you did strictly i remember you telling a story about a camper van that you used to travel a lot with him and did he do it up or something he I did.

40:06It was his idea. And it was during lockdown. And Mel had always had dreams of just traveling around in a camper van, really. And he didn't know too much about the fact that you could convert an old, well, it was ours was an old DPD postal van. And during lockdown, he just started researching it. And he started to say, Oh, my goodness, this is amazing. And because Mel was a yachtsman, you know, he'd done, that's where when I met him, he was a professional yachtsman, and he'd done the America's Cup. And so travel and being with the elements and, you know, just cultures and sea, air, water, sunshine, he just loved it.

40:48And so he loved nature. And when he started to research these vans, he said, I'm going to do one of these. And being a yachtsman, they can build and fix anything. I mean, he was Mr. DIY. And so he went and bought this old postal van and he, and when I did it together and we did it with our best man guy who was staying with us at the time and they did it together and we converted this van into this amazing little home it's like being a snail with a home on your back and it looks like a yacht inside it was absolutely beautiful and we then went on these trips in the camper van and honestly Mel would have lived in it he had it parked in our driveway it's still parked in our driveway but he used to sometimes just go and sit and sleep in yeah he would actually and he would go and you know put the cricket on or put the tennis on or whatever he wanted to watch and just sit out there with a beer and watching whatever he wanted to watch.

41:41How amazing, that was his man cave. His man cave, it was definitely his man cave but then he had dreams of taking the van down into Porto and going and seeing the wine region or going and traveling through Portugal and going and staying, I think they're called Posadas aren't they, all the sort of beautiful castles and things in Portugal, that was one of his dreams and he put an outdoor shower on the back of the van so you know it still is there and my children have taken the van various different places um mel and i went to many places in it we went to wales and we went to northumberland we went to scotland my daughter lily she took it with her boyfriend all the way up across the whole of hebrides and scotland which was absolutely magnificent it was something mel wanted to do as well but there is something very um special about being in a camper van because you don't plan anything we can plan a trip but you can kind of be very free and it had you know solar panels it was off grid it could go anywhere as long as you had somewhere to stay and amazing yeah we really enjoyed it and a shower at the back of it yeah I mean it has a shower inside and a loop and a kitchen and an oven and um oh I'd love you to send me a photo of it I'd love to see that I will but if you look at Vanabel he called it Vanabel put a v in front of Annabel um you know there's a whole thing on instagram she had her own instagram account but we did the whole build on there and then um you know he as i said he just absolutely loved it but he made it was beautiful literally it's like a yacht inside and it had a seating area where you could sort of sit there like you're on a train carriage with a table in front of you or you could put the table down and then have three seats and like with all the cushions and he had a bed because he was six foot four and a half so he had the bed where you could pull the bed out at night and then have it extended and then push it back in and then make the table setting around he always was very good at breakfast so he cooked bacon and eggs and sausages every morning and oh incredible we had our own little routine but it was really fun it was very freeing well I think you should definitely use it again and definitely let your kids use it yeah I think it's definitely yes and I'm going to look up at vanabel on instagram yeah you must so I asked you to bring a photograph um can you tell Tell us about the photograph or photographs and how they sum up travel for you.

43:52Yeah, I mean, I've talked about my suitcase. So I have a picture of me sort of outside my front door with my suitcase going off about to do travels. Actually, that was on my Strictly Come Dancing tour, actually, was that picture. But that suitcase encompasses everywhere I've been because I feel like my whole life has been travel. You know, it's been a life of traveling with tennis. it's been a life of completely following the tennis world as a broadcaster and I've done non-stop travel and I continue to want to travel you know so that particular picture just for me because of that suitcase which has been everywhere with me it's it sums up travel but there's many pictures with my family traveling you know in family holidays and everything which I love I we always take I mean everybody's taking too many pictures aren't they you take them all and then you never see them.

44:42I sometimes sit on planes kind of looking back at lots of pictures of family travel. But I'm happiest when I'm with my family traveling. That is my happiest time, actually. So I want to, well, as I get older, I'd like to sort of at least once a year get the family together and be able to do a lovely holiday every year. And I think we're all happy when we're all together. We're like a little tight little group. So it's wonderful. That sounds fantastic. and before I let you go yeah and you tell me where you're next where you're going next I'd love to know where you're going next but also what's next for you I've always wanted to do a safari I've never done a safari and it was always on my list with Mel and I'm very very heartbroken that he won't do that but at some point I would love to do a safari because I think again it will take me into nature and the animals and I just think it would just be spectacular so it's something I'd like to do um um yeah I think Tanzania and Zanzibar is sort of like I've been hearing good things about there Patagonia I would like to do I've I've heard so much about that and I have a lot of friends who've been there and they come back and they just rave about it the scenery you know the visuals um nature you know the mountains it's kind of got a bit of everything I mean I would love to visit there I'm listing they're all out here aren't I but India I've never been to India and I think I think I should go there before I well you need to do a new vision board you've done you did your letter so now you need to do the places you wish to travel to where do you recommend I go because you'll be more traveled than me I think a safari is something you have to do yeah and it's a lovely thing to do with the family as well it really really is we have a fantastic hotel in Johannesburg with a private safari camp outside which I highly recommend it's reopening next year and it's where nelson mandela wrote the long walk to freedom and it's private but you see it with the big five it's really lovely but you could do that and then you could do the other countries as well how amazing patagonia i haven't been to no uh but there's so many wonderful places so any any tips you need just give me i will i'll be phoning you best of luck with from tennis balls to glitter balls thank you i'm going to look at where you're doing it and I'm going to come oh please let me know come and say goodbye come and say hello afterwards no definitely I will get you a ticket thank you so much I would love to see you thank you so much it has been such a joy and delight I knew it would be oh thank you for sharing your thank you for having me