Television presenter Julia Bradbury is fanatical about walking. And over the past few years she’s managed to combine this passion successfully with her work, presenting several series based on UK walks: Wainwright Walks, Coast to Coast, Railway Walks and others.

In April this year her longstanding public enthusiasm for walking led to her receiving an invitation from the Ramblers’ Association to become their president, a request that she was thrilled and honoured to accept. “The association is keen to make the virtues of walking better known to a wider UK audience – families, younger people and women, and I was happy to get involved at that level,” she says.

Her enthusiasm for hitting the trails began early in life. Aged five, she would accompany her father, a Derbyshire lad born near Buxton, as they walked the Derbyshire Dales and the Peak District. “I became very familiar with these areas – they were my first roaming turf,” she muses. Although her love of UK trails is profound, Julia recently felt an itch to stretch her legs in some foreign locales. Discussions ensued with her production company and her love of Africa was clear to all. She had a particular affection for South Africa, thanks to regularly visiting friends and family there over the past twenty years.

“I am passionate about the whole of South Africa. I think it’s an enchanting country offering wonderfully varied walking terrain,” says Julia, “and as the BBC were looking to do a South African season due to the 2010 World Cup, our thoughts of taking the walks to South Africa dove-tailed nicely.” Choosing the four South African walks for the series was easier said than done, with numerous discussions taking place in the long decision-making process. “No one single person has the final voice. Like all business decisions, it’s based on many different factors: time of year, accessibility of filming opportunities, safety elements, and limitations of both time and budget. Whatever the decision, it’s the logistics that count just as much as the storyline,” Julia notes.

That said she was very pleased with the final outcome – she would be walking the coast along South Africa’s famed Garden Route, tackling Cathedral Peak in the Drakensberg Mountains, following wildlife through Kruger National Park, and shadowing the Orange River on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. Thanks to well-laid plans, filming in September and October didn’t encounter any serious problems. However, there were a few memorable moments… During Julia’s walk in the Drakensberg Mountains with Zulu guide Zee, she quickly found that even the fittest and most experienced of walkers need luck on their side when it comes to the dramatic weather of these mountains.

“Suddenly there were thunderbolts and lightning flashes coming hard and fast, so we were forced to speedily retreat out of the mountain range. Very scary,” recalls Julia.

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Another unforgettable moment occurred as she walked with expert game ranger Jaco in the stunning bushveldt of the Kruger.

“We’d been extremely lucky in our sightings of a rhino with her young,” she says. Then we wandered into the patch of a territorial male rhino that was marking his turf, and he was not at all happy to see us there. Jaco became genuinely concerned at this encounter, and it was the one time in our walk that the guns came out.”

As I press for her favourite of the four walks in the series, Julia admits it was probably the Garden Route, because “there is just something lovely about walking close to the sea.” She is also quick to point out that her walk in the Kalahari Desert in the remote northwest corner of South Africa also had some wonderful moments beside water.

When I ask to name her favourite African holiday destinations, Julia declines, then adds: “I love Namibia and Botswana too. I’m also fascinated by Uganda.”

As I pry for more specific details, she does admit to a love of Cape Town, mentioning also secret coves along the east coast “which are gorgeous”. Tantalisingly, she won’t name them. She also speaks highly of Johannesburg and its surrounding areas, which she finds extremely appealing.

“Over the past five years, many of my friends have moved to Jo’burg and the nearby area of the Vaal River district, which is a 40-minute drive outside town. It’s wonderful – you can travel up and down the river by small boats, and the birdlife is absolutely amazing. All of Africa for me is enchanting and enthralling, but if I named all my secret spots they would be secret no more,” she ends.

Thankfully, four of Julia’s favourite African treasures are available to us all as the BBC has recently produced a DVD of her South Africa Walks series.