I’M writing this column from Durban, South Africa, where I’m taking part in a three-week training camp.

I’m enjoying the experience of a different culture and the South African people have been friendly and welcoming. They can’t do enough for us.

The way of life is very relaxed and the local people always seem to be smiling, without a care in the world, which is inspiring, especially as a lot of people here have very little.

Our first day in Durban was an experience to say the least.

As we were driving to our accommodation, around 20 monkeys started to chase our car. Luckily they didn’t catch up with us!

We are staying in a beautiful 10-bedroom house in the hills and it has everything you could possibly need and more. The monkeys haven’t paid us another visit yet though!

Our first trip to the training pool was also an eye opener. The facilities back in the UK are a much higher standard than those here, but I’m really enjoying going back to basics, as it makes you appreciate how lucky we are back home.

The weights room at the pool has also been neglected, and is very basic, but I’m enjoying some old-school training in there, Rocky IV style, with sit-ups off old wooden beams.

We’ve also been fortunate enough to do a few training sessions with world class swimmers from South Africa, and it’s been fun to race new people.

It’s also useful to see how other swimmers are training around the world, and I’m picking up new ideas along the way.

In between training sessions we’ve managed to see a bit of Africa too.

We took a trip to the Moses Mabhida Stadium that was built for the World Cup, and we did the skywalk over the top of the stadium and witnessed stunning views of the city.

Recently we visited Tala Game Reserve, where we saw some incredible animals native to Africa in their natural habitats.

It was good to see the animals roaming free and not behind bars or glass.

Training is a big focus on this trip, but it’s not the sole focus. Next week we are flying to Port Elizabeth for an invitational swim meet.

Plenty of world-class swimmers from Brazil, South Africa and Great Britain have been invited, and it should be a great meet with tough competition.

It will be valuable to get some race experience, with the world championship trials fast approaching.

Now is the time to slowly start switching the focus from the training pool to the racing pool.

I’m looking forward to bringing down the amount of training and racing instead, to try and make the British team for Shanghai.

The trials will be held at Manchester Aquatics Centre from March 5-12, so keep reading the Swindon Advertiser to see how I do and keep a watch out for my next column next month.