The Eastern Cape seafarer is taking in her stunning victory in the Golden Globe Race - and lots of fresh fruit - as she ponders her next adventure. A hiking trip in SA might give her some ideas.

What does someone who has spent almost eight months sailing solo and nonstop, without the assistance of modern technology or external assistance, crave upon finishing their gruelling expedition?

Maybe a mouthful of their favourite junk food? Or a warm and wholesome home-cooked meal? For South African sailor Kirsten Neuschäfer - who recently made history by winning the Golden Globe Race (GGR) - her craving was simple: fresh fruit.

"The thing I really was looking forward to eating was fruit because obviously you're out there for eight months and you've got ...nothing fresh," Neuschäfer told Daily Maverick by telephone from her current base in Les Sables-d'Olonne, France, where the race started and finished.

"It was all canned food or freeze-dried food. So, I was really starting to crave fresh fruit like an orange or a banana or something like that," she said of her diet while she spent more than 200 days circumnavigating the globe.

"The people here [at the finish line] were very kind. They asked me before I arrived: 'What is it that you're really looking forward to?' I said fruit. So they made sure there was a big bowl of fruit for me when I came ashore," she...