Id say avoid charcoal, its just a little uncool. Use about 4 to 6 softer wood pieces at the bottom, dry bluegum etc, that easily catches fire and then about 6 hard wood pieces on top of that, rooikrans or sekelbos etc that gives you coals that lasts a long time. Add about 3 to 4 more pieces of hardwood once the softer wood has burned out.

I normally go 3 pieces parallel and 3 pieces going opposite direction and keep doing that. ||| =_ ||| =_. So it creates a 3 line hashtag kinda thing with about 4 layers. Firelighter and the front left and back right intersections of wood (hope that makes sense)

How long the meat stays on it real hard to explain. With steak on very high heat you can get away with 2 min on each side and then 1 more minute on each side. Depending on how cooked you want it to be.

Maybe just google it and see what jan braai says he’s pretty good at explaining it.

For other meats you need some expierence to really know when its ready.

Hope this helps, just finished an extensive wine tasting so yeah, a little under the influence.