Holidays

Africa

How do you capture the essence of Africa without using up every clich in the book? No other continent comes close to it for scale, variety and pure, raw impact. Africa offers a travel experience a thousand kilometres from the well-backpacked, air-conditioned tourist trails of Southeast Asia or the theme parks of Australia or Europe.Africa's natural history alone would make a dozen visits worth while where can you fall asleep to the sound of lions roaring, or watch a million flamingos take off from the waters of a remote soda lake? Parts of Africa boast scenery so spectacular that the essence of this incredible continent isn't in any desert, mountain or lake, it's the spirit of the people that infects so many visitors with a travel bug so powerful they'll never stop coming back, sometimes against all sense or reason.Barter with venerable merchants among the cool, narrow streets of an Arabic medina, dance to the thumping reggae beats coming from a West African market stall, or go fishing with fishermen under Indian Ocean palm trees, and you'll be struck more than anything else by the honesty, warm-heartedness and vitality of the African people