BUCKET-LIST Africa
With its rich wildlife, extraterrestrial landscapes and warm hospitality, there’s little wonder as to why this continent is on many a traveller’s hit list,
Rove the continent aboard luxury on wheels
Wood-panelled cabins, an elegant dining car, butler service – the legendary Rovos Rail in southern Africa is a sophisticated world on wheels from a bygone age with a maximum of 72 passengers, yet travels through some of the most untamed lands on Earth. Peer out the windows of the beautifully restored carriages at spectacular scenery as you spot animals lurking around the tracks, both from aboard the train and off it. Try the epic 15-night journey from Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam that includes a game visit to Selous Reserve, a fly-in safari at Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park, and a city tour of Lubumbashi – the second-biggest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – before the journey ends in Lobito, Angola.
See: rovos.com
Cruise the best of the west
Take the coast less known with a cruise along Western Africa. Many such voyages stop off at some of the most important cultural centres of the continent, like Senegal’s capital, Dakar, and glorious
Gambia, nicknamed “the smiling coast of Africa” with its beaches, wildlife and welcoming people. (The Brits originally tried sending their convicts there, disastrously, before opting for Botany Bay.) Azamara has an 18-night Western Africa voyage starting from Cape Town, with stops in Namibia and at Saint Helena Island, which ends in the Canary Islands. See: azamara.com
Warm to Malawi’s magnificent lake country
Malawi is one of the least touristy beauties of Africa, with spectacular lakes, including the third largest lake on the continent, scenic mountains like Mulanje to climb, magnificent game, tea plantations draped over the hills and some of the friendliest people on Earth. They treat visitors with an old-fashioned gentility, and are invariably welcoming – with the country dubbed “Africa’s warm heart”. It was one of British explorer David Livingstone’s favourite places too. Being relatively compact and easy to get around, it’s an absolute joy. Try an 18-day exploration with Insider Journeys.
See: insiderjourneys.com.au
Join the fight against the wildlife poachers
Help protect Africa’s wildlife – namely the poachers’ favoured prey, the rhino – by taking part in a lifechanging programme designed to track them and keep them safe in Zimbabwe. A tranquilliser dart is fired from a helicopter at the animals, then the volunteers help the animal lie down to avoid injury, cover its eyes, notch its ear, then run into a waiting truck to escape as it wakes. This project is run by the SAVE African Rhino Foundation. Travellers can spend three days with an anti-poaching team, learn all about their work, view the game they’re safeguarding and for a donation, even name a rhino.
See: savefoundation.org.au
Go completely mad for Madagascar
Along the south-east coast of Africa, 400 kilometres east of Mozambique, the world’s fourth-largest island of Madagascar is like one giant wildlife sanctuary. Travel can be a tad uncomfortable as its roads aren’t in the best condition, but the rewards are enormous. Best-known to some for the eponymous 2005 DreamWorks movie, to those in the know it’s all about lemurs, chameleons, rainforests, deserts, mangroves, wild orchids, towering baobab trees and coral reefs, and frequent discoveries of new species of mammals and reptiles. It’s a rare treasure, and important to visit before the crowds. Intrepid runs a 14-day exploration with a stay in a national park.
See: intrepidtravel.com
Dig deeper in the Land of Ra
Egypt is an amazing country, with more antiquities being revealed all the time. But the crowds are not quite so lovely. So outwit and outlast them on a specialist tour with behind-the-scenes visits to museums and dig sites, checking out the lesserknown attractions and then seeing the big icons in the company of an Egyptologist. And of course, a cruise down the Nile from Aswan to Luxor, visiting temples along the way, is absolutely unmissable. With a 16-day, in-depth Inspiring Vacations tour, the sights can take your breath away, rather than the crush of crowds. See: inspiringvacations.com; safetravel.govt.nz
See how life starts on the Serengeti
Instead of going to East Africa at peak migration time, aim for a little earlier in Tanzania in December to May to catch the startling sight of hundreds of thousands of wildebeest giving birth on the plains. It only takes the calves 15 minutes to start running as fast as their mothers on their epic journey of survival. Running is hardwired into their genes, says legendary Serengeti guide Alex Walker, with his luxurious Serian tented camp and his Hadzabe guides. And you’d run too if you were the favourite item on the menu for lion, leopard, hyena, wild dogs, baboon and cheetah.
See: classicsafaricompany.com.au
PHOTOGRAPHS LEFT TO RIGHT
Main image: Tuareg with camels on the western part of the Sahara Desert in Morocco. Quad biking on the barren Namib Desert landscape is unforgettable. Bygone elegance … five-star living on Rovos Rail. Madagascar is one giant wildlife sanctuary. Sunset hues at Lake Malawi.
Take off on the desert ride of your life
Climb aboard a quad bike (helmets on, please) in northern Namibia and take off around the lunar landscapes of the ancient Namib Desert – at up to 80 million years, the oldest in the world – and wind your way up massive sand dunes and across ravines. It’s a spine-tingling adventure, even more so when you venture across a group of the semi-nomadic Himba people with their red ochre body paint and intricate jewellery. How can people exist in such a barren place? This unforgettable encounter is just out of the Serra Cafema Camp and Sossusvlei Desert Lodge.
See: andbeyond.com
Where two is so much better than one
You can almost smell the cardamom in the air as you cruise towards the island of Zanzibar. But its history with the East India Company, which came here for its exotic exports as well the slave trade, is seen in every tiny alleyway on the island, in every 100-year-old elaborately carved teak or mahogany door, on every dhow in the harbour. It’s remained an absolute jewel in the Indian Ocean. But why not couple a trip there with a visit to the smallest country in Africa, the picture-perfect Seychelles? Explore both on a 10-day cruise with Silversea. See: silversea.com
Be seduced by the allures of the Sahara
There are few sights so magnificent on this planet than being in the wilds of the Sahara Desert and seeing a group of sapphire-robed Tuaregs gallop up suddenly on their horses, as if from nowhere. Then, if they stop for a chat, it’s all you can do to stop yourself bowing to them, so regal do they appear. It’s one of the reasons why those familiar with the Sahara adore what is the largest hot desert in the world, as well as its massive dunes, wildlife and rock art. The best place to see it is in Algeria, with an accompanied tour that features wild camping in the sands and, yes, Tuareg guides.