A bit on a lot of Africa

Get Lost in Stone Town - Tanzania
The historical port and former slaving centre of Zanzibar Island's Stone Town is renowned for it's labyrinthine street plan – perfect for loosing yourself in. As you dodge donkeys, market traders, craftsmen and robed Muslim women, look out for Stone Town's rich architectural blend of African, Arabic Indian and European influences. Beautifully-carved wooden doors are a speciality – some are studded with brass spikes, a throwback to an Indian tradition when doors needed protection from elephants.

Raft The Rapids on the Zambezi - Zambia/Zimbabwe
The rafts were fasten to the riverbank, fretting there mooring ropes like restless horses eager to stampede through the concertina of gorges below Victoria Falls. We'd barely cast off before I heard the first rapid, a steady thunder, like ocean surf. Suddenly the raft 50m ahead slid from view, it's crew paddling furiously, the skipper barking orders. A second later, there were bodies and paddles spinning away like wayward fireworks. We were next. Our rafts slid down a tongue of green water into the foaming maw of Morning Glory. There was a sickening lurch, then a crash as the raft careered into the rapid's perpetual breaker. Morning Glory had a good chew and then spat us out, like pips from a grape, into a calm stretch down stream.

Glide in a Mokoro through the Delta - Botswana
There is nothing on earth as restful as setting out into a bright Okavango dawn in the bows of a mokoro (dug out canoe). Soundless you glide forward. A lazy twist of the boatsman's pole, then nothing but birdsong, water lilies and ripples. Coucals bubble in the reed beds. Red lechwe splash across the flood plains; and all you have to do is sit back and go with the flow.

Climb the world's tallest dunes - Namibia
For every three steps you take up, you slide down two. After awhile you stop and look behind, to catch a breath and be reminded of the reason of for all your exertion. All around, dominating the view are sinuous sand sculptures; terracotta dunes forming perfect curves – each partly iridescent, partly in shadow. Sossusvlei is perhaps, Africa's most beautiful sight.

Star Gaze in the Kalahari – Botswana
First t emerge were the pointers, so called because they point to the Southern Cross. A shooting star flared overhead as Scorpio dipped it's curling tail to the east. The satellite drifted from the west, voyaging, across the Milky Way until it disappeared, snuffed out by the moon's glow. The only sound was the gentle pulsing of blood in my ears. There can be a few places left so totally removed from the noise, pollution and clutter of modern life. The Makgakgadi Pans are a rare wilderness, somewhere not

hing means everything.

Go Ngorongoro - Tanzania
The magic begins the moment the pristine clouds forests of the crater highlands close in around you. But nothing prepares you for the moment when you look down for the first time into the lost world below. The giant 23kn-wide caldera's 600m-high walls encircled a microcosm of plains, swamps, flamingo lakes and fever trees, complete with it's own resident lion prides, rare black rhinos and some of the biggest tuskers you will ever see.

Make Eye Contact with a Gorilla – Rwanda
Our eyes met. This is a mammal thing, the direct stare. With predators such as lions it send a chill down your spine, with prey animal you feel protective, but with a gorilla you are dealing with an equal; intelligence meets intelligence. There is no wild life experience like it.

Sand on the Roof of Africa – Tanzania
Climbing Mt Kilimanjaro is a slog by anyone's standards, but the panorama from Uhuru Peak, at 5896m, the highest point in Africa, Justifies every effort. You are standing on the rim of a volcanic crater, peering over the edge of a precipice. A thousand feet below, the crater floor is coated with rime ice. Behind this great white plain, stepped tiers of ice cascade towards the inner cone of the Reusch Crater. The ascent from arid plains through humid for ests and alpine meadows to this icy wasteland takes you on an extraordinary journey: fascinating flora, arduous trekking, extravagent scenery – utterly rewarding.

Feel the Earth Move at Victoria Falls – Zambia/Zimbabwe

As soon as I felt the crunch of the bow on land, I leapt ashore. But like me, Livingstone Island trembled. Perched on the very lip of Victoria Falls, this tiny island makes the spot where, in 1853, Dr Davis Livingstone first set eyes on The Smoke that Thunders. Deafened by the roaring cataracts and oblivious even to the sightseeing helicopters overhead, I shuffled to the very brink of the abyss. Dr Livingstone probable struck an epic pose when he stood here 150 years ago. But as I peered through the rainbows below, and saw the great plumes of white water cascading from my feet to explode in the gorge 100m below, I felt intrepid enough.

Experience the Great Migration – Tanzania
The Serengeti is quintessential Africa: big skies, rolling plains, prolific wildlife. Out here in this vast wilderness, roughly the size of Ireland, you can see for miles in any direction. But what really elevates the Serengeti above any other African highlight is the annual migration. Between May and June, over one million wildebeest and 200,000 zebra trek north towards Kenya. It is breath a breath taking spectacle – a free-spirited celebration of a bygone Africa; a place and time devoid of human barriers.