Travel Africa

nature’s best photography africa

2018 Finalists galleryWe are very proud of our association with the Nature’s Best Photography Africa competition, and are honoured to profile a selection of images from the 2018 finalists, including the Photograph of the Year, which is featured on page 160.The full winner’s catalogue is available from www.naturesbestphotographyafrica.comLeopard take downBY DANIEL VON BACKSTROM (South Africa)HIGHLY HONOUREDWILD CATS OF AFRICA BEHAVIOURAL“We criss-crossed the Masai Mara plains in search of the world-renowned migration. We then received a tip from a game ranger informing us of a build-up of a huge herd of blue wildebeest readying themselves to cross. With great excitement we saw a mature male leopard, using the embankment shadows to creep towards an area to attack the wildebeest. In a cloud of dust the leopard launched itself towards it’s unlucky…

karibu

In early 1998, in our fourth issue, we published a story about the challenges facing the Maasai in Kenya’s rapidly modernising economy. Soon afterwards, at a consumer travel show in London, a young East European student spent some time gazing at the cover before asking me: “Is this the face of Africa you should be portraying?”I was in my late twenties and, frankly, hadn’t given much thought to the role we played in how people might view the continent; at that point we simply wanted to share our love for Africa and encourage others to visit. We ended up having a wide-ranging and thought-provoking discussion about the role of the media at a time when cultural tourism was beginning to make a serious impact.The questions raised in that encounter have…

travel africa

Travel Africa is published quarterly by: GECKO PUBLISHING LTD13 Kelly’s Road, Wheatley, Oxford OX33 1NT, United Kingdom (ISSN 2046-133X)travelafricamag.comsafariplanner.co.ukfacebook.com/TA.magazines@TravelafricamagtravelafricamagazineTel +44 (0)1844 278883Editorial editor@travelafricamag.comAdvertising sales@travelafricamag.comSubscriptions service@travelafricamag.comABOUTTravel Africa aims to inspire, inform and help people wanting to visit Africa. We’re passionate about the wide diversity of attractions, culture and wildlife that make this the world’s most exciting continent. Whether you’re a first-time visitor or an experienced safari-goer we aim to give informed advice and suggestions to help you plan your trip, and hope to introduce you to new and unusual places you might not have considered, while giving greater insight to those that are more familiar. As an independent publisher, we aim to pull together diverse content and opinion from the best writers, photographers and experts that is not easily accessible elsewhere.SUBSCRIBETravel…

storytellers

1 BRIAN JACKMANAfrican Twilight, page 118Africa seems to attract the most extraordinary individuals, free spirits blessed with rare talents and unbelievable courage, as epitomised by Angela Fisher and Carol Beckwith. It was the photographer David Coulson, co-founder of the African Rock Art Foundation who introduced me to them. That was in Nairobi in the 1980s when I was a Sunday Times travel writer. Like me, they had fallen under the spell of the Maasai, the red-robed warrior pastoralists who strode across the East African plains like Old Testament prophets. But while I chose to follow the big cats that shared the Maasai rangelands, Angela and Carol had already set out on a different road, photographing the Maasai and their way of life and then reaching out right across Africa as…

contributors

THIS ISSUESarah Baxter, Laura Birtles, Hilary Bradt, Philip Briggs, Justin Fox, William Gray, Emma Gregg, Sophie Ibbotson, Brian Jackman, Lauren Jarvis, Jackson Looseyia, Guy Mavor, Martha Mukaiwa, Heather Richardson, Philip Stander, Mike Unwin, Sue Watt, Lizzie WilliamsTRAVEL AFRICA EXTRATo receive our free monthly e-mag and occasional newsletters, join our mailing list at travelafricamag.com. We do not share data or allow third party mailings. Your address will be used purely for the Travel Africa newsletters you sign up to in accordance with our Privacy Policy.ON THE COVERTurkana girls, by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher, from the book African Twilight.FOOT NOTEA jackal’s footprint sits at the end of each feature in this issue. ■…

freewheeling

As a passionate cyclist I like nothing more than getting out on an open road, and I’ve recently discovered the joy of exploring new places by bike. You get a feel for the landscape, the smell of the air, and come across some unexpectedly delightful spots to stop at. I’m drawn to dramatic scenery, and I hanker to cycle from Cape Town to Cape Point, along that most picturesque peninsula with the two southern oceans either side. I believe it is possible also to go mountain biking in Table Mountain National Park, so that’s my Cape holiday sorted.COUNTRY MANAGER UKFOR SWAROVSKI OPTIK ■…