5 African cats you probably haven’t heard about
1. Serval This long-limbed, solitary cat is found in abundance across sub-Saharan Africa, from the bamboo thickets on the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro and the caldera of the Ngorongoro Crater, to the dry savannah and semi-arid grasslands of South Africa. It vocalises through purring and high-pitched chirps, and preys on small rodents. While servals are […]
6 reasons why Rubondo Island in Tanzania is unlike any island you’ve ever been on
1. It’s no typical island – Rubondo is not surrounded by the sea Rubondo Island is found in the vast watery expanse that is Lake Victoria, whose murky origins spurred countless expeditions to locate the source of the Nile. Keen anglers head to the region to cast a line for Lake Victoria’s Nile perch, […]
From Cape Town to the cups of royals, writers and revolutionaries: the wine that put South Africa’s vineyards on the map
Following van der Stel’s death in 1712, the estate was divided and sold in three parts, most famously Groot Constantia and Klein Constantia. The latter’s modern-day fate was placed in the unlikely hands of Johannes Colijn, the illegitimate son of a burger and Cape-born freed slave Maria Everts (whose own parents hailed from modern-day Guinea […]
The story of South Africa’s last forest elephant
Extending from the small gateway city of George and creeping along the coast and past sleepy towns such as Knysna and Sedgefield, the region’s green tendrils spill over onto the Indian Ocean shoreline, abutted by the Outeniqua mountains further inland. Outeniqua yellowwoods, Cape beech, and stinkwoods tower above the forest floor, harboring shy inhabitants in its […]
Ngorongoro Crater: a Garden of Eden in the remnants of a volcano
The Ngorongoro Crater is the largest intact caldera on earth But what does that mean? Before the crater became what we know today, it was a volcanic mountain whose hotbed of geological activity was a common occurrence in the region and whose peaks are estimated to have rivalled those of Mount Kilimanjaro. Some experts put […]
8 Matrilineal African tribes worth knowing about
1. Kung!, Kalahari Desert While the Kalahari Desert may seem an inhospitable place for some, the San have called its rugged, parched landscape home for centuries. Their semi-nomadic way of life has fostered a unique sense of resilience that agrarian societies simply cannot match. Part of the San, the ǃKung peoples’ gender roles are somewhat […]