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When people hear the word “Africa” a number of things come to mind – usually involving wild animals, exotic adventure, breathtaking sunsets and hot, sunny days. If those are the pictures that come to mind, you wouldn’t be too far off. Anyone who has experienced Africa will tell you that words cannot fully describe just how unique and wonderful it is.

These are some of the reasons why African Safari Tours have become so popular. But Africa is large, and your choices of Safari are endless. There are really two main categories of Safaris, though, to help you make your choice: Game Parks Game parks are very popular, especially for the first time visit to Africa. There are many famous game parks, each with their own attractions.

The Kruger National Park (South Africa) is probably one of the most well known game parks in the world, boasting of Big Five animals and an area that is roughly the size of Wales. From there, you may want to get a little more wild and see what Botswana has to offer. Botswana is one of the most under-commercialized countries in Africa, but is also one of Africa’s best luxury travel and safari destinations. Botswana has three game parks worth a mention – the Chobe National Park, the Okavango Delta and the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

Each of these offer a different Africa experience – grassland, wetland or desert. If you would like to get more personal, you may want to look at lodges instead of game parks, although many lodges are located within these parks. Mobile Tented Safaris Mobile Tented Safaris are also diverse, and they would usually be dependent on your personal needs and wants. This is where you will be assigned a personal guide, who will take you through the best (and often secret) spots of Africa.

Instead of staying at a central lodge, you stay in luxury camping facilities that are mobile and migrate with you through Africa. A great example of this kind of safari is Wild Lifestyles, who have a great pricing and also offer you the exclusive guiding of Mike Penman, who is best known from the series Mad Mike and Mark on Animal Planet. See their website at www.wildlifestyles.com. What to Pack Pack lightly, and try to pack neutral colors.

If you dress too colorfully, it can impact game viewing. Pack a hat, some comfortable but tough shoes, and sunglasses. Although Africa is hot, you do need to pack a jacket, scarf or even gloves – especially for the winter months (April – August) or if you are going to the desert. Rainy months are usually in November and December. You are usually responsible for your own medication, although many safari tours will help you as best they can in this regard.

You would only need to bring your own personal toiletries. Costs The costs of safaris are really dependent on your choices. Low budget or overland Safaris can cost as low as $100.00 per person a day, including staying at a lodge or game park. But a decent, exclusive safari could cost from $300.00 - $450.00 per person a day. Most prices are upon request, tailor made and dependent on your personal inclinations.

Africa is a continent that is synonymous with wilderness, vast spaces, glorious sunsets, shimmering heat, an extensive variety of wildlife, an amazing diversity of cultures and almost inexplicable natural beauty. Straddled by the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, Africa is the second largest continent in the world. It is the home to endless deserts, tropical rain forests, rugged mountains and fertile grasslands. Perhaps because this continent can boast of so much cultural and natural affluence, media personnel internationally continue to flock to Africa to illustrate the varieties of life that it has to offer the world.

The magnificence of Africa is a favorite theme among photographers all over the world. The reality is that due to its extensive diversity, trying to capture the splendor of this continent in images is indeed an incredible task. The continent comprises 53 independent countries, each with a diversity of native peoples, economies, and cultural history. In addition to this hundred of languages are spoken across the continent. Many of these countries provide natural habitats to unique and endangered fauna and flora, while others still have massive herds that roam their huge plains. Photographs have been internationally exhibited illustrating these animals slowly traveling along these Great Plains with the sun setting in the background. However, the true beauty of this can only be experienced personally.

As detailed in photographs and films, are also the many natural wonders that Africa is celebrated for. Stunning images of the vast Lake Victoria which is the second-largest lake in the world, Lake Tanganyika the second-deepest, and Lake Malawi which boasts of the highest number of fish species in the world have framed many books and magazines internationally. Photographers often flock to several places in this great continent such as the Fynbos Kingdom in South Africa which is the smallest floral kingdom, the Namib Desert - the oldest desert in the world, and the Fish River Canyon which is the second largest canyon.

Despite the difficulties that the continent faces economically and politically, Africa is still one of the most wondrous places that ever existed. Photographers have captured images of its raw wilderness that lend the viewer an experience that is uniquely humbling.

Ode: to the King of Africa

Across her oceans-skies,—

To Africa’s abodes,— From where the African in friendship calls Man has journeyed to and fro, now alone!

From lands of north and south,—

From seas of west and east,— Against the winds of paradise And valleys where shrub and rains grow

Here from, one saith:

The sons of man have found The Great Zimbabwe’s crown

For thine is holy ground. Deathless star, behold thy brow Treasure and trophies are not to be found.

Lo! What mysterious death

Do we draw upon our chest? Confirmed by prophets long old Behold the greatness of their mind, soul

From there lands, thunder and fire:

The King moves in the dew Lays, new commandments on his people With black visions of gloom.

The King’s heart has music

He makes the seraph, he shall be: If he could, the sun would not rise,

To set forth more days of death

With exultant breath!… And cry victory, across the seas Like a Titan, seeing all men small:

This is your king, your King:

It has long been known that most of the worlds’ supply of diamonds can be found in Africa. Unfortunately, Africa has long been exploited because of those very resources. Yet, business mogul, Russell Simmons has joined with others to create a plan to educate, empower, and develop those exploited nations with the help of some very fashionable jewelry and celebrity friends through the Diamond Empowerment Fund (DEF). The fund seeks to teach Africans how to cut and polish diamonds. Usually the rough diamonds are mined in Africa and sent to Belgium and Israel to be cut and polished. Because Simmons keeps the entire process of mining to production of the final product in Africa, many jobs are created as well as the opportunity to realize profits from the natural resources of their land.

The Diamond Empowerment Fund (DEF) is supported by many jewelers, businesses, individuals linked to the diamond industry, and Simmons’ Green Initiative jewelry collection. The first item featured from this collection is a bracelet priced at just $125. The bracelet is made from Africa’s natural resources: green malachite beads and diamonds. It will be available in early April. Eddie Murphy, Beyonce, Naomi Campbell, Penelope Cruz, and so many more have already been spotted out and about sporting the infamous green bracelet. The collection will also include rings, necklaces, bracelets, and pendants which will range in price from $250 to $80k. 50% of the proceeds from the Green Initiative collection will go to the (DEF).

The collection seems very promising and is already garnering excitement, praise, and lots of buzz. There is something to suit everyone’s taste and pockets. Supporting this collection is a win-win situation for everyone involved, it is a destined success.

Since the history of mankind began, Africa has always been steeped in great mystery, like a dangerous land where wild animals roam, where the jungles are thick and where uncivilized tribes either eat men or shrink their heads. It is no secret why the continent has earned the sobriquet “Dark Continent.” Today, African culture is as varied as the continent’s inhabitants. There are modern, glistening cities at one end and an explosion of nature and wildlife at the other. From North to South and West to East, the face and culture of Africa changes, like the lay of its land and its warm, soothing climate.

In terms of sheer diversity, Africa stands out among all other continents, which is why a vacation there can be a rich experience of what life has to offer, filled with a variety of sights and unexpected surprises. It hardly matters what you are looking for because Africa is sure to have it. There may be nothing better than a trip to Africa to fill that void of yearning and emptiness that you sometimes feel in your gut. Just imagine yourself in a South African safari, roaming the countryside and brushing elbows with the natives and the wildlife.

The image we have had of Africa as a land filled with lush jungles and animals roaming wild is still very much alive in today’s Africa. This is why the African safaris have had such an attraction to men for decades, because experiencing life in the jungles of Africa is a riveting sensation and awe-inspiring adventure that cannot be attained anywhere else in the world.

Live out your childhood fantasy of being up close to elephants and lions in the wild. Feel the thrill of moving deep into the African jungle and being engulfed by nature. To be sure, being part of a safari isn’t exactly “living in the wild” because the many game preserves and national parks that are scattered all across Africa offer excellent world-class accommodations. But nowhere else can you see nature this closely as in Africa.

You may opt to tour the impressive parks of Tanzania and Uganda which offer close views of the wildlife and a safe and happy return to the campsite at night. Or get a glimpse of the famed snow that covers Kilimanjaro mountain from the Serengeti National Park. Get close to the animals: hippos in Uganda, wild chimps in the Queen Elizabeth National Park and the gorillas of the Bwindi National Park.

And if you get tired of nature, try your luck at the many fine hotels and resorts in South Africa that can rival the best that Las Vegas has to offer. Go online and check out what Africa has to offer now. It’s a world of difference that can change your life.

From the time the whistle blew to start this all-important game for South Africa, the visitors were under pressure. Chad were lucky not to be facing a penalty kick already on five minutes, when a defender handled the ball as he tried to clear.

On around the ten minute mark Sibusiso Zuma headed the ball just wide off a perfect cross delivered by Elrio van Heerden. South Africa were awarded a penalty on 12 minutes after Zuma was brought down by the Chad keeper when he broke through the Chad defence.

The Absa Stadium in Durban was a bit surprised at who stepped up to take the penalty, Cape Town born defender Nassief Morris. He slotted home the penalty kick with relative calm, especially since it was his first goal for South Africa in 22 games. Morris explained after the match that it was planned beforehand that he would take a penalty should one be awarded, and he did practice for it leading up to the game. He also admitted having a few nerves as he took the spot kick.

It was one-way traffic for the rest of the match as well, with Chad only having one shot at goal and that in the closing minutes of the match.

Situated in a subtropical location, moderated by ocean on three sides and the altitude of the interior plateau, South Africa has a warm temperate climate making it a popular spot for foreign visitors.

South Africa is a relatively dry country and is well known for its sunshine. With an average annual rainfall of only 464mm, the Western Cape gets most of its rainfall in winter; the rest of the country is in general a summer-rainfall region.

Temperatures in South Africa are inclined to be lower than in other countries at similar latitudes – Australia for example – this is mainly due to greater elevation above sea level.

On the interior plateau the altitude - Johannesburg lies at 1 694 meters - keeps the summer temperatures around 28 degrees Celsius. In winter, for this reason, night temperatures can drop below freezing point.

South Africa’s coastal regions are warmest in the winter months. But there’s a big difference between temperatures on the East and West of South Africa, due to the warm Agulhas Current that runs along the east coast, and the cold Benguela, fresh from Antarctica, that runs up the west coast.

Being in the southern hemisphere, our seasons stand in opposition to those of Europe and North America so the hottest weather is in December to March.

Best time of the year to travel to South Africa depends on what you want to do. The flowers are at their best in August and September. The best time for game viewing is in the late spring months of September and October. The Southern Right Whales are off our coasts from about mid-June to the end of October.

The diving is best in most of the country outside of summer, and so is the surfing - but that certainly doesn’t limit either activity to those times.

River rafting is better in the Cape at the end of winter, and in KwaZulu-Natal in the height of summer. In Mpumalanga and Limpopo, its good at all times of year and not better at any one specific time.

Of course, if you want to lounge around on the beaches; mid-summer is the best time - though everyone else will be there too and beaches can de frighteningly busy, especially in the Durban and Cape Town areas, however the beaches of northern KwaZulu-Natal are warm and sunny even in midwinter and a little quieter!..

We found a high seroprevalence of HIV among young women in a commercial logging area in Cameroon. The vulnerability of these young women could be related to commercial logging and the social and economic networks it induces. The environmental changes related to this industry in Equatorial Africa may facilitate HIV dissemination.

More than 20 years after the beginning of the HIV epidemic, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) stated that the epidemic was now taking hold in many African countries (1). An estimated 25.0-28.2 million persons are already infected in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 70% of all infections worldwide, and Africans represent 10% of the world population. AIDS is now the leading cause of death in Africa (2.2-2.4 million deaths in 2003) (2). UNAIDS particularly underlined the rapidly rising prevalence in Cameroon, a central African country (4.7% in 1996, 11.8% in 2001) (1,3). As in many countries, these data come from sentinel surveillance of women attending urban and semi-urban antenatal clinics.

Data from rural areas are scarce, and the dynamics of HIV infection are poorly documented. Travel has been linked to an increased risk among rural populations (4). The recent environmental changes related to commercial logging in Equatorial Africa could potentially facilitate HIV dissemination. Commercial logging has led to road construction in remote forested areas, human migration (especially of single men), and develop social and economic networks (including commercial sex work) that support this industry (5). In Cameroon, commercial logging has been growing for at least 4 decades. We have previously shown that these environmental changes might represent a risk to human health through exposure to simian immunodeficiency viruses (6). We investigated the seroprevalence of HIV, the nature of circulating HIV genetic variants, and factors associated with HIV infection in a logging area of southern Cameroon.

The Study

A cross-sectional, community-based survey was performed in September 2001 in a remote village where a sawmill and logging camp have been located since 1973 (Nkonzuh, East Province) and also in two neighboring villages (Mboumo and Kompia, 10 km and 30 km from the logging camp, respectively). The three villages are 250 km east of Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon (Figure). The total population of the three villages has increased since commercial logging began and was estimated at 1,000 inhabitants at the time of the survey (excluding the logging camp). Approximately 200 workers are employed in this industry; approximately half originate from the region. Some workers live in the traditional neighborhoods of Nkonzuh, and a small number live in Mboumo and Kompia; most live in the logging camp. The survey in Nkonzuh was carried out in the traditional neighborhoods but not in the logging camp itself. All inhabitants >15 years of age were asked to participate in the survey during door-to-door visits. After participants gave informed consent, they were interviewed by using a verbal standard questionnaire in French or a local language. The data gathered included the village name, time spent in the village, house number, date of birth or age, sex, ethnic group, marital status, level of education, occupation, and history of blood transfusion, injection, surgery, circumcision or excision, tattoo, and sexually transmitted infections (STI).

Serologic screening for HIV infection was based on an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (Murex HIV-1.2.O, Abbott, Rungis, France). All positive samples were confirmed and typed (HIV-1 or -2) by using a line immunoassay (INNO-LIA HIV-1+2, Innogenetics, Ghent, Belgium). All positive samples were further typed (HIV-1 group M, N, O or HIV-2) with an in-house ELISA based on V3 loop peptides. HIV-1-positive samples were genetically characterized in the gag and env genes by sequencing and phylogenetic analysis, as described (7). Syphilis was diagnosed by using the rapid plasma reagin (RPR) (Becton Dickinson, Mountain View, CA) and Treponema pallidum hemagglutination (TPHA) (Sanofi Pasteur, Chaska, MN) tests.

The [chi square] and Fisher exact tests were used to compare the distribution of categorical variables between men and women. For continuous variables, comparisons were based on the nonparametric Mann-Whitney two-sample test. Multivariate random-effects logistic regressions, including sex-specific analyses, were used to identify factors associated with HIV infection (8). Independent variables associated with HIV infection, identified by using a conservative threshold of p < 0.25 in univariate analysis, were retained for multivariate analysis. Ninety-five percent confidence intervals (CI) of proportions were estimated by using the binomial exact method.

Four hundred eighty-four persons were enrolled (Table 1). Most (77.8%) were Badjoe, a local ethnic group, and 6.4% were Pygmies; 25 other ethnic groups were also represented. The HIV serologic results were available for 476 persons. Seven persons refused venipuncture after interview, and one sample could not be analyzed. These eight persons did not differ from the other persons in term of sex (50.0% women vs. 47.1% women) but were slightly younger (median, 26.8 years vs. 34.9 years). Five (1.1%) of the 476 HIV serologic results were indeterminate, and these persons were excluded from the analysis of risk factors. The overall HIV seroprevalence was 7.4% (CI 5.2%-10.1%). Women had a far higher HIV seroprevalence than men (overall 11.1% vs. 3.1%) (Table 2), which ranged from 4.9% in women at least 50 years of age to 22.5% in the 25- to 34-year age group. In men, the HIV seroprevalence ranged from 1.4% in the 15- to 24-year age group to 6.0% in the 25- to 34-year age group. The HIV seroprevalence was higher for both sexes, although not significantly, in the village in which the logging camp is located than in the two surrounding villages

With an ambivalence tracing back to Conrad, modern European writers portrayed Africa in extremes of innocence and violence, depravity and delight. Paralleling empire’s project of mining the continent for buried treasure, novelists explored a moral and psychological geology, digging deep into the self to discover what lay beneath. Uncivilized Africa served as a blankness or void: the veld, the bush; the screen upon which Europe threw the pattern of its inner fantasies, both noble and corrupt. For a Cecil Rhodes, of course, the lure of Africa was obvious. But what about the fringe figures of empire, the explorers, the bureaucrats and missionaries? Mixed themes of paradise and exile mirror in a “mysterious” continent the mystery of its conquerors.

The Dust Diaries is Owen Sheers’s investigation of the life of his great-great-uncle, Arthur Sheerly Cripps. An Oxford graduate, poet, and Anglican priest, Cripps left England in 1901 for Rhodesia, where he lived for half a century as an impoverished and notably eccentric missionary, in the process authoring a 1927 treatise, An Africa for Africans, that raised an angry voice on behalf of the colonized. Owen Sheers, poet and Oxonian himself, had heard about his ancestor in family conversations over the years; curiosity and a vague intuition of affinity spurred him to find out more. Armed with boxes of correspondence and manuscripts, Sheers set out to shed light on his forebear and the mystery of why he abandoned Europe for a life in the veld.

I must admit to being skeptical about “on the trail of” books; too many seem like excuses for the writer’s excellent adventure. But Sheers has redeemed the genre brilliantly, with a thoughtful, lovely, and innovative work. The Dust Diaries comprises three narrative strands: Sheers’s evocation of August 1, 1952, and a small hut where the blind, octogenarian missionary is living out his last hours; his own travel report from current-day Zimbabwe, where he tracks down the dwindling circle of elderly people who knew his great-great-uncle; and the largest strand, a piecemeal novel taking up Cripps’s decades in Africa. “This story is written as a fiction,” Sheers explains, “the fiction I formed in my mind so as to better understand Arthur’s life.”

It’s a challenging life to take on. The Arthur Cripps of The Dust Diaries is many things to many people: “a troublemaker, a liberal, and a negrophile” to officers of the British South Africa Company, whose policies he opposes; “simple, direct and just a little ridiculous” to a litterateur district commissioner who envisions him the subject of a novel; unsettlingly attractive to a bored frontier wife whose dinner table he enlivens; a wielder of magical powers to the Mashona peasants he lives among, who know him as Kambandakoto, or “He-Who-Goes-About-As-A-Poor-Man.” As for Sheers, he develops his own thesis about the man. Struck by a life “almost penitential in nature, as if governed by a duty of atonement,” he suspects some buried wound. A handful of obscure references in poems and other documents hint at romantic tragedy: a woman left behind in Britain, possibly a child fathered out of wedlock. There’s a love story there, Sheers decides. He writes it into his book. Doing so lies somewhere between discovery, fabrication, and interpretation–Sheers burrowing through a life of driven service to a core of sorrow, attempting to locate in Cripps a specific, personal love as profound as the man’s selfless idealistic love of Africans.

The language of The Dust Diaries bears a poet’s stamp of beauty. “He lay there for a moment, listening to the night outside: the turning of the sea’s pages, the hush and fizz of the waves on the shore, the sudden screeching and confusion of two cats fighting, then silence.” But Sheers proves a skillful novelist as well, deftly portraying vivid secondary characters, such as the pugnacious Bishop William Gaul, who removes his cleric’s collar before delivering a pugilistic rebuke to a drunkenly abusive Irish railway worker. Historical figures wander in for sparkling cameos, like the notoriously brutal hunter and soldier Richard Meinertzhagen, about whom Cripps wrote a nightmarish poem.

Indeed, The Dust Diaries could have been written simply as a historical novel, and a good one. But Sheers has larger ambitions, and they involve frequently interrupting his story to show us how he put it together. Thus we read an engrossingly detailed scene, set in the 1930s, between Cripps and his longtime personal secretary, Leonard Mamvura–then turn the page to find Sheers in Africa, visiting the real-life Mamvura, who is providing information Sheers will later use to write the fictional scene we have already read. It’s startling to shift time frames and genres like this, to be repeatedly reminded that the engrossing reality we’ve been enjoying is a fictional construct. The Dust Diaries gives us both a moving human story and the author’s commentary on the problematic nature of composing that story.

Africa is not only earth’s largest continent, but probably the most diversified. Narrow that down to just South Africa and you still have what is often referred to as “a world within a country.” Actually, it only includes 3.8 percent of the continent. While seeking photographic locations on one visit, I narrowed that down to just the eastern portion of South Africa–the Indian Ocean side.

Kruger National Park alone covers over 7500 square miles and it is but one of a multitude of parks and reserves. This bit of reminiscing is not about the well-known game areas. It doesn’t begin to cover the potential subjects in even a single park or reserve. What does seem worth sharing are excerpts from three hours of sitting in a hide observing the parade of creatures that visited the water hole below.

Hluhluwo and Umfolozi Reserves date to 1895. Although they have been combined, a fork in the road requires decision making upon approach. Seeking out a single hide in Mkuzi one sunny morning turned out to be an unforgettable experience that combined this photographer’s love of both photo travel and nature. In South Africa game areas, “hide” is the name given to unique structures designed to allow observations without disruption of the local residents’ natural behavior. Americans usually refer to similar conveniences as blinds.

Parking areas are located several hundred yards from the water holes. Paths to viewing structures have high fences on both sides that shield visitors from surrounding wildlife. Signs request silence so human noises will not disturb the normal behavior of fauna. At the end of the path a few stairs lead to a completely roofed platform with protective siding. Only a narrow strip is open for viewing the water hole environment. Fortunately, the open viewing strip does enable most camera lenses to have a clear view of the action below. South Africans discourage light-colored clothing for observers, as well as the protrusion of anything through the narrow opening other than binoculars or cameras. You are apt to be hushed if you were unfortunate enough to have worn garments made from fabrics that rustle with movement.

Two camera bodies and lenses that covered a range from 28 to 300 seemed quite adequate for the occasion. Of course, a large supply of film was a major necessity. During my short period of shooting from the hide, I found myself debating just which way to point the camera. Worthy subjects in every direction were often visible simultaneously. Two matched camera bodies were very helpful. One was operated on a tripod while the other was ready to move rapidly for hand holding while trying to capture unexpected happenings. An image stabilizer can come in handy for that purpose.

The variety of animals that approached for their morning drinking session was amazing. They came solo, in pairs, trios or groups and I was tempted to snap faster than my motor drives would permit. Whether wading into the water or daintily reaching from the muddy edges, it all appeared to be a pleasurable part of their routine. Of course, drinking was not their only mission. Some lingered to socialize, to wallow in the mud to suckle their young or spar with competitors.

Occasionally a severely injured animal ventured in. One wildebeest had apparently become entangled in a fence. When unable to free himself he had apparently managed to escape by breaking the wires. The poor critter had a wire noose cutting deeply into his forehead with strands of wire dangling from the open wounds.

South Africa is the only natural habitat for nyalas. They are beautiful, nonaggressive creatures. The male’s dark gray coat is trimmed with a tuft of white hair along the top and a few matching strips at the sides. Brown legs and white facial markings are characteristic of that antelope species. Females are a warm, tan shade and feature multiple stripes. Their stripes are more plentiful than those the males sport and, for some unknown reason, always appear in odd numbers.

It was fascinating to watch two handsome bucks attempting to declare dominance. Instead of bumping antlered heads or engaging in any behavior that may result in marring their beauty, they had a strutting contest. When one conceded his loss and departed the scene, the winner proudly continued to strut to the water hole. Unless traveling with a mate, they appear to be solo creatures.

Apparently nyala are plagued by parasites that inhabit their antlers, for we were able to witness a cleansing operation. Without sailing his showy coat, one buck buried his antlers in mud and appeared to scrub them quite thoroughly. A huge wildebeest invaded an area near some zebras and actually rolled in the mud. Warthogs often display that behavior, but witnessing a wildebeest wallowing on his back with four legs waving in the air seemed very unusual.

Baboon troupes were also a special treat. Youngsters were old enough to ride on their mother’s backs as the adults grouped together and enjoyed a leisurely visit to the water. Grevy’s zebras were targeted toward their drinking area and did not loiter for long when their mission had been accomplished. Visiting wildebeests must have finished grazing before they arrived at the water holes. They loitered around for quite awhile and then settled down to rest in the shade of nearby trees. Birds also joined in the grand pageant. Colorful louries flitted about tree branches while turtles and lizards made their presence known by basking in sunlit areas.