Featured Destinations

Malawi’s first permanently settled people were Bantu from the north, who formed villages in 1500 along the central section of the lake and westwards into what is now Zambia. By 1600 these people were trading with the Portuguese and by the 1700s their tribal cohesions seemed to be disintegrating.

Bushmen, Damara and Namaqua people have lived in Namibia since early times with significant Bantu incursions occurring from 1300 AD onwards. The first Europeans to set foot on Africa’s south-west coast were Portuguese and included Bartolomeu Dias, but they did not put down any roots. Just crosses.

Zanzibar is an archipelago consisting of two main Islands of Unguja (commonly referred to as Zanzibar Island), Pemba and about 51 other surrounding small islets....

A game of numbers

The most-often posed question by visitors to the Kruger National Park, after days of looking at the blessed creatures is “How many impalas are there?” so here are some statistics from the latest report in 2010. There are 37 500 buffalo and the population is growing at 5% per year. Elephants are up from 8 500 in 2000 to 13 500 in 2010. The lion population is stable at around 1 700 and there are thought to be about 1 000 leopard. There are just over 10 000 white rhino and 650 black. Zebras number approximately 25 000 and giraffes around 10 000. So, how many impalas are there in the Kruger National Park? The estimate given by the Minister of Environmental Affairs was “somewhere between 99 830 and 163 570”. It’s quite a big range so I guess they lost count or they really don’t know. I think it’s safe to assume that they are not endangered, though.