Edition 35: Summer 2006
Hilary Bradt, founder of Bradt Travel Guides, has enjoyed travelling around Africa since the 1970s. Here she tells us about five places which have found a special home in her heart.
 1 Parc Ivoloina, Madagascar
Ivoloina, once a French colonial botanical garden, is now an exceptional zoo currently run by a dedicated British couple. What are they doing about deforestation? They have a tree nursery and run courses on conservation. What about education? They sponsor a Saturday school where local kids can catch up on their school work and learn about the natural world. And the endangered wildlife? Ivoloina is supported by an international consortium of zoos which encourages captive breeding of endemic species and the highest standards of animal care. At least half of the lemurs range freely, providing some of the best photo opportunities in Madagascar.
2 Simien Mountains, Ethiopia
I haven’t been back to Ethiopia since 1976, when the country was in love with Marxism and the local TV station broadcast English-language bulletins about the “broad oppressed masses”. The otherness of Ethiopia was quite extraordinary: not just the politics, but the priests with their coloured umbrellas and holy books and farmers looking like giant mushrooms as they squatted, swathed in white cotton, in their fields. Most astonishing of all were the Simiens: plunging cliffs, blue mountains, gelada baboons, walia ibex with Disney horns bounding past the giant lobelia, and the wide Ethiopian sky. Magical!
3 Lambert’s Bay, South Africa
All tourists go to Cape Town but very few venture northwest to Lambert’s Bay. ‘Laidback’ is an understatement. The girls in the tiny tourist office were reluctant to speak English rather than Afrikaans, but they gave us a map so we could find our way to Bird Island. A young man pointed languidly to a concrete pier splashed by the waves. The smell told us we were getting close and… pow! The noise, the stink and the sight of tens of thousands of courting, squabbling Cape gannets is one of the wonders of South Africa.
4 Chobe National Park, Botswana
If you’d like to see a snorkelling elephant, this is the place! In the Chobe River area, you can really enjoy the sun and sounds of Africa. Moving gently through the silky waters are hippos and herons, lechwe and gallinules, and lots and lots of elephants. Elephants splashing, elephants wallowing, baby elephants playing water-games, and big elephants swimming towards Namibia with their trunks raised above the water like a series of Loch Ness monsters.
5 Ibo Island, Mozambique
This island is all about having nothing to do but wander the silent streets, poke around decaying, flower-smothered mansions and listen to the strains of traditional music wafting from one of the still-occupied historic houses. Ibo declined with the slave trade; even the Portuguese left once the harbour was deemed unsuitable for cargo ships. I visited the island last November. No traders rushed up to sell things, no waiters proffered fruit punch. Yes, we were fed and entertained by the one British-owned hotel that is working with the local community to restore some of the mansions and introduce a gentle sort of tourism, but Ibo kept its secrets. And that’s why I want to go back.
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