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Africa has been described as a dark continent of questions, images, possibilities. From it emanate the rhythms of Afro-fusion music. Out of Africa come visions of golden East African plains, flora and fauna-the lion, the giraffe, the wildebeest. From South Africa, voted favourite destination by the 2004 Irish Travel Trade Awards, visitors bring news of the walk to freedom its citizens have taken in the last ten years-an answer to the comment, is the news ever positive? Yes, it is! Africa is the experience of a lifetime.

Its many cultures differ widely. Hamburgers? If you see one in Morocco, opt for lamb couscous and other traditional dishes: here, Africa and Europe fuse, and the cuisine is excellent. Exquisite Kenyan fabrics can be seen in rich colours and stunning abstract designs. Shopping for jewellery? The Egyptians invented glass in the time of the pharaohs, and their beadwork has been breathtaking ever since. African beadwork, especially trade beads, are so collectible that travellers seek them out all the world over. Ndebele, Yoruba and Zulu work is particularly striking.

But Africa can be far more than a big shopping trip. Going on safari is a time-honoured and very popular travel adventure. If you are a Hemingway wannabe, climb Mount Kenya. Or head south to amazing parks: Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, a haunting landscape of rust-coloured sand dunes, is a geologist's paradise, with fossils dating from 310 million years ago; Karoo and Kruger National Parks are fabulous for big game.

The beaches of the west coast of the continent are among the very best on earth. Sun and surf between the Equator and the Tropic of Cancer, in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau. On the east coast, take a fascinating, leisurely cruise around the Cape of Good Hope from Cape Town to some of the world's most ancient port cities-Durban (Vasco da Gama, arriving in 1497, called it "Rio de Natal") Maputo (people have lived here over 100,000 years); Dar es Salaam, the gateway to Tanzania; Mombassa; Muqdisho. As you disembark at each port, you go through the gateways of time and culture to thronging marketplaces, enchanting music and visual feasts such as inspired the Arabian Nights. Dar es Salaam is a great place to jump ship. Here in Tanzania are destinations that say "Africa": magnificent Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa; the Serengeti Plain, home of the noble Maasai, probably the best safari experience the continent has to offer. From here, cross to fabled Zanzibar, where the dazzling white architecture of the Omani Arabs is in excellent condition-an island so beautiful that both explorers Richard Burton and Henry Livingstone had homes here. The worst and best of African history is here-ruins of the slave market; lush, intriguing streets and alleyways, gardens and jungles, where Arab, European, Indian and African cultures met and left their mark.

Africa is more than a holiday-it presents rich, life-changing and extraordinary visions to the imaginative and adventuresome mind.