Writer/photographer Martin Bissig and a group of mountain bike adventurers come face-to-face with some of Africa’s most beautiful creatures during their incredible bike safari

Cynthia Dial discovers that the Dark Continent has plenty more to offer than just safaris.

Dennis Chu takes a day trip from Mozambique to South Africa's famed Kruger National Park for a quick, but rewarding tour.

ARUSHA, TANZANIA — It was close to sunset in southern Tanzania when the impalas started talking. My husband and I knew we’d come to some place special, but this was unlike anywhere we'd encountered before.

BETHLEHEM, SOUTH AFRICA — An African safari is something I’ve wanted to do ever since watching Out of Africa with my mom as a teen. The high cost of a fully guided, catered safari, however, was something I wanted to avoid.

HARAR, ETHIOPIA — In this land of extremes, you can stand in the hottest place on Earth — The Danakil Depression in the country’s northeast sector — and watch as the thermometer rise to over 50C, as my travelling partner did. Or, as I experienced, you can freeze in its higher elevations when the mercury dips below 0C.

MAHÉ ISLAND, SEYCHELLES – While standing in a 21st-century Garden of Eden, not far from what was believed to be the original – if you believe in such things – I was being tempted to taste a small, bright red, pear-shaped apple by a beautiful Seychellois named Annette.

LAIKIPIA PLATEAU, KENYA - Camels and giraffes munch on crunchy acacia leaves by a grass-fringed watering hole, oblivious to the stranger admiring them from a distance. From my balcony in the Ol Malo House, I gaze across a vast, rugged and wilderness-rich sanctuary. The house is built on a craggy cliff on the edge of the Great Rift Valley amid the foothills of Mount Kenya.

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - On the outskirts of this South African beauty is one of its oldest suburbs — Woodstock — where the run-down buildings have mostly been gentrified by creatives. Their workshops border crumbling houses that for generations have been inhabited by fishermen and factory workers. Now, its hip urban coffee shops sell antique motorbikes alongside freshly roasted beans … market stalls hawking toy cars conjured from Coke cans … restaurants that out of the blue join the ranks ...

Swaziland was not on my bucket list. I didn’t even know where it was when I first heard about a volunteer position with the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse. But, during my stint as communications officer with the organization, my eyes were opened to the jaw-dropping beauty of this tiny kingdom of 1.2 million, tucked between Mozambique and South Africa.