Editor’s Note: – Due to the existing Covid-19 outbreak, foreigners are strongly discouraged at this time; this article is intended to serve as inspiration for a long-term vacation once the pandemic is over. *
From the Cape of Good Hope to the shores of Alexandria, the African continent is home to an incredibly wide diversity of local biomes, landscapes and species, all living on a land mass covering approximately 20% of the land area. While bookings such as Kruger National Park and Serengeti National Park are stunning safari destinations, the entire continent is full of hidden gems that make vacation plans in one of Africa’s 54 countries overlook.
For a review of the impressive mountain ranges, archaeological sites and biodiversity hotspots of the continental mass, take a look at those five underestimated national parks.
Home to some of the continent’s most impressive herbal features, Simien National Park encompasses much of Ethiopia’s highlands, adding the country’s peak, Ras Dashen, at an altitude of 14930 feet. While the park offers impressive perspectives of steep plateaus, steep valleys and lush vegetation, one of the desirable maximum facets of this mountainous diversity is the richness of endemic species that thrive in high-altitude conditions. Visitors to Simien National Park can see ibex walia, Ethiopian wolves and gelada, a baboon-like primate that is the last surviving species of its genus.
While the expanse of Lake Malawi is a popular destination in the country, Liwonde National Park is located just south of the water of the same name, which stretches for 220 square miles around the River Shire. The park is about to be one of the main stories of good fortune in African conservation: in 2015, tens of thousands of cable traps were removed from the park, allowing the numerous river hippos to thrive unhindered. Visitors to the reserve also deserve to monitor lions, black rhinos and especially newly reintroduced cheetahs; the latter species had become extinct in the country for 20 years before being reintroduced in 2017.
Deep in the southern component of Algeria, this giant park is the most productive known for containing thousands of prehistoric rock engravings, a quality that allowed the park to be classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. Many creatures depicted in rock art: elephants and giraffes, for example: once they inhabited the surrounding domain, desertification for thousands of years has made dominance in the giant component inhospium today. In addition to rock art, the park also houses giant sandstone arrow teams that shape a “rocky forest” with scattered populations of local thorns.
Isolated from continental Africa for millions of years, about 90% of the species living in Madagascar are endemic to the country, making it a privileged place to detect some of the most elusive creatures in the world. A specific biological focus is the lemur: many species have been lost over the ages, adding a variety of the length of a gorilla that died about two thousand years ago, visitors to the park can now see several types of live lemurs, adding one of the largest surviving lemurs. species, the indri. In addition to primates, the park is also home to more than one hundred species of birds, many of which are endemic, as well as reptiles and local amphibians.
Located at the northern end of the Senegalese border, this collection of approximately 40,000 acres of wetlands has gained international popularity for its high degree of biodiversity, with many migratory birds on site as a stopover after crossing the harsh Sahara Desert. In addition to the European traveling species, visitors can also find flamingos, pelicans, waders and even local crocodiles and manatees. Although the sanctuary was designated as endangered in 2000 due to the presence of resistant invasive species, it was immediately released in 2006 and now lives as a refuge for 350 other bird species.
During the first decades of my life, my exposure to the global outdoors of Massachusetts was limited, prompting a preference for living life outdoors in New England. This
During the first decades of my life, my exposure to the global outdoors of Massachusetts was limited, prompting a preference for living life outdoors in New England. This preference took me abroad, which led me to live in Nanjing, Singapore and The Hague before moving to the west coast of Hawaii (for now). My purpose today is to look for desirable travel stories, while highlighting the local citizens who make these reports possible. There is no destination too far, too underdeveloped or too inhospium, that each and every corner of our land has something valuable to offer travelers. In addition to travel, I’m fascinated by geopolitics, global history and herbal history, and I’m still running to integrate those themes into my writings.