Tailor-made safaris and travel to Southern Africa

CLASSIC AFRICAN WONDERS

Four billion years of relentless geological activity and weathering have left southern Africa with a dramatic landscape of unsurpassed beauty. Nowhere is this more evident than in the region's many Natural Wonders, some of the most awe-inspiring on Earth.

The Victoria Falls on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, 350 feet high and a mile wide, is the largest sheet of falling water on Earth, and the most spectacular of all waterfalls. Known in the local Tonga language as Mosi-oa-Tunya ("the smoke that thunders"), over 130 million gallons of water from the mighty Zambezi River plunge down this crevice every minute, shaking the earth and creating a plume of mist that can be seen from 14 miles away.

Botswana's Okavango Delta, covering nearly 6,000 square miles, is the largest inland delta in the world, bigger than the state of Connecticut. Even more remarkable, it exists in the middle of the Kalahari desert as a giant oasis teeming with wildlife: no part of Africa has a higher concentration of game than this "jewel of the Kalahari".

At the south-western most tip of the continent, spectacular coastal cliffs overlook the concurrence of the great Indian and Atlantic oceans at the Cape of Good Hope. Described by Sir Francis Drake (first Briton to circumnavigate the Earth) as "the fairest cape in the entire circumference of the globe", this breath-taking coastline, dominated by Table Mountain (considered by many to be one of the four most powerful vortices of energy on Earth) has enchanted onlookers for centuries. It is also home to Cape Fynbos, by far the richest of the earth's six floral kingdoms with 8,600 species of plants, and entirely unique to this area.

The Namib Desert on the west coast is, at 80 million years old, the oldest and most picturesque desert on Earth. As well as boasting the highest sand dunes in the world (over 1,250 feet high), the Namib is spectacularly diverse, with scenery ranging from the mountains of Damaraland in the north, through the Skeleton Coast in the west, to the giant red dunes of Sossusvlei in the south.

The Makgadikgadi Pans in northern Botswana are the world's most expansive salt pans. Covering 14,500 square miles, an area roughly the size of Switzerland, they can be seen from space. During the dry season these pans are an enormous and powerful expanse of emptiness; after the first rains they are transformed into one of Africa's most important breeding grounds for flamingos, and attract the continent's second biggest animal migration.

With over 3,000 miles of unspoiled coastline, southern Africa offers some of the world's most remote, pristine, and beautiful beaches, as well as a remarkable array of marine life. The endless African bush and sweeping plains of the interior are punctuated with soaring mountain ranges, and mighty rivers course their way from the highlands to the great Indian and Atlantic oceans. Irrespective of a traveler's previous experiences, it is impossible to journey through southern Africa without being captivated by its compelling beauty.

Call toll-free on 1-888-227-8311 or email us at info@classicafrica.com