Marketing brochures seem to just scream about luxury resorts on palm-fringed beaches, but East Africa’s Indian Ocean islands are as diverse as the islanders, spice merchants and explorers that have shaped them. Whether you’re looking for giant coconuts or giant tortoises; lush rainforests, cool highlands or lambent coral reefs; or crossroads cuisine and curious wildlife, there’s an island to suit …

Had a visitor in 1958 stood on the crest of Bumi Hills and peered out through a pair of binoculars, they might have been distracted by the sight of a bare-chested man in a floppy hat attempting to strap an elephant to a wooden raft. Rupert Fothergill was chief game ranger of what was then Rhodesia, now northern Zimbabwe, and …

Although best known for its spectacularly-mountainous dunes, this national park offers so much more. It’s spread over almost 50,000 sq km, covering vast swathes of the Namib Desert and encapsulating a sea of sand, as well as mountains, canyons and desert-adapted wildlife. Here are a few things not to miss. The ephemeral pan of Sossusvlei (top centre) surrounded by the …