Jeanie at Dead Vlei, Namibia

I’m very lucky – I’ve travelled all over the world for both my job and for pleasure, filming, photographing and writing about different lands and cultures, fascinated by them all. But nowhere draws me back quite like Africa.

From the mountains of Morocco to the wildernesses of Namibia, for me Africa is the last continent where true adventures are still to be had. And its pull keeps taking me back there – the more I explore it, the more I want to find.

Growing up, I read avidly about the exploits of Captain Cook, Columbus, Darwin and Magellan – great explorers who, even before detailed maps were drawn, were fuelled by a desire to seek out new places and peoples and put themselves in the path of incredible new experiences.

Centuries later, the world is a much smaller place and it’s hard to find parts of the globe where I might even come close to experiencing what those explorers of old felt. But Africa delivers every time – from the eery moonscapes of the Namib Desert and Mozambique’s wild northern coast to the vast, undulating sand dunes of the Sahara, these are the places that inspire and captivate me. Whether bumping along precarious remote canyons by Land Rover or trekking on foot across endless tracts of open African desert, these are the places where my spirit of adventure soars.

It’s me versus the terrain – suddenly I’m the star of my very own Woman Vs Wild! – and I’m in awe of, indeed in love with, these endless landscapes far from civilisation. I never feel more alive than when I’m in Africa.

And perhaps that’s the point. As a city-dweller (a necessary evil of my work, alas), I perpetually long for escape from the trappings and complications of modern life – the technology, the pressures and stresses, the constant stream of information from every angle. Those African landscapes take me back to basics and remind me that, fundamentally, we are all just small human beings on a vast and beautiful planet.

So here I am planning my next escape, my next adventure… Africa awaits!

Where in the world do you go to feel the spirit of adventure? Post a comment just below!