Rwanda, dubbed the 'Land of a Thousand Hills' and home to Gorillas in the Mist, is emerging from its troubled past to become one of ecotourism's finest and friendliest destinations, thoroughly explored by this new Bradt guide. Gorilla viewing in the Virunga mountains is the crown jewel of this compact country's attractions; Nyungwe Forest harbours a wealth of birds and primates, including chimps and the Ruwenzori colobus monkey; hippos and giant Nile crocodiles bask in the lakes of Akagera Park. The authors' sound, practical advice guides the independent traveller from transport and accommodation options to scenic routes, wildlife and local culture.
African travel specialist Philip Briggs has been exploring the highways, byways and backwaters of the world's most challenging and exciting continent since 1986, when he spent several months backpacking on a shoestring from Nairobi to Cape Town. In 1991, he wrote the Bradt Guide to South Africa, the first such guidebook to be published internationally after the release of Nelson Mandela.
Over the rest of the 1990s, Philip wrote a series of pioneering Bradt Guides to destinations that were then - and in some cases still are - otherwise practically uncharted by the travel publishing industry. These included the first dedicated guidebooks to Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Ghana and Rwanda (co-authored with Janice Booth), all of which are now in their 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th edition.
Philip has visited more than two dozen African countries, and written about most of them, whether it be for guidebook publishers such as AA, APA-Insight, Berlitz, Camerapix, Dorling Kindersley, Frommers, Struik-New Holland and 30 Degrees South, or for specialist travel and wildlife magazines including Africa Birds & Birding, Africa Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Travel Africa and Wanderlust.
He still spends at least four months on the road every year, and spends his rest of the time battering away at a keyboard in the sleepy dorp of Bergville, in the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg region of South Africa. He is married to the travel photographer Ariadne Van Zandbergen and lives with three dogs and a cat. When not obssessing over some or other aspect of African history, culture, wildlife or travel, Philip's interests include music, reading and walking.
