Something special about Africa touches the souls of millions of people around the world. Firstly, whether you are a wide-eyed first-timer or a frequent visitor, Africa cannot fail to get under your skin. From the tropical rain forests of Central Africa to the endless rippling dunes and waterless tracts of the Sahara, from the signature savannah of the east to jagged mountains and green-tinged highlands all across the continent, Africa has few peers when it comes to natural beauty. Secondly, a Noah's Ark of wildlife brings these landscapes to life, with a tangible and sometimes profoundly mysterious presence that adds so much personality to the African wild. Going on safari may be something of a travel cliché, but we are yet to find a traveller who has watched the wildlife world in motion in the Masai Mara, stumbled upon the paradise that is the Ngorongoro Crater, or communed with gorillas in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, and has not been reduced to an ecstatic state of childlike wonder. Finally, even as the past retains, it holds over the lives of many Africans who bring creativity and sophistication to the continent's cities and urban centers. Sometimes this New Africa is expressed in a restless search for solutions to the continent's problems, or in an eagerness to break free of the restrictive chains of the past, but just as often, modern Africans are taking all that is new and fusing it onto the best of the old. If you come with an open mind and widely open eyes, it is easy to see how amazing Africa can be.