Best New Trips in the World: Shadowing Rick Ridgeway's Journey Through Tanzania and Kenya, From Kilimanjaro to the Indian Ocean

For our annual Adventure Travel issue, we scoured the globe to find the 25 Best New Trips in the World for 2010, complete with a Best Trips photo gallery. Today, we present Tanzania and Kenya. The world's far corners are now well within reach.

TANZANIA + KENYA: Beyond Kili

In the ’70s and ’80s, Rick Ridgeway was on a tear: He became one of the first Americans to summit K2, joined the second U.S. expedition to conquer Everest, and dragged a 250-pound handcart across a Tibetan plateau. But perhaps his most outlandish idea was to climb Mount Kilimanjaro . . . and keep walking all the way to the Indian Ocean. In 1997 he did just that, publishing an account of his journey, The Shadow of Kilimanjaro. Since Ridgeway’s feat—which included the first west-east crossing of 11,000-square-mile Tsavo West and East National Parks—Tropical Ice Limited has been retracing portions of his 300-mile route. Now owner Iain Allan, who served as Ridgeway’s original guide, will organize the first full trek from mountain to sea.

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Best New Trips in the World: Sail (and Kayak and Snorkel) in Madagascar's Waters

For our annual Adventure Travel issue, we scoured the globe to find the 25 Best New Trips in the World for 2010, complete with a Best Trips photo gallery. Today, we present Madagascar. The world's far corners are now well within reach.

MADAGASCAR: Sail the Indian Ocean

Known for its 70-plus species of lemurs, Madagascar has the market cornered in trips focused on exotic leaping animals. But few travelers are aware of the country’s marine life. Enter Kumuka Worldwide, whose first-of-its-kind sailing trip plunges into the coral-filled Indian Ocean while hitting a cluster of little-visited islets just off the main island. Starting on Nosy Be, the largest of Madagascar’s outer islands, you’ll travel by dhow—the traditional sailboat used by African and Arabian traders for millennia—from one deserted beach to the next, camping on white sand by night, and kayaking, snorkeling, and fishing by day.

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Best New Trips in the World: Track Lions in Kenya's Campi ya Kanzi

For our annual Adventure Travel issue, we scoured the globe to find the 25 Best New Trips in the World for 2010, complete with a Best Trips photo gallery. Today, we present Kenya. The world's far corners are now well within reach.

KENYA: Save the King!

Lion kills cow, Maasai warrior kills lion. It’s a centuries-old conflict in the Kenyan bush. But in the past ten years lion populations across Africa have plummeted from 100,000 to 23,000, transforming the issue into a full-fledged crisis. Alarmed research crews have come to Kenya to study the cats and teach the Maasai ways to live with them harmoniously. But one conservation group is way ahead of the curve. Kuku Group Ranch, a 280,000-acre spread in the Chyulu Hills of southern Kenya, is entirely owned and operated by the Maasai themselves. And so far they’ve had dramatic success with their cat-protection efforts: In a recent 30-month period, the ranch’s lion population jumped from 15 to 52. Now, in conjunction with Geographic Expeditions, Kuku will bring in its first guest-researchers.

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New Trip: Private Safari Tracking Gorillas and Rhinos in Rwanda and Kenya

As of today, Baobab Expeditions (see our rating of the company) is offering an 11-day private gorilla and rhino safari in Rwanda and Kenya, led by the most impressive of experts: Dr. Clare Richardson, president of the venerable Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. An authority on gorilla research, she'll take you mountain gorilla tracking and score you rare access to Karisoke Research Center, the only gorilla research center in the world.

Throw Down Your Heart: Bela Fleck Finds the Banjo's African Roots

American banjo virtuoso Bèla Fleck is known for bringing his instrument across genres. Today you can watch him bring it across the Atlantic and back to its beginnings in his new DVD.

Fleck and Sascha Paladino's documentary, Throw Down Your Heart, chronicles the making of Fleck's latest CD as he travels Africa in an attempt to bring the banjo back to its African roots. The film focuses on music, but there's a taste of African landscape and culture too. Fleck's adventure takes him to Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia, and Mali, with stops ranging from tiny rural villages to large cities.

Whether searching for the roots of your favorite instrument or a glimpse of an endangered gorilla, you can explore the continent, too. Check out our favorite African adventures here.—Greer Schott

A Case For Zimbabwe: Five Reasons to Go in 2010

Mark Nolting of the Africa Adventure Company was recently in our offices singing the praises of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe?!? Place of rampant inflation and starvation? Run by iron-fisted crazyperson Robert Mugabe? We had questions, and Nolting had answers. And, biased though he may be—his wife is from the place, and Nolting’s company has some new and amazing trips there (such as 14 Day Zimbabwe World Heritage Explorer, which is new for next year)—his responses were pretty compelling. Maybe 2010 is the year to get to Zimbabwe, while the getting is good. Here are Nolting’s reasons for going, distilled:

Best New Trips in the World: Canoeing With Botswana's Big Game

For our annual Adventure Travel issue, we scoured the globe to find the 25 Best New Trips in the World for 2010, complete with a Best Trips photo gallery. The world's far corners are now well within reach.

A few years ago, the 320,000 acres of land connecting the Okavango Delta with Botswana’s Linyanti marshes were a trophy hunter’s paradise. Then along came National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence Dereck and Beverly Joubert, who bought and transformed the region into the Selinda Reserve, a private sanctuary for lions, elephants, cape buffalo, leopards, and the rare aardwolf. The reserve’s centerpiece is the Selinda Spillway, a river that pours across the savanna, linking the delta with the marshes and providing thousands of animals with a massive watering hole. This year, the Spillway is at its highest level in three decades, which means more buffalo and elephants will come for a drink—and with them, more predators. To showcase the gathering, Explore Inc will lead canoe-camping trips in 2010.

Photograph Courtesy of Explore Inc

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Confessions of a Travel Addict: Ewan McGregor

If Betty Ford treated wanderlust, actor Ewan McGregor would be the first admitted. The 38-year-old gets his travel fix by working on multiple movies (coming up: Amelia—opens this Friday, Oct 23—and The Men Who Stare at Goats), then taking off for extended motorcycle tours across Africa and around the globe. For our annual travel issue, we asked the actor to share his hard-won wisdom. All of it, by the way, applicable to non-movie stars. —Ryan Bradley; photograph by Ron Gaunt/Getty Images

Go Far Out
I’d never considered traveling to out-of-the-way spots before I visited Churchill, Canada, to make a documentary about polar bears. Then I was hooked.

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New for 2010: Tracking Whale Sharks in a Kenyan Beach Paradise

The locals living along Kenya's Diani Beach have their own name for the whale sharks that peacefully troll their waters. They call these mysterious creatures papa shillingi, meaning “shark covered in shillings.” According to them, God was so amazed by their beauty that he had angels throw gold and silver coins down on the gentle giants’ backs. Nowadays whale sharks can be spotted when they surface, the sun glittering off their massive backs.

Lucky for you the largest fish in the sea (they can grow up to 60 feet and 20 tons!) is not impossible to see. With the help of Kenya-based Micato Safaris (read their ADVENTURE ratings profile here), travelers can join in on the Whale Shark Tagging Expedition in East Africa and feel like a scientist for a few days.

Year of the Gorilla: Using Ecotourism to Beat the Bushmeat Trade

With bushmeat trade on the rise and gorillas the decline, there's never been a better time to make the trek to Africa to check out these wild yet humanlike beasts for yourself. Let's face it, in a few more years, you may not have the chance.

An undercover investigation conducted by Endangered Species International recently revealed that four percent of the gorilla population in Kouilou, a region of the Republic of Congo, is being poached each month, as reported by the BBC. If nothing changes, within a year, 50 percent of the some 200 gorillas in the area may be wiped out—shipped down the Kouilou River to Pointe Noire and sold at $6 per handful of meat.