The highest mountain in Africa and the tallest freestanding peak in the world, Kilimanjaro is an awe-inspiring sight. It takes around five days to complete the climb to the summit, and though it is by no means easy, it is possible for those with no previous mountaineering experience to make the journey providing they are fit, healthy and well-prepared. For a less strenuous alternative, why not take in the view from the comfort of a helicopter.

One of the oldest places on earth, the Serengeti ecosystem’s essential patterns of life, death, adaption and migration have barely changed in the past million years. Most famous for the great migration where over a million wildebeest flow from the northern hills to the southern plains in search of rain every October and November, the Serengeti is also a visually stunning area of endless plains, rocky outcrops, rolling hills, rivarian forests, savannahs and is also one of the biggest uninterrupted grassland in Africa, if not the world.

The largest unbroken and unflooded volcanic caldera in the world, Ngorongoro is considered by many to be Africa’s ‘Garden of Eden’, with an incredibly dense population of wildlife living within a breathtaking natural enclosure. The critically endangered Black Rhino can often be found here, along with reputedly the highest density of mammal predators in Africa.

Lake Tanganyika is the world’s longest (670km) and second-deepest (over 1400m) fresh-water lake. At somewhere between nine and 12 million years old, it is also one of the oldest lakes on the planet and, thanks to its age and ecological isolation, is home to an exceptional variety of fish. Most notable are its colourful cichlids, many of which are found nowhere else, and which make for some wonderful snorkelling in the lake’s clear waters.