In February, 2010, I went to Burkina Faso in West Africa, for the Festival of the Masks. Festima, The Festival of the Masks, is held bi-annually in the third-poorest country in Africa, a former French colony, one with few or no natural resources, only a 13% literacy rate, where people live on less than a US$1 a day, and life expectancy is only a whisper above 47. And yet, and yet…Burkina Faso has had the vision and courage to attempt the almost impossible – to keep alive a tradition whose origins are lost in the mists of time – the culture of the Masks. This occasion is unique in Africa, the only festival of its kind which showcases different forms and expressions on the same platform at the same time. This is the 10th anniversary of Festima, started 20 years ago by a group of students, and today Mask Societies from Benin, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Togo, Mali and Guinea, have come to join their Burkina Faso “brothers and friends”, as M. Maryse Dabou, Festima’s Commissioner General, puts it, to “safeguard, conserve and preserve” the tradition of the masks. He goes on to say that the theft of cultural treasures such as these from West Africa is second only to drug-trafficking, and berates those who deal in “our sacred things’ as “predators”. He warns us that although we can meet and watch each group of Masks as it makes its way through the dimly lit little town to the arena, whatever we do, “ne les provoquez” – Do not provoke them, or mess with them – that’s potentially dangerous.

In April I went on a classical music tour to NYC and Washington DC, with Richard Cock, one of South Africa’s most popular conductors. So the itinerary read: Joshua Bell playing Bruch at New York’s Lincoln Centre; Mozart’s Magic Flute and Puccini’s Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera; a visit to the prestigious Juillard School of Music; Broadway shows; the Cirque de Soleil under the Big Top; the Museum Mile with the world-famous Guggenheim or Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art; concerts at Carnegie Hall; the celebrated young pianist Joyce Yang playing Beethoven at the Strathmore Centre, Washington DC; Washington DC’s Space Museum and famed National Gallery, its world- famous ballet, a Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition, and what about some Duke Ellington and late night jazz? In between, there would be Times Square, Central Park, Harlem, DC’s famous war memorials, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial and a cruise on the Potomac river. Whew!

And then in May, off to the Orient Express’ three beautiful camps in the Okavango: Eagle Island Lodge, Kwai River Lodge and Savute Elephant Camp. The Savute Channel has water in it for the first time in 28 years – and the lions have taken to it as if they have been swimming all their lives. Nothing, in my opinion, can beat the Delta, for tranquillity, natural beauty and the best sunsets in the world.

I followed this trip with a visit to the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho, to Sehlabathebe National Park – a botanical treasure house of wild flowers and an area so remote that few people visit.

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IT ALL seems so effortless – starched snowy-white handembroidered monogrammed bed linen; soft pillows encased in pillow slips decorated with lovingly stitched, drawn thread work; swathes of silk, damask and heavy satin framing tall light windows; a centuries-old oak staircase that winds its way up three storeys; fragments of original brocaded wallpaper; ancient armoires, chairs, tables; handwoven carpets faded with the passing of time and the tread of thousands of feet.

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Since my last post I’ve been in Botswana, Ireland, France, all over South Africa, and now am off to Tibet in two weeks time. People say to me all the time that “You’re so lucky to be a travel writer”, and of course, I am, but it’s not all beer and skittles, nor even wine and roses. You have to be tough, keep an open mind, and learn to listen. I never travel anywhere without two essential items: my small down pillow and my notebook and pen. If you don’t capture the moment in the moment – it’s gone for ever…

The photos are just to show you how magnificent our South Africa game is. These pictures were taken in the Eastern Cape, in Sabi Sands (which adjoins Kruger Park) and Kruger itself.

At the end of last year I was invited on a Peter Deilmann cruise which wended its way along one of Europe’s great rivers from Potsdam to Prague. I visited some fascinating historical towns such as Wittenberg (where Martin Luther changed the face of Christianity forever), Dresden and Meissen.

I ended up in Prague where a highlight was sitting in the 10th-century basilica of St George in Prague Castle listening to music by Mozart, Grieg and Sibelius. On the famous Charles Bridge more musicians played for the hundreds of passers-by, even an old organ grinder. Young men touted their tours and the town was packed with tourists, but still undeniably beautiful.

In March, 2008, I was in one of the most remote places on earth – the Kalahari desert. I went walking with the San/Bushmen and learned about medicinal plants and herbs, and drank brackish water from an ostrich egg container. I saw huge black-maned Kalahari lions, dozing cheetahs and uncountable herds of springbok. The rains have been good this year and the desert – usually barren and brown – was lush and green. The Kalaghadi Transfrontier Park which is in the far northwest of South Africa, bordered by Botswana and Namibia is one of the less-known national parks in southern Africa but one of its loveliest and most dramatic. Visit it if you can. www.sanparks.org

That’s why I haven’t been updating this website as often as I would like.

Tanzania still remains my favourite – fewer people, specatacular wildlife, plains of golden waving grass with limitless horizons, and of course – Zanzibar.But I’m hoping that Tanzania won’t go the same route as Kenya,

where, because of no quotas and not enough regulation, in high season you can have up to 40 vehicles around one lion pride. That’s no way to experience wildlife.

If you can afford it, a private lodge in any of these great destination countries,where everything is included, including your game drives and guided walks, is the best way to go, and guarantees you much more privacy when you glimpse that first leopard or rhino.

I know so many lodges so well, that it’s hard to recommend the ‘best’ one in each country, but here’s a list of some of my my favourites.

South Africa: Mala Mala Game Lodge (www.malamala.com); Londolozi (www.londolozi.com) Djuma (www.djuma.com) Selati Lodge (www.sabisabi.com) Hilltop Camp and Ntshondwe Camp (www.kznwildlife.com) Phinda (www.phinda.com) Tswalu (www.tswalu.com).

If you’d like my recommendations in the other countries I cover, post me a note. And of course, you still can’t beat the affordable, amazing Kruger Park, Hluhluwe-Umfolozi in Natal, and the spectacular Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in the Northern Cape (www.SANparks.com)

Thirty-five years ago I lived in Northern Ireland in a little town by the sea called Bangor. It was in County Down where, as the old Irish song says, ‘the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea’. Thirty-five years later, in June 2007, I’m back…

Today’s Ireland is the same, only different. In Bangor, there’s a glitzy new marina, In Belfast 1.2 billion pounds sterling is being spent on the old dockland area alone, where the Titanic was built and launched. The dazzling greens of the meadows are still there, the non-stop talking, the music and the fun are all still there, but the new Ireland is also big business. After the Peace Process was finalised earlier this year, Northern Ireland has become a magnet for foreign investment. If you’ve a bit of money to spend, buy a Belfast docklands apartment – now. Dublin is still full of Eastern Europeans – there are Slavs, Croatians, Bulgarians, Romanians everywhere, as are their food shops and delicatessens. On one night alone in one of Dublin’s most famous pubs and eateries, only one waitress was from Ireland. The other dozen from all over Europe. Ireland is pricey, but great value, particularly the food, fom the “Ulster Fries’ in the north, to the ‘boxty’ in the south.

And then there are the haunted castles, the prehistoric burial places, the old battlefields like the Boyne River and the new – the Shanklin Road and the Falls Road, Derry’s Bogside. Once modern battlegrounds of the ‘Troubles’, they’re now tourist destinations.

But whatever your background, Ireland is on most people’s travel wishlist – and you won’t be disappointed. So it rains a lot, but then there are rainbows…