It’s been a long, hot summer, yet it is never enough – even after the last of the summer suns passed and the winds of colder times came sweeping in, a strong desire to travel to warm and sunny lands still remains. As Europe is slowly evolved into the mysteries of autumn, there are but a few destinations open for such exploits – Africa being on the tip of the tongue.
The continent where it all started, Africa is not nearly known well enough as it should be – it is high time to give due to it’s incredible natural resources. Many should think Africa is just one big desert – how wrong they are! The diversity in flora and fauns is astonishing, with a great many things to see for all types of tourists.
With the African Airlines flying from European capitals, it’s easier that ever to reach the capitals and cities in Africa, obscure but full of surprises. (check the link HERE to find out how to fly).
The artists of the West are the first to reveal the hidden depths. Africa is often the place where the tired, shallow western man tries to hide his own deficiency, his own petty vices, his own mortality and low morality comes to place himself. But, then something enchanting happens – the continent itself – its people, its landscapes, its beauty open up the hearts of even the most hardened men and pushes them into their own personal renaissance.
And love, ah love! Naturally, when all pretenses fall, the true light of the human soul shines the brightest. Forget Venice, Paris, and the standard fare for romantic trips! We will show you how Hollywood has long ago caught the potential for fire and desire in Africa, and showed us just how powerful and intense these trips can be.
To visit some of the places featured here, and try and revive the things the characters did, is probably the highlight for anyone who years to taste a life different than from our usual and mundane daily routine.
MOGAMBO:
One of the most visually stunning movies even made, in large part due to the lush colors and astounding elegance of the Kenyan landscape – it provides a perfect battleground for the love triangle between Clark Gable, Grace Kelly and Ava Gardner.
The original big game hunter, Clark Gable
Ava Gardner with a must have accessory for the scorching hot sun, an umbrella
Clark and Grace Kelly in the green Kenyan landscape.
WHITE MISCHIEF:
In the late 19th century, the Brits decided to enjoy the treasure of their conquered lands – and had a conclave of high society gents living in Kenya and Uganda. Called the infamous Happy Valley set, they reached their peek in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s (Read more about it here). Cut from the rest of the world, living a place of opulence where all form of fun and hedonism were not only prevalent but mandatory, where frugality and mundane had no place – Happy Valley was almost like fairy tale land, but as all illusions in real life, behind the glamorous facade lied a lair of decadence and superficiality. Bonny woman and manly men competed in a nonsensical race of madness for no reason but to amuse themselves. It is still possible to see the relics of these times in Kenya, especially the lavish houses from these times. This great movie shows the Happy Valley inhabitants at their best and worst.
No breakfast in the grass, but rather breakfast in the savanna
This land is mine!
Incredibly stylish and infinitely alluring
MARCOMBER AFFAIR:
Big game hunters are one of the interesting things about Africa. They dazzle us with their incredible lives and infinite jest. Yet, as many are merely vacant vessels unable to hold on anything meaningful -the wild escapades that take our breath away are a mere mask to hide their emptiness. We wish to be like them – they want to be anybody but them.
Hemingway was a man draw to this lifestyle like moth to a flame – deeply unhappy, existentially unsatisfied, always on the lookout for something he could never find – big game hunting was a remedy of short duration to him. The movie, despite it’s not too optimistic tone, showcases Africa at its finest and shows that true savagery can come from the most of civilized man, while what we consider savages can be the most gentle, attentive people we have ever met.
Gregory Peck, Joan Bennett and make the love triangle.
Chillin’
The stereotype of the big game hunter, a man with no fear, but also no real life.
OUT OF AFRICA:
Perhaps the most touching movie on this list, depicting real life affair between a Danish woman and a English big game hunter, show just how difficult it is to compromise between the artificial, highly polished European customs and the simpler, more earnest African way of living. More than that, it is a meditation on life itself, as it also shows how a highly capable, strong woman slowly comes to realize that nature is as much as a gentle friend as a harsh foe to people, illuminating to herself just how fickle all around us is, and how so few things really matter in the end. Expertly shot on location with a great cast, it is a must see for anybody interested in Africa.
Washing up, African style
Working on a coffee plantation
A beautiful love story …
ROAD TO ZANZIBAR:
Zanzibar has never looked so zany and funny as in this movie. A lighter take on Africa, one gets the impulse to get his own ukelele guitar, pack it up and head to Zanzibar with his rowdy crew of funnymen. Who would not want to trade jabs with Bing Crosby or hear the stunning Dorothy Lamour sign? And see the incredible coastline of Zanzibar?
Zanzibar coast … Looks like Paradise
The legendary trio
What is a sultan doing in Africa? Bing is as surprised as we are 🙂
A modern Jane brings you some fruit!
SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO:
Hemingway REALLY liked Africa, as this novel attest. Kilimanjaro, is more than a backdrop for the reminisces of the hero – serving as a judge, something ancient and sacred it can measure the final value all the things he has done in his life. As all Hemingway’s works, it’s a complex, at time painful and sparsely written tale, but with a strong emotional undertone, clearly deeply felt by the author himself.
The legendary view of the Snows of Kilimanjaro. Take me there 🙂
Hemingway with his wife Mary Welch looking at Kilimanjaro.
Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner – European dining African way – take a look at the background wall tiles, very African
Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward hamming it up with the natives on the lake Tanganyika
Despite all the photos, all the movies, all the books, all the analysis, Africa still retains a mythical feeling, sense of the unknown and magical rhythm that not even the long centuries gone down the wind managed to change, and we hope they never will.
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