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To any sensible traveller, upcountry Algeria has been effectively off-limits for 20 years. Tom Coote is among the first intrepid travellers to venture back - and he walks into a wholly unexpected welcome.

In Morocco's most visited city, Steve Rudd is impressed by the sophisticated linguistic skills and subtle sales techniques applied to even the humblest backpacker. And one of his friends finds that a humble block of chalk, in the Djema el Fna, becomes surprisingly valuable.

Among the many adventures available at Victoria Falls and Livingstone, the two towns straddling the Zimbabwe/Zambia border, the most thrilling and frightening is the day-long rafting trip down the Zambezi. Bonnie Lynn casts caution to the winds.

A chance tea-tent encounter gives Gregory Kruse a vivid insight into the hidden world of daily life in the harsh, unforgiving environment of the High Atlas mountains.

In Senegal, Tamara Braunstien finds socialising with the locals a very different experience to tapping into the expat community. She finds the two Tamaras have to be kept well apart.

Same guide, same walk, same safari 32 years on. Jane Agg's first Luangwa safari was with a young Robin Pope. A generation later she returns to revisit Zambia to find the young guide she knew has become a walking safari legend.

Most visitors to Morocco never get beyond cous-cous and tagines. Joanna Drange says that Marrakesh provides plenty of opportunity to sample more exotic dishes - and to learn how to cook them. 

India's great festival of lights goes off with something of a bang in Tanzania. Mark Gillies reports from East Africa on a typically chaotic, exuberant event.

Sierra Leone's battlescarred backwaters aren't remotely geared for tourism. Not everyone's deterred: Tommy Trenchard takes his girlfriend.

Getting to Lake Victoria's Ssese Islands is itself something of an achievement, but once there you can't guarantee finding a peaceful island idyll. Fred Saugman spends a night around the campfire, fraught with drugs and flying drinks, and tries to placate a murderous, raving psychopath.