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Iceland's rugged terrain has forged a resilient and independent culture, fashioned over the years by the descendants of the farmers and warriors who fled the tyranny of medieval Scandinavia. Their flight to a new and empty country resulted in the building of sturdy settlements and farms, and the beginning of a rich literary tradition dominated by the sagas - fact-based accounts of struggles, battles, heroics, religion and occupations - which are considered the finest of all Western medieval works. The country has also thrown up some significant contributors to modern literature, with Halldór Laxness, Iceland's best known writer, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955. Traditional music - usually cowboy songs and tear-jerking lullabies - remains popular, while giddy international success has greeted the Sugarcubes' former lead singer, Björk. Icelandic cuisine is only for the truly adventurous, who will relish such can-you-believe it dishes as hrútspungur (ram's testicles pickled in whey and pressed into a cake) and hákarl (putrefied shark meat that has been buried for up to six months to ensure sufficient decomposition). You can also, if you're keen, eat puffin and seal.

Traditional Icelandic food is not as bad as it sounds: in fact several dishes are actually edible. The one glaring exception is hákarl, putrefied shark meat that has been buried for up to six months to ensure sufficient decomposition. Slightly more palatable is hrútspungur, ram's testicles pickled in whey and pressed into a cake, and svie, singed sheep head (complete with eyes) sawn in two, boiled and eaten either fresh or pickled. You could also try slátur, a mish-mash of sheep leftovers tied up in the stomach and cooked. Less bizarre foods include: harðfiskur (haddock); bleikja (char); lundi (puffin); and, if you haven't any objections to eating them, whale blubber, whale steaks and seal meat. A unique Icelandic treat is skyr, a yoghurt-like concoction made of pasteurised skim milk and bacteria culture. Coffee is a national institution, while beer, wine and spirits are available, though expensive. The traditional Icelandic brew is brennivín, a sort of schnapps made from potatoes and flavoured with caraway.

Iceland, the second largest island in Europe, boils and splutters in the Atlantic Ocean northwest of Scotland, west of Norway and southeast of Greenland. The main island, which stretches 500km (310mi) east to west and 300km (186mi) north to south, is characterized by desert plateaus, sandy deltas, volcanoes, lava fields, and glacial icecaps. Over half the country is above 1300 feet, with the highest point; Hvannadalshnúkur, rising 6952 feet. Only 21% of the land, all near the coast, is considered arable and habitable. The bulk of Iceland's population and agriculture is concentrated in the southwest between Reykjavík and Vík.

Iceland is a relatively young land mass, subject to the periodic rumbling of volcanic activity. Earthquakes are as exciting as breakfast here, with people only bothering to tip their fur hats to proper, land-sculpting explosions.

It's hardly surprising with all this rumbling, shaking and spouting that the landscape is remarkable devoid of trees (though, in fairness, massive reforestation means the country now enjoys a few recreational forests and patches of scrubby birch). What the country does have, however, is large expanses of tundra, grassland, bogs and barren desert.

The only indigenous land mammal is the Arctic fox, although polar bears, which occasionally drift across from Greenland on ice floes, would be indigenous if they weren't considered so undesirable. Introduced animals include the reindeer, mink and field mice. The country has a wealth of birdlife, especially sea birds, and its seas are rich in marine mammals and fish. Freshwater fish are limited to eels, salmon, trout and Arctic char.

Iceland's southern and western coasts experience relatively mild winter temperatures thanks to the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, though it still tends to rain an awful lot. In January, for instance, Reykjavík enjoys an average of only three sunny days (in July, one fine day is the norm). July and August are the warmest months and, in general, the chances of fine weather improve as you move north and east. It's sunniest around Akureyri and Lake Mývatn in the central north and warmest around Egilsstaðoir in the east, yet neither place seems to be free of an uncomfortably chilly wind. While they're more prone to clear weather than the coastal areas, the interior deserts can experience other problems such as blizzards and high winds that whip up dust and sand into swirling, gritty maelstroms.

BRUNEI.

History

Early Bruneian history is cloaked in mystery, although it is believed trade links existed with China in the sixth century AD. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Brunei was a considerable regional power, controlling not only most of Borneo but parts of the Philippines as well, mainly due to its success as a port. Brunei's power waned following the arrival of the European powers to the region. The Spanish and the Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive, but it was the British, who arrived in the region in the 17th and 18th centuries, who began to erode Brunei's influence. Sarawak was ceded to the British in the 19th century and a series of 'treaties' were forced on the Sultan as James Brooke, the first White Rajah of Sarawak, consolidated his power base. In 1888, the sultanate itself became a British protectorate. Brunei's territory was gradually whittled away piecemeal until, with one last flourish of absurdity, Limbang was ceded to Sarawak in 1890, thus dividing the country in half.

A British 'adviser' was assigned to the court in 1906, yet another compromise of the sultanate's independence. In 1929, just as Brunei was about to be swallowed up entirely, oil was discovered. British plans to make Brunei a part of the Malaysian Federation were quashed by a revolt in 1962. The Sultan suspended the constitution and opted for independence. The two countries signed a treaty in 1971 confirming that Britain would retain control of Brunei's external affairs.

The country has been under emergency laws ever since the 1962 revolt and mooted elections have never eventuated. In 1984, Brunei became completely independent, and underlined its new independence from Britain by joining ASEAN. Since then, it has moved towards Islamic fundamentalism. In 1991, the sale of alcohol was banned and stricter dress codes have been introduced. At the least sign of internal dissent, the Sultan on each occasion moved quietly but decisively to silence his critics, and thus far his power has gone more or less unchallenged.

In recent times, there have been pockets of disaffection challenging the status quo. Arguments for change have been aided by royal scandals involving the sultan and by the profligate spending of the sultan's younger brother, Prince Jefri Bolkiah. In 2000, the polo-playing playboy was charged over misappropriation of 16000000000 of state funds and is now suffering the indignity of a royal grounding and a reduction in his pocket money.

Recent efforts to diversify the economy haven't yet come to much, but the Sultan can boast that he earns more from foreign investments than from oil. In September 2004, 21 years after it was disbanded, the sultan reopened parliament. Its 21 members were all hand-picked.

Culture

Bruneians are predominantly Malay, and customs, beliefs and pastimes are very similar to those of Peninsular Malaysia. Adat, or customary law, governs many of the country's ceremonies; there is even a government department responsible for preserving ceremony and advising on protocol, dress and heraldry.

Brunei is a fairly strict Muslim country and a Ministry of Religious Affairs fosters and promotes Islam. The constitution does, however, allow for other religions to be practiced. The official language is Malay, but English is widely spoken. Jawi, Malay written in Arabic script, is taught in schools, and most signs in the country are written both in Jawi and Roman script.

During the height of the Brunei sultanates, brass and silver artisans produced finely designed brass gongs, cannons and household vessels. They were often embossed with designs of serpents and animals or verses from the Koran. Many crafts failed to survive the decline of the sultanate, but silverwork and weaving are two traditional crafts that have been preserved.

Environment

Brunei consists of two separate areas, approximately 30km (19mi) apart. Both areas are bordered by the South China Sea to the north, and by the Malaysian province of Sarawak on all other sides. Western Brunei is composed of hilly lowlands; the eastern part consists of a coastal plain rising to a height of 1841m (6038ft) at Bukit Pagon. Most of Brunei is jungle. Only 15 per cent of the country is cultivated, resulting in Brunei having to import 80 per cent of its food requirements.

VANUATA.

History

Some of the islands have been populated continuously for thousands of years and others are still uninhabited today. The earliest known settlement was on Malo Island, where pottery at least 4000 years old has been unearthed. Prehistoric cultures in Vanuatu were plagued by inter-tribal warfare. The tribes' rich spiritual life attributed all natural and human-induced bad luck or calamities to sorcery, and they staged lavish festivals to appease the gods. The elaborate burial chamber of a nobleman buried in AD1265 was excavated on Eretoka Island, off the coast of Efate, and bears evidence of human sacrifice.

Explorer Pedro Fernandez de Quiros laid eyes on the islands in 1606, naming the first one he sighted Nuestra Señora de Austrialia del Espiritu Santo, known today simply as Santo. His lofty ideal was to found New Jerusalem in the Pacific on the banks of a river he called the Jordan. But the locals didn't really want to be saved and they continually hindered the Spanish landings. De Quiros wandered off into the Pacific not long after he arrived; presumably believing his failure had condemned the unsuspecting ni-Vanuatu to burn for eternity. Among the Spanish, Portuguese and French explorers who followed was Louis Antoine de Bougainville, who wrote that he had been 'transported to the Garden of Eden'. The Englishman Captain James Cook was perhaps less starry-eyed in 1774 when he wrote that the traditional manner of preparing kava 'is as simple as it is disgusting'.

Vanuatu's more recent history brims with panoply of pulpit-pounding priests, scurrilous slavers and fumbling colonial bureaucrats. Hot on the heels of the explorers came the adventurers to harvest whales and sandalwood and the missionaries to harvest souls. The Europeans brought epidemics of influenza and measles, venereal disease and the slave trade, and the populations of some islands, particularly in the north, have never recovered. The English and French, often at war with each other last century, settled uneasily next to each other in the New Hebrides, as the archipelago was known until independence, and formed probably the strangest colonial administration the world has seen. Two declared enemies were sitting in each other's pockets and forced to cooperate in a far-flung outpost of the European empire. They finally settled on a joint mandate early this century with the Anglo-French Protocol (the 'Condominium', sometimes referred to as the 'Pandemonium'), establishing equal influence for both powers.

By far the greatest misery inflicted on the islanders was 'blackbirding', the South Seas' own version of slavery that continued into the early years of the 20th century. Thousands of ni-Vanuatu were persuaded and downright kidnapped to work on the sugar and cotton plantations of Queensland and Fiji, and many never returned. WWII brought a massive influx of US military personnel to Efate and Santo, which became crucial bases in the Pacific War. The country was awash with American know-how and dollars, and many ni-Vanuatu earned real wages for the first time in their lives. More importantly, the islanders observed black Americans enjoying the material benefits and luxuries afforded the whites, and this played no small part in their agitation for independence.

In the late 1960s the Nagriamel movement began to attract thousands of followers, mostly in the northern islands. Its leader was Chief President Moses (Jimmy Tupou Patuntun Stevens), and it was originally confined to obtaining rights to the 'dark bush', the land Europeans had never claimed or settled. Nagriamel became increasingly politicized, however, and petitioned the United Nations in 1971 for an 'act of free choice' over the archipelago's independence. Britain and France agreed that under the terms of the Condominium neither would withdraw without the other, which became a recipe for inaction. They were finally dragged to constitutional reform by 1974-75, and as the islanders agitated for further rights they conceded to elections. Condominium bureaucrats could see the writing in the sand by then - even they were aware of the stink of colonialism in the modern world.

Independence was set for mid-1980, but amid widespread secessions the Condominium fractured over its inability to agree on much more than the height to fly their standards. Anglo-French troops could not halt the violence and looting that broke out even in the larger towns, and the local government finally called in troops from PNG to restore order and declared independence on 30 July 1980. The 1990s have seen bouts of instability in government. A scheme by the paramilitary Vanuatu Mobile Force to overthrow the government and establish martial law over a pay dispute was thwarted in 1996. Allegations of massive bank fraud by members of the Carlot Korman government were aired the same year, and continuing political uncertainty has seen the economy slow down, foreign investment fall and the economy shrink despite the flood of money that has washed in owing to the country's tax-haven status. In February 1997 the government signed an agreement with the Asian Development Bank to significantly restructure the economy with private investment funds.

In November 1997 Vanuatu's president, Jean-Marie Leye, dissolved parliament and called fresh elections. He made the decision so Vanuatu could find a solution to its problems and because the current government had not kept its promises. Despite elections and a new government in March 1998 there was another change late 1999. Around the same time Vanuatu was hit by an earthquake and tidal wave which caused extensive damage on Pentecost Island.

Also of major significance was the police mutiny trial in 2002, when police officers arrested the police commissioner, the attorney-general and other top government officials. They were found guilty and given suspended sentences.

Political intrigues continued into 2004. After the selection by committee of Alfred Masing Nalo as president a court declared him invalid. At the same time, the prime minister declared fresh elections to stave off a no-confidence vote. In elections in July and August, Kalkot Mataskelekele was elected president.

Culture

The ni-Vanuatu pride themselves on their musical instruments, of which the tamtam - also called the slit-drum or slit-gong - is a fine example. Traditionally used in ceremonies, it is an intricately carved log with a slice hollowed out from the centre from which the sound reverberates. Panpipes are also common in music, as are conch shells, which double as bush telephones. On Santo they play a three-holed flute, while on Ambrym a long, carved musical pipe is played. Ambrym is also home to the most elaborate sand drawings in Vanuatu, which villagers employ to illustrate legends, songs, and ceremonies or to leave messages. Stone, wood and even treefern carving has developed into an intricate art form owing to the abundance of available materials, and in the north the sculptors sometimes use coral to carve small statues. Magic stones carved from pumice are part of Vanuatu's hidden life and are generally not on display. Tattooing was once a high art form but is becoming rarer, although body and rock painting are still widely practiced.

Vanuatu's fractured terrain has produced a kaleidoscope of cultures and more than 100 indigenous languages. Isolated from each other by sea or impassable mountains, disparate groups of islanders had hundreds or thousands of years to jealously guard their own cultures and languages or to throw them in the mix with their neighbors. The indigenous population is an assemblage of Melanesian - the black people of the Western Pacific with links to Papuans and Australian Aborigines - Polynesian, the lighter skinned people of the eastern Pacific, and varying degrees in between. While Bislama is a linguistically unifying factor, English, and more commonly, French are also spoken.

In a country that owns up to being predominantly Christian, traditional beliefs hold sway over much of the populace. The missionaries had success in imposing an alien faith over people who already had strong beliefs, but that success may have been due in part to some remarkable similarities between Christianity and local beliefs. Many islanders believed in a Creator Tahara who didn't sound too different from Jehovah, a Garden of Eden where the original man and woman ate fruit from the forbidden rose apple tree and fell from grace, and the demon Saratau, who neatly paralleled Satan. The ni-Vanuatu world is still inhabited by spirits and demons, despite the missionaries' best efforts to expel them. Anything tabu is sacred or holy, and the word is in common use - on signs it can mean simply 'no entry'. Traditional dances and ceremonies still play a major role in villagers' lives, with participants acting out the roles of mythical figures or their ancestors. The Nimangki system, or 'grade taking', is important to many islanders in the north. Participants publicly give away wealth through a series of ceremonies, including a full-blooded slaughtering of pigs. Pentecost Island's spectacular naghol or land diving is a significant fertility rite.

Around 80% of the population dwells in rural villages and their main pursuit is agriculture. The food is basic but a few standard dishes can be infinitely varied. Yams, manioc and taro root are the most important crops in village life. Laplap, a stodgy paste of ground manioc, taro or yam with wild spinach and grated coconut is Vanuatu's national dish. Pork, beef, fish, poultry, seafood or bush meat like flying fox can be added, and the mixture is wrapped in banana leaves and baked in an underground oven. Nalot, a delectable mixture of taro, banana or breadfruit mixed with grated coconut and water caters to vegetarians. When the French arrived, of course, they brought more familiar foods from home, and exotica like frogs' legs, escargots and croissants now figure on many menus. Kava (Piper methysticum), the 'anti-anxiety herb', is the national drink and virtually a national obsession. Vanuatu's kava is reputedly the strongest and best in the Pacific, and fantastic claims have been made for its stress-relieving properties, (should you be stressed by Vanuatu's beaches, reefs, forests, mountains and other pleasures). It was traditionally picked and prepared by young boys, but the modern industry encompasses plantations, 'instant' powdered kava, and nakamals, or kava bars, where stress evaporates, Captain Cook's condemnation drifts off over the horizon and 'island time' comes into its own.

Environment

The 80 or so habitable islands of Vanuatu straddle the Pacific Ring of Fire, giving residents a roller coaster ride of volcanic activity and tremors as well as occasional tsunamis. On some islands the land erupts out of the seabed to rise nearly 2000m (6560ft) above sea level, on others coral atolls and rocky islets lie only a few metres above it. Not quite the size of Northern Ireland, the dry land is scattered over an area slightly larger than Germany, France and Switzerland combined. Port Vila is 1900km (1180mi) north-east of Brisbane, Australia, and Vanuatu's nearer neighbors are all island states: Fiji to the east, the Solomon Islands to the north and a splash of haute coûture pacifique marks New Caledonia to the southwest.

Unlike the nearby Solomon’s, vast tracts of Vanuatu's forests have been preserved from commercial logging, mainly because the terrain is too rough and the grades too steep to make it economically viable. The forest is typical of the western Pacific, and includes giant banyan trees and kauri pines as well as isolated stands of sandalwood that survived the 19th century obsession for it. Some of the more mountainous islands are cloaked in almost impenetrable forest from the shoreline to the highest peaks, and over 150 plant species of the more than 1000 so far identified are endemic. Coconut trees and plantations are common throughout the archipelago.

The South-East Trade Winds that discouraged early attempts at European colonization prevail over the islands and are responsible for much of their weather. The wet season falls from November to April and dumps more than 4m (more than 13ft) of rain annually in some places. Many tour groups from Australia go for their Christmas holidays during the wet season, but the cool, evening sea breezes generally save them from taking a long walk off a short pier. During the dry season, Vanuatu enjoys sunny days and mild, spring-like weather. The cyclone season is December to March, with possibilities for wild weather a few months on either side of that. The winds are generally more unruly during the wet season than the dry, and cyclones can hit any island.

SOUTH AFRICA.

History

Although the nomadic San (also known as Bushmen) have possibly lived in Southern Africa since around 100,000 BC, they didn't reach the Cape of Good Hope until about 2000 years ago. Because of the close relationship between the San and the Khoikhoi peoples, who intermarried and coexisted, both are often referred to as Khoisan. By the 15th century most arable land had been settled by encroaching Bantu pastoral tribes.

Southern Africa became a popular stop for European crews after Vasco de Gama opened the Cape of Good Hope spice route in 1498, and, by the mid-17th century, scurvy and shipwreck had induced Dutch traders to opt for a permanent settlement in Table Bay on the site of present-day Cape Town. The mostly Dutch burghers pushed slowly north, decimating the Khoisan with violence and disease as they went. Towards the end of the 18th century, with Dutch power fading, Britain predictably jumped in for another piece of Africa. It was hoped that British settlers would inhabit a buffer zone between skirmishing pastoral Boers and the Xhosa, but most of the British immigrant families retreated to town, entrenching the rural-urban divide that is evident in white South Africa even today. Although slavery was abolished in 1833, the division of labor on the basis of color served all whites too well for any real attempt at change.

Upheaval in black Southern Africa wasn't only generated by the white invaders. The difaqane ('forced migration' in Sotho) or mfeqane ('the crushing' in Zulu) was a time of immense upheaval and suffering, a terror campaign masterminded by the Zulu chief, Shaka. This wave of disruption through Southern Africa left some tribes wiped out, others enslaved and the lucky ones running. Into this chaos disgruntled Boers stomped on their Great Trek away from British rule in search of freedom. Most of the pastures the Boers trekked through were deserted or inhabited by traumatized refugees. The Zulus were no pushovers, however. They put up strong and bloody resistance to the Boers before eventually ceding to superior firepower. Boer republics popped up through the interior, and were annexed one by one by Britain in a chaotic kerfuffle of treaties, diplomacy and violence through the middle part of the 19th century. Just when it looked like the Union Jack was going to fly from Cairo to the Cape, diamonds were discovered in Kimberley, and the Dutch resistance became suddenly stronger.

The first Anglo-Boer War ended in a crushing Boer victory and the establishment of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek. The British backed off until a huge reef of gold was discovered around Johannesburg and then marched in again for the second Anglo-Boer War, dribbling with empiric greed. By 1902 the Boers had exhausted their conventional resources and resorted to commando-style raids, denying the British control of the countryside. The British quashed resistance with disproportionate reprisals: if a railway line was blown up, the nearest farmhouse was destroyed; if a shot was fired from a farm, the house was burnt down, the crops destroyed and the animals killed. The women and children from the farms were collected and taken to concentration camps - a British invention - where 26,000 died of disease and neglect. The Boers were compelled to sign an ignominious and bitter peace.

Soon after the Union of South Africa was established in 1910, a barrage of racist legislation was passed restricting black rights and laying the foundations for apartheid. After a last flutter with military rebellion during WWI, the Afrikaners got on with the business of controlling South Africa politically. In 1948 elections the Afrikaner-dominated and ultra-right National Party took the reins and didn't let the white charger slow down until 1994. Under apartheid, every individual was classified by race, and race determined where you could live, work, pray and learn. Irrespective of where they had been born, blacks were divided into one of 10 tribal groups, forcibly dispossessed and dumped in rural backwaters, the so-called Homelands. The plan was to restrict blacks to Homelands that were, according to the propaganda, to become self-sufficient, self-governing states. In reality, these lands had virtually no infrastructure and no industry, and were therefore incapable of producing sufficient food for the black population. There was intense, widespread suffering and many families returned to squalid squatter camps in the cities from which they had been evicted. Chief Mangosouthu Buthelezi was pivotal in the Inkatha movement, a failed attempt to unite Homeland leaders. Black resistance developed in the form of strikes, acts of public disobedience and protest marches, and was supported by international opinion from the early 1960s, after 69 protesters were killed in Sharpeville and African National Congress (ANC) leaders, including Nelson Mandela, were jailed.

After withdrawing from the British Commonwealth in 1961, South Africa became increasingly isolated. Paranoia developed through the 1960s and 70s, as the last European powers withdrew from Africa and black, often socialist, states formed around South Africa's northern borders. South Africa's military responses ranged from limited strikes (Mozambique, Lesotho) to full-scale assault (Angola, Namibia). When Cuba intervened in Angola in 1988, South Africa suffered a major defeat and war looked much less attractive. As the spirit of Gorbachev-style detente permeated Southern Africa, Cuba pulled out of Angola, Namibia became independent and a stable peace was finally brokered in 1990.

The domestic situation was far from resolved. Violent responses to black protests increased commitment to a revolutionary struggle, and the United Nations finally imposed economic and political sanctions. But in the mid-1980s, black-on-black violence in the townships exploded. Although bitter lines were drawn between the left-wing, Xhosa-based ANC and the right-wing, Zulu-dominated Inkatha movement, such distinctions are simplistic in the context of the massive economic and social deprivation of black South Africa. There were clashes between political rivals, tribal enemies, opportunistic gangsters, and between those who lived in the huge migrant-workers' hostels and their township neighbors. President PW Botha detained, tortured and censored his way to 1989, when economic sanctions began to bite, the rand collapsed and reformist FW De Klerk came to power. Virtually all apartheid regulations were repealed, political prisoners were released and negotiations began on forming a multiracial government. Free elections in 1994 resulted in a decisive victory for the ANC and Nelson Mandela became president. De Klerk's National Party won just over 20% of the vote, and the Inkatha Freedom Party won 10.5%. South Africa rejoined the British Commonwealth a few months later.

Despite the scars of the past and the enormous problems ahead, South Africa today is immeasurably more optimistic and relaxed than it was a few years ago. The international community has embraced the new South Africa and the ANC's apparently sincere desire to create a truly nonracial nation. It will be some time before the black majority gain much economic benefit from their freedom, as economic inequality remains an overwhelming problem. However, the political structure seems strong enough to hold the diverse region together. There are huge expectations for the new South Africa.

In 1999, after five years of learning about democracy, the country voted in a more normal election. Issues such as economics and competence were raised and debated. There was some speculation that the ANC vote might drop with the retirement of Nelson Mandela. The ANC's vote didn't drop - it increased, putting the party within one seat of the two-thirds majority that would allow it to alter the constitution. Thabo Mbeki, who took over the ANC leadership from Nelson Mandela, became president in the 1999 elections.

Mbeki has proven to be a generally competent president, but his standing both at home and abroad has not been helped by his refusal to condemn outright the inflammatory politics of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and his ill-informed comments on AIDS. This health crisis, affecting 4.2 million South Africans, seriously threatens to eclipse all of South Africa's other domestic problems.

Culture

The mingling and melding in South Africa's urban areas, along with the suppression of traditional cultures during the apartheid years, means that the old ways of life are fading, but traditional black cultures are still strong in much of the countryside. Across the different groups, marriage customs and taboos differ, but most traditional cultures are based on beliefs in a masculine deity, ancestral spirits and supernatural forces. In general, polygamy is permitted and a lobolo (dowry) is usually paid. Cattle play an important part in many cultures, as symbols of wealth and as sacrificial animals.

The new South Africa is being created on the streets of the townships and cities. Hopeful signs include gallery retrospectives of black artists, both contemporary and traditional, and musicians from around Africa performing in major festivals.

The art of South Africa's indigenous populations can be one of the only ways to connect with lost cultures. Rock and cave paintings by the San, some of which date back 26,000 years, are a case in point. In other cases, such as the elaborate 'coded' beadwork of the Zulus, traditional art has been adapted to survive in different circumstances.

Although South Africa is home to a great diversity of cultures, most were suppressed during the apartheid years when day-to-day practice of traditional and contemporary cultures was ignored, trivialized or destroyed. In a society where you could be jailed for owning a politically incorrect painting, serious art was forced underground and blandness ruled in the galleries and theatres. The most striking example of this was the bulldozing of both District Six, a vibrant multicultural area in Cape Town, and Johannesburg's Sophiatown, where internationally famous musicians learned their craft in an area once described as 'a skeleton with a permanent grin'. Groups such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo have managed to bring South Africans sounds to a wide Western audience, both during and after apartheid.

The British can take most of the blame for the food dished up in South Africa, although the situation is improving dramatically. Steak or boerewors sausage, over boiled veggies and chips are the norm, and where the food gets more adventurous it often turns out pretty scary. Vegetarians will not have a good culinary time. African dishes are not commonly served in restaurants, although you can get cheap rice and stew belly-filler from street stalls in most towns. Beer and brandy are the popular swills, and South Africa's excellent wines are becoming more and more popular.

Environment

South Africa is a big wallop of a country, extending nearly 2000km (1240mi) from the Limpopo River in the north to Cape Agulhas in the south and nearly 1500km (930mi) from Port Nolloth in the west to Durban in the east. Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Swaziland run from west to east along South Africa's northern border and Lesotho soars above the grassland towards the southeast. The country can be divided into three major parts: the vast interior plateau, the Kalahari Basin, and a narrow coastal plain.

The region's flora is spectacular, with wildflowers from peaceful lilies to raging red-hot pokers in the grasslands, weird succulents blooming after spring rains, and one of the world's six floral kingdoms - the Cape Floral Kingdom - prettying up the Western Cape. Large areas in the north are covered by a savannah-type vegetation, characterised by acacias and thorn trees, and there are forest remnants along the southern coast and in the north-east.

When it comes to land mammals, South Africa hogs the superlatives: it's got the biggest (the African elephant), the smallest (the pygmy shrew), the tallest (the giraffe) and the fastest (the cheetah). The country is also home to the last substantial populations of black and white rhinos - with horns intact. You're most likely to encounter these critters in one of South Africa's national parks, but you should keep an eye out for lurking crocodiles in lowveld streams and rampaging hippos in the northern coastal regions. No slacker when it comes to birdlife, South Africa is home to the ostrich (the world's largest bird), the Kori bustard (the largest flying bird), as well as sunbirds, flamingoes and the sociable weaver birds who live in 'cities' of woven grass.