He planted us on a tourist boat - included in the overall price, I'd been assured - and the fat captain immediately introduced the concept of the enormous tip he was expecting on the way back. Blanking his persistent wheedling, I looked out over the blue waters of the Nile as we chugged across.Luxor is a city divided. We had left the west bank, the city of the living, with the imposing temple of Karnak, and were heading for the city of the dead, on the east, where the painted and inscribed tombs are dug into a harsh landscape of rock and sand.The east bank didn't look especially dead: it was heaving with a tourist industry starved of tourists and it was some relief to have a guide to drag us through the touts. But at only pounds 4 a head for a day tour it hardly seemed worth bargaining. The next morning the hotelier's son took us to the river.

One said "Avoid Mohammed at all costs: he is slimy and ignorant". Since half the population of Egypt seem to be share this name, the advice could have been more specific. The best way of getting to the Valley of the Kings is the way of the ancients: by donkey. The deal was sewn up within 10 minutes of our arrival in Luxor.

Our hotelier's son, laid-back and very young, produced a visitor's book, stuffed with recommendations. Almost all were fulsome in their praise, and raved about the donkey trip to the Valley of the Kings Most said "Make sure you get Mohammed". As Jack Barker explains opposite.Whether you are satisfied with a donkey ride to the Valley of the Kings or crave the sight of a whale to crown the big five land mammals, now is the moment to visit Africa Just remember to stop if you see a zebra crossing.. And has the art of prospering from visitors down to a fine piece of theatre. But tourism has been less damaging than some other forms of exploitation, and a positive force for preservation in many parts of Africa.Moving north, Egypt has enjoyed or endured tourism for centuries. And the sight of a dozen safari vehicles converging on a family of lions makes you fret about the way that the Travel Empire has conquered the Animal Kingdom.

The Kenyan capital is base camp for more intensive - and expensive - safaris than a day out in Pilanesburg.Hang on, though: what about the corrosive impact of tourism on the environment and the people? Certainly the treatment of Kenya's Masai Mara, displaced from their homelands in the name of tourism, has been shameful. Nairobi is pounds 300 away, aboard Sudan Airways via Khartoum, and not very much more on less flamboyant airlines. This week Virgin Atlantic began flying Heathrow- Johannesburg, next month Britannia begins charters from Gatwick to South Africa's largest city and Cape Town. The rest of Africa is also opening up to the traveller. The competition that is growing on flights to South Africa means fares to Johannesburg and Cape Town are falling. Sinuous giraffe, stumpy wildebeest and rhinos the size of small houses share South Africa's Pilanesburg National Park with each other and with tourists such as your jet-lagged self African wildlife has never been easier to meet. Wait quietly in your rental car and in a moment its stripey friends and relations will trot across the track, too.