For years, Liberia was a country I knew only through headlines. Ten miles beyond the border, those images unravelled. This is the story of Robertsport, where fishermen and surfers now share a stretch of Atlantic coast that most travellers have never heard of.

Beyond Monrovia, the roads narrowed, the air cooled, and a day's journey ended beneath the slopes of one of West Africa's most remarkable mountains where rainforest swallows the remains of an iron ore empire. This is the road to Nimba.

There is a place where the pulse of Africa beats loud, where dense canopies swallow the light and the air is thick with the sounds of creatures few have ever seen. These are the wild frontiers of Gola: an ancient “glacial refugium” sheltering species that have survived since the ice ages.

Alpine massifs, deep valleys, near-2,000 metre mountains and roughly 100 glaciers embellish an inviting but unforgiving Arctic landscape that has been home to the Sami people for millennia.

Pitchfork bandits, banana beer and brain amoeba. A breathtaking and occasionally alarming introduction to the vast and verdant landscapes of Africa's forgotten island.

Virunga National Park is home to an exceptionally active volcano, Mount Nyiragongo. Fiery and volatile, this dramatic volcanic giant is very much alive and likes to let you know it.

​Sitting on the northern shore of Lake Kivu, Goma's rhythm is ungoverned but steady, ever resilient and unquestionably vibrant. We take a short pitstop in a city ever-acclimatising to decades of civil war.

Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira are exceptionally active. The World Health Organisation warns that continued tectonic rifting could lead to catastrophic loss of life in the Lake Kivu region.