Mark Stratton recently returned from a visit
MARK STRATTON
For years, looking at my wall-map of Africa served to reinforce a sizeable gap in my knowledge of the continent. How could I know so little about Algeria, Africa’s largest country? To say it is enigmatic seemed almost an understatement. Although, in my mitigation, since independence from France in 1962, news emanating from it has invariably been of political tumult and civil war — and indeed, visas remain unstraightforward to obtain. Yet as it slowly opens, and with a growing number of small group tours establishing there, now is the time to be at the vanguard of discovering Algeria’s myriad natural and cultural wonders.