Here we present the Tripbase Awards for Africa, incorporating a selection of brilliantly-written blogs which represent an entire continent online.

About a billion people live in Africa. It is the second largest continent, both in terms of population and land area, after Asia. It is also incredibly diverse and contains many hundreds more cultures than there are countries. This makes it an excellent place for the touring backpacker as almost every African town offers an extremely warm welcome from the locals who, for the most part, are extremely glad to see new faces.

It consists of 61 territories and 54 sovereign states. From the tip of South Africa, where the Football World Cup was played in the summer of 2010, to the pyramids of Egypt in the very North East and the souks of Marrakech in the North West, Africa is a stunningly diverse continent. Summing up the splendour and variety of Africa in one single body of work would be nigh on impossible - however, our award winners for this year come pretty close and are, without doubt, the best of their class.