Kabul welcomes first holidaymakers

It isn't a city you immediately associate with package tours, but a group of brave-hearted travellers have landed in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, for a summer holiday with a difference.

They are the first post-Taleban travellers to enter the country on tourist visas only recently made available by the Afghan embassy in London.

It is an unlikely tourist destination - a country ravaged by war, in the middle of a drought, and thickly sown with landmines.

A small blast outside a UN office in Kabul on Sunday was a reminder of how fragile the current peace is.

But for the six Britons and one 72-year-old Portuguese woman who make up the group, the risks are worth a week-long holiday.

All of them are veterans of difficult destinations. Last year, some visited Iraq.

The British Foreign Office warns against visiting Afghanistan, and travellers like Anna Giddings admit it may seem like a strange idea.

"I do feel mad," she told me.

"But as long as I go back in one piece and I can say, 'Well, I wasn't quite as mad as you think I was'.

"Before, I was a bit embarrassed to tell some people, because it did seem like a daft idea. But not any longer."

The group is planning to do as much travel as is possible outside of the capital, Kabul - but they say just being here is already worth the effort.