Kenya is the country to visit if one wants to experience truly African landscape. This beautiful land of rich topography is the home of thousands of species of wild animals, most of which living in freedom, that is not fenced anyhow. Vast golden savannas, rocky mountains covered by jungle, even pine forests resembling our Polish ‘Bory Tucholskie’. When traversing the country from the bumpy dusty main national road, every kilometer or so there are big herds of cattle, sheep and goats. Among them one tiny, bright red dot is moving. This is the masai shepherd.
Wild side of Tanzania
The mainland of this vast county differs hugely from the slow and sleepy Zanzibar. We narrowed our choice to the Ngorongoro crater and Tarangire National Park. We decided to skip the famous Serengeti National Park, because the great Wildebeest migration had already wondered off (although all the Tanzania’s safari agencies claimed otherwise). We decided to catch up with them Kenia’s Masai Mara.
Hakuna Matata
… one will hear this very often while strolling through the white and windy streets of Stone Town, the heart of Zanzibar. This relaxed and friendly island became a marvelous rest-spot after the long sticky-smelly train journey Zambia-Tanzania. Smiling back colorful faces greet you on every corner with ‘karibu Zanzibar’ (Zanzibar is welcoming you), the reply ‘jumbo poa, mumbo poa’ (how are you? fine) is obligatory. Here the local hawkers are so relaxed, hassle-free and politely inviting, that they no longer seem to threaten as a ‘tourist trap’.
Zambian Orient express
The dream of wild life safari from the window of a luxurious train passing through African bushes and red earth savannas came true! In Kapiri Mposhi we boarded the first class compartments, men and women separately. Soon it turned out that our wagon is full of other ‘mzungu’ (white men), backpackers from different parts of the world who just like us are traversing the black continent. My travel companions were mainly Scandinavian, a group of 3 Danish journalists, one Finnish web-designer and a Dutch anthropologist – I enjoyed a splendid company in our ‘girls’ compartment during the next 2 days.
Vicky falls
Mh, that is some amount of water purring just meters from you*. Raining cats and dogs in a kilometer radius, if you want to take a picture of the falls themselves expect to be drenched. Actually, it is hardly possible to take out the camera. We had to work out a system with plastic bag wrapped around the camera and pet-bottle extensions for the lenses 
The country of trillionaires
Zimbabwe now is very different from what the media usually served us. It is friendly and safe. The shops and gas stations are well stocked. There is a quite good infrastructure, normal asphalt roads, and plenty of cars on the streets. Somewhat surprising, especially after Mozambique.
June 21, 2010
Dream beaches of Mozambique
Getting here was a nightmare, but the clean white powder sand, and 2500 km of vast, unspoiled and empty coastline turned out to be the best reward. Tofu, a fishermen coastal village is so much different from the dirty, crowded capital of Maputo. And the famous diving with Manta Rays! When I first saw the Manta Ray above me, I thought it was boat. These monsters can be up to 7m wide! They usually slowly cruise around in small groups, with dozens of suckers glued underneath each one. Despite the poor visibility (the surge was very strong after a week of storm) it was worth the time and effort we spent to get there.
June 15, 2010
Maputo
The city is devastated. Civil war ended 16 years ago, although it seems not enough time to clean up the debris and garbage. The most representative districts, as for instance the Mao Tse Tung Street with all the foreign embassies and ministry edifices, simply stinks unbearably. A huge pile of awful trash lies at every corner and you walk on rotten rubbish. The sidewalk is a disaster. Watch out you step or you might end up in a 1m deep sewer hole just in the middle of pedestrian zone.
Swaziland is different from Switzerland
What is this country that always pops just next to Switzerland in various dropdown lists in the Internet? There is not much that we can say about Swaziland. We’ve spent in this kingdom only one night, in Manzini, the capital, just 30 km north of Mbabane.
June 12, 2010
Give me 5, the Big 5 !
We rented a car, attached to it a South Africa flag, and headed for a 3-day safari in the famous Kruger’s National Park. We well blended in the crowd of South Africans escaping the world cup. They usually begun their conversation in Africaan language, thinking we’re one of them. This was a funny experience and I must admit Africaan (historically based on Dutch) is quite understandable if you speak German.