Last trip of the year - Bratislava, SK

I have just arrived to Bratislava, via Vienna. I could see marvelous view on Slovakia capitol city from motorway.

 

View from my room

Well it is very close form Vienna to Bratislava, so it is easily afordable with motorway connection. 

According to wiki there is around 400 000 citizens here. It looks like really friendly city. 

And one can speak not only in english, but it is somehow similar to polish language. I paid motorway fee just talking polish :) I like it. The same in hotel. 

When I was entering the city I have passed Dunaj - Danube - Donau river.

Xmas carols in Joburg

Last weekend I had a chance to listen to Xmas concert in Nelson Mandela Squere in Sandton city. It was performed by Joburg choir - english & afrikeense carols, and african choir singing african carols in local language.

It was really special to listen to carols when it is about 35 C and You feel like a summertime.
It was also cool because atually audience was full, and many pedestrians just stopped and joined audience, singing carols together with african choir.

Concert was good to listen to, however it is better to be in Xmas time back at country and waiting for real snow.

Weekend in Joburg, SA

Yesterday I have arrived to Joburg. My project in Zambia is not finished, but it is posponed. Most probably I will fly to Lusaka again - my visa is valid for 12 more days. 

Joburg - Yestreday I have chance to be in office in local company. People are not as nice and kind as in Lusaka. But still they are quite open and talkative. We had a small discussion about languages and cultures - polish and aouth afriacan. Here it is a mix of all western europe culutures and african. Local language afrikaanse is much similar to dutch language. Of course main language here is english. 

I had a chance to go to Pretoria with Gautrain line, unfortunatelly it was short trip just to railway station and back to Rosebank, where my hotel is. Nevertheless it was good oportunity to see country from train perspective. My impression it is much more developed than my home country. Builidngs are very similar to those I could see in UK, in satelitties cities around London. Moreover small houses are quite similar to newly builded in south of France like in area of Nice, Marseille. 

For this weekend I have plans to discover close district of Rosebank, tomorrow Sandton. 

View from my room at 8th floor.

South Luangwa part 2 - safari

There were requests to publish in english, I will upload next posts in english version.

Well, let's have a look on safari trips. Time schedule  was very strict. Wake up at 5.30am, breakfast, really fast and 6am departure from lodge to South Luangwa National Park. At 6am in the mornign sun is still very low. It might be still cool temperature after night. It is good time to go for morning safari. Trip is something like 3-4 hours, to return just for brunch and siesta time. At 3.30pm it is time for coffee and departure for afternoon trip to park. Depends how much we wanted to see we were in the South Luangwa to 8pm ~ 9pm. I must admit that it is getting dark around 6pm.

Our team: David, Keil, Keira, Debi (behind), Julius - our guide, and me

During the day safari we had a chance to see a lot of babuns, antelopes, elephants, a lot of birds - blue ones, green ones, black ones... I must say that we were "hunting" to see lions and gepards. We were lucky and our guide - Julius - could show us something special. Lion had just catch young antelope and started to eat. Place was crowded with other trucks in very few minuts. 

Lion was just eating and observing all visitors. Noone was talking, everyone was impressed, and one could here only whispers or sound of smashed impala's bones.

Other time we could see was lion-mother with 4 small cats. It was night already, temperature got cool down, so many animals gathered around lake to have fresh water. This time there were only three vehicles. Everyone was amazed with this view and watching the scene in silence. Really nice time.

On the way back in the night, already on the public road, outside of the park, big hippo was crossing the street. We had to stop wait until he is gone in bush and continue our return to lodge for dinner.

I can't upload photos now. I will do that later.

South Luangwa cz1 - samolot, lodge

Na poczatku byl samolot relacji Lusaka-Mfuwe. Na lotnisko wcale sie nie trzeba bylo spieszayc. Lotnisko w Lusace oddalone jest od centrum jakies 20 minut jazdy samochodem. Oczywiscie po lewej stronie, jak w Anglii. W koncu to byla kolonia brytyjska.

W podroz wybralem sie z osobami poznanymi w pracy oraz ich przyjaciolmi. Poniewaz odbywalismy podroz krajowa, odprawa na lotnisku byla bardzo sprawna i bardzo krotka - moze 10 minut. Lot byl krotki - caly przelot zajal nam 1 godzine i 5 minut. Samolot byl bardzo maly - moze 25-cio osobowy. Byl komplet pasazerow, w tym nasza, 10-cio osobowa ekipa :)
Jak wyglada Zambia z gory? Jest plaska. Widoczne sa koryta rzek, jeszcze puste (bez wody) o tej porze roku. Na poludniu - w Lusace juz pada, na polnocy jeszcze trzeba troche poczekac. Chociaz...
Duze rzeki, zapewne Zambezi i Luangwe sa bardzo szerokie i pomimo mijajacego okresu suchego, odbijaja w swych wodach promienie wysoko zawieszonego Slonca.

Ladowanie w Mfuwe przebieglo bardzo sprawnie. Pilot bez problemu osiadl mala maszyna na pasie startowym. Lotnisko zrobilo na mnie spore wracenie, przed oczami mialem lotniska widziane kiedys na filmach - maly terminal przylotow, i dlugi, asfaltowy pas startowy otoczony buszem.
Mfuwe nie jest miastem, to bylo kolejne zaskoczenie. Na odcinku około 11 km, ktory pokonalismy w 40 minut, mijalismy tylko male zabudowania, wioski skladajace sie z murowanych albo trzcinowych domkow.
Do Norman Carr Safaris Lodge jechalismy przerobionym LandCruiserem, ktorym pozniej jezdzilismy do parku. Przywitano nas brunchem na tarasie, z ktorego rozciagal sie widok na lagune, z malutkim zbiornikiem wody. Sciagala ona rozne zwierzeta i juz na dzien dobry mozna bylo zobaczyc slonie, antylopy i pawiany. Pawiany - babuns - sa strasznie natarczywe i dosyc agresywnie poszukujace jedzenie - skutki - potluczony talerz, podrapania. Zreszta to nie ostatnia przygoda z pawianami.

Pogoda

Gdzies slyszalem ze w Afryce wszystko jest intensywniejsze, zeby latwiej przezyc. To jest prawda, i nie odnosi sie tylko do zywych organizmow. Juz pierwszej nocy byla potezna burza. W listopadzie zaczyna sie tutaj pora deszczowa. Jedna z 3 por roku, jest jeszcze pora sucha i pora umiarkowana.
Pora deszczowa to dosc wysokie temperatury w ciagu dnia - powyzej 25stopni C, poranki i wieczory sa troche chlodniejsze. Pomimo wysokiej temperatury, wieje zawsze jakis zefirek wiec nie odczuwa sie goracego powietrza.

Rowniez po deszczu temperatura sie obniza. Deszcz, razem z burza, przychodzi bardzo szybko i rownie szybko przemija. Jednak pada intensywnie. A owoce, pod naporem kropli deszczu, spadaja z drzew robiac wiele halasu.

Fotki z dzisiejszej wyprawy do Kwacha Road. Kwacha - czyt kłacza - to lokalna waluta.

Miejsce gdzie mozna wydac lokalna walute - jeden z kilku supermarketow.
Ten w soboty ma promocje - wszytsko 10% taniej :)

Droga w Lusace

Lusaka z gory

Nie mialem aparatu w pracy, wiec niestety fotki tylko z komorki.
No coz Lusaka wyglada jak ogrod (chyba juz nawet pisalem). Z gory tez wyglada calkiem przystepnie. Nie moglem nie wspiac sie na wieze (25m) i nie zobaczyc miasta z gory. Zambia jest ogolnie plaska, Lusaka rowniez. No moze nie liczac dwoch pagorokw - na jednym z nich jest stadion. Nie wiem czy sie zalapal na zdjecie.
Natomiast udalo mi sie zobaczyc jakies wysokie budynki - komin elektrocieplowni na wegiel, i hotel w centrum.
Komin spory wiec i moje zdziwienie bylo czemu w centrum miasta. Elektrownia jest nieczynna. Od jakiegos czasu Zambia korzysta z energi odnawialnych - swiatla sloneczengo i energi geotermalnej. Kto by pomyslal? Wychodzi na to, ze niestety z naszymi elktrowniami mozemy sie schowac...

Typowa ulica Lusaki

Nie wiem czy widac na zdjeciu ponizej, ale dzieciaki do szkoly w mundurkach chodza.

Na koniec dnia obowiazkowe piwko - zmbijskie :) No i oczywiscie kolacja hotelowa. Na niedziele kolejne zaproszenie na ciekawe wydarzenie, wiec pewnie beda ciekawsze zdjecia :)