The first one was my summer holiday trip. It was based on an AY ticket HEL - DOH - DAR // JNB - DOH - HEL booked before March, as a part of my (last) Plat renewal. From DAR I flew to LLW, walked around the city (quite a boring city and very spread out). Then to HAH with a connection in NBO (these flights went well). Arrived in HAH after 1 AM and the immigration queue was super slow (only one agent for foreigners and handling each one took several minutes). I had booked my transfer through my hotel in Moroni (one of the few there), but they didn't show up (I waited an hour for them), so I was at the mercy of the local taxi mafia and had to pay 40 e to get to the city (my pre-booked transfer would have been 20 e). Moroni had even less worth seeing than Lilongwe and it was also dirty, but they had ok food.

Then I went on to Antananarivo. There were no direct flights from HAH. I could have flown through Mayotte, but the prices were expensive, so I chose a decently priced fare from KQ backtracking to NBO and then to TNR. Here my flight from NBO to TNR was cancelled. I basically lost one day in Antananarivo, as I arrived there the afternoon the next day and after a sleepless night at the airport I went straight to bed after getting to my hotel. I had heard stories of how rough Antananarivo is and talked with a fellow passenger on the cancelled flight who was originally from Antananarivo, but now based in Toronto. He told me that even the locals are afraid of the crime in Antananarivo and it's just getting worse all the time. I walked around the city daytime and it went fine though. Madagascar is a country that requires a lot of time, as the roads are really bad (criminals even dig potholes on them to force cars to slow down, making them easier to rob) and travel is safe only daytime. There's some unique nature, but the distances are long. Then I finished with a visit to Port Louis, Mauritius. The immigration officer got suspicious as I was not going to any of the beach resorts, where practically all of the tourists are heading to, but I got in after a few questions. Mauritius doesn't feel Africa at all, it's quite well developed and mostly Hindu. Port Louis also had some cultural sights worth taking a look at and the city was walkable.

The trip to Senegambia was something I came up with on a quite short notice. In late October I realized the Independence Day gives an extra day off and I could go somewhere then. I found an MXP - MAD - DSS // DSS - MAD - BCN fare on IB for 377 e, so I jumped on that and took award flights on AY to MXP and from BCN. I had three days in Dakar, but looking at what Dakar had to offer I decided two days will be enough there, and I can spend one day in Banjul. I flew in the other direction to BJL, took the shared taxi (+ ferry over River Gambia) in the other direction (which wasn't very pleasant, the taxi was cramped and it also broke down during the trip). On African standards, Dakar is quite developed (but the distances are long and traffic can be horrible). Banjul is really small (population around 30000) and the whole country of Gambia doesn't have many sights, but it has quite many beach resorts for European tourists.