We cant camp here! Its Mukongo! The path of the elephants! They walk this way at night to the water! - shouts vigorously Nestor - pigmey, who knows all the secrets of the jungle.

But tired after daylong march we ignore his threats. Its been dozen days now that we have been ripping off successive kilometers of the jungle and slowly we became indifferent. The camp rises next to the stream, right at the path of the elephants. Its surrounded by holes fewteen centimeters deep - footprints of those giants.

Ryszard Kapuściński in HEBAN wrote, that the most dangerous animal in Africa - one you dont want to have a face to face experience with - is wild elephant.

Midnight.
- Andrzej, did you hear the gust? - but Andrzej seems to have a calm sleep. Frightening whispers come from the tents of the pigmeys.

Suddenly the whole space fills up with a grumble, with the source a few meters above our heads. All of us rush out of the tents, falling into each other in the darkness. Pigmeys, like monkeys, climb up the trees, we have to hide behind two meters high roots.

This was one of the most frightening adventures in the three weeks of crossing the tropical jungle of Gabon. The elephant, instead of grumbling, could have walked over the tents right of way...

Everyday the monotony of challenging the wild nature was interrupted by more or less unreal adventures: meeting with the gabonese snake, that was full of rats, and which later spiced up our poor diet; hunting wild pigs at 2 in the night, or a crocodile for the dinner.

The whole expedition was crowned by climbing inselbergs - monolythic mountains in the middle of the jungle. From their top you can see the vastness of euphoric nature, which sleeps during the day in order to let itself into an orgy of life during the night - the struggle to survive.

The team of the expedition consisted of three Poles - Andrzej Muszyński, Paweł Wojtyszyn and me. And six Gabonese, who helped us to carry the countless kilograms of food, cutting with machetes the tangled green and guiding us through the labirynth of leaves and branches.

The Expedition got honorable mention in the biggest polish travel contest - Kolosy - in the "achievement of the year" category. In the same category the expedition was nominated for Travelers 2008 awarded by National Geographic Poland.

The expedition got honorable mention on Kolosy 2008 - polish adventureres' award and was a nominee for the Traveler 2008 - a prize awarded by National Geographic Poland.

Publications of Minkebe Expedition:
- National Geographic Traveler 5/2009
- Photography Magazine Fotoindex nr 6