While Africa is a big place, it was surprisingly easy to narrow the choices down of where to go. One of the main aims of this trip was to see the 'traditional' African wildlife of lions and zebras, etc . This kind of limited things to the southern half of the continent, from Kenya on down. Zaire, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, all are in the middle of civil wars or are recovering from them. This leaves a route up the middle from South Africa to Kenya-Uganda, and this is where most travellers to Africa end up. Being as going the whole way from  South Africa to Kenya would have taken more time and money than I had, I started half way up in Zimbabwe and went north from there, sticking pretty much to the old 'British East Africa'.