Kinga Choszcz

Kinga Choszcz, better known as Kinga Freespirit (10 April 1973, Poland - 9 June 2006, Ghana). Her first solitary journey led her to India and Nepal overland. After that she met her life partner - Chopin. Together in five years they had hitch-hiked around the world. After publishing the book "Led by Destiny" Kinga followed her heart's call and went to Africa. Eight months later in Ghana she passed away after contracting Cerebral Malaria.

Travels

In 1998 Kinga and Chopin started a world hitchhiking trip by flying to America. They returned home after five years of travels through South and North America, Australia, and Asia relying solely on the kindness of other people. Choszcz edited her journals and stories posted on their travel webpage ref|hitchhiketheworld into a book first published in Polish and then translated into English under the title "Led By Destiny" ref|ledbydestiny. With such stories as hitchhiking a plane in Alaska, a yacht from New Zealand to the Vanuatu islands, or a tractor in Tibet, often staying with people in their homes, her book is first of all an account of how one can find kind people all around the world.

When the book was published, Kinga toured Europe and visited various travellers meetings, giving speeches and selling the book. In late 2005 she embarked on a hitchhiking journey through Africa,This time, she went alone. Already well known, many people followed her adventures on her website ref|africawebsite set up for this journey. As an example, on 12 May 2006, she wrote:

:" [...] I finally had to take a motorcycle bush taxi that brought me to the Liberian customs and immigration building by the little bridge in the jungle. 'Is that Ivorian immigration building there?' -- I asked pointing to the other side of the bridge. 'Used to be. It's the rebel base now.' -- they told me. But having got as far as this I had to go on. Rebels, however, turned out to be quite kind, and as there was no other transportation there, they gave me a ride to town in one of their vehicles dashing in a convoy through the jungle."

Such anecdotes reflect her deep belief of the world not being a hostile place and of people everywhere being nice in essence.

In early June 2006 a note was posted on her webpage by her partner Chopin that she had contracted cerebral malaria and was lying unconscious in a military hospital in Accra, Ghana. Kinga died five days later on 9 June 2006, aged 33. ref|africaobituary ref|digihitchobituary ref|virtualtouristcomments

Bibliography, links

Account of travels

# Kinga & Chopin, "Hitchhike the World", http://www.hitchhiketheworld.com
#cite book|author=Kinga Freespirit|title=Led by Destiny| publisher=Bernardinum, Poland|year=2004|id=ISBN 83-7380-205-3, http://www.ledbydestiny.com
# Kinga Freespirit, "My Africa", http://www.kingafreespirit.pl/kingaen

Tributes

# Chopin and her friends, "On the camel to heaven", http://www.kingafreespirit.pl/kingaen/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=129&Itemid=2
# Digihitch.com, "In Memory of a Free Spirit - Kinga hitchhikes the afterlife", http://www.digihitch.com/article969.html, "Hitchhiking a White Camel to Heaven", http://www.digihitch.com/tribute/kinga
#, Virtualtourist.com, "profile & comments", http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/90ef5/