Saturday, July 31, 2010

17: Nyika Plateau NP - Zanzibar (Malawi/Tanzania)



Week 17 update:

Day 113:
I’m almost sure it was the utter silence and lack of wind that woke me up shortly after sunrise. I became aware of our Swiss friends packing up and with the start of their engine marking their departure; I decided to brave it outside the relative warmth of the tent. To my surprise, the temperature was quite comfortable and the lack of wind made it a pleasant morning on the hill top.

The normal duties of packing up and showering took no time at all despite getting stuck once again under the ridiculously nice hot shower. We decided to take the main road out as we were unsure about how long our day’s journey would take us. The 60km from the camp site to the gate took about an hour and a half and we saw very little game. The road seemed to be graded to such an extent that the surface was powdery. This meant that every vehicle was closely followed by a humungous cloud of fine dust, so it wasn’t surprising that the game would shy away from that road.

The only way to reach our destination was to backtrack to the town if Rhumpi where we had planned to source some more vegetables and a fresh stock of red wine. We found a small market by the road side and after parking the car I noticed a Barber Shop. As my last hair cut was before we left home, I was in desperate need of a trim, so ventured inside the small wooden shack to enquire about the price. The price list was displayed, which I always found added to fairness and a lack of being charged “Skin Tax”. My selected “crew cut” was prised at MK 70 ($0.4) and with my agreement to the price; the barber kicked his sleeping friend out of the leaning chair and waved a welcoming hand towards it. The inside of the cabin was completely covered by posters of people with great haircuts and some body builders for good measure. The dirty mirror was just big enough so I could see a faint reflection of my locks before the slaughter. I had asked for a No4 comb to be added to the clippers, but the man felt a lot more comfortable with a 3mm comb. What the hell, I thought and nodded my agreement. I’m pretty sure he spent at least twice as long on my head than what the norm was and I’m pretty sure he loved the way the whole village seemed to congregate around his shop to see him cut the Masungu’s hair. The Nett result was that I walked out, about 20 minutes later, with an almost bald head to the great delight of the 20 or so children who were watching the whole affair. I paid the man MK 100 for his trouble and left happy in the knowledge that my next haircut would only be needed four months or so down the line.

Leaving Rhumpi we chose the minor of two routes towards Livingstonia, our “mission” for the day. The route hugged the border of the park we had just left and meandered through valley upon valley of rich and well used farm land. At some point we came upon a barrier over the road. I stopped, waited for a man to walk to us from his hut and opened the window, waiting in silence. The silence lasted almost a minute before he broke it with a simple: “Give me your money” Disbelieving I looked around for a weapon, or threat at the absence of any such thing I politely replied: “No”. This was met with a very confused expression from the man who started telling me that I had to pay him to fix up the road as it was in a terrible state. I had to agree, it was in a terrible state, but blockading it and charging tourists a toll fee to… well, just blockade it and make no attempt to fix it was not really something I had time in my busy schedule for. I politely told him that he had two options: Option one was to leave the barrier as is which would force me to drive through it and break his timber. Option two was to remove it quickly, before I could engage a gear and let me through. I explained that neither option involved any money being handed over. With a bottom lip long enough to trip over, we briskly walked over and removed the barrier. As I was driving though I shook my head, wondering if he tried the same trick with local traffic.

We saw very little for sale, but saw huge fields of Banana trees, Maize and a heap of other plants before climbing a steep incline with hairpin bends using high revs and lowest gear. The road spat us out on the top of the mountain and close to the famous Livingstonia Mission. After a quick cruise through town to see the lay of the land we decided to source our accommodation for the next two nights.

The guidebooks talked of two places: Lukwe Lodge, and Mushroom Farm. I had heard from friends about a Belgium traveller who had settled in the area and ran a self sustainable lodge and camp. This was where I wanted to stay and from the names guessed it would be Mushroom farm. On the way there we stopped at Lukwe’s and after establishing price and facilities left to investigate the farm. Mushroom Farm offered no way of camping in a Roof Top Tent and had the atmosphere of dope smoking hippy land and mushrooms of the magic variety. We left fairly quickly and returned to Lukwe’s. After checking in parking the car, the owner came to greet us and it was indeed the place the sought. And what a place it was!

There were chalets on the side of a very steep hill, overlooking a ridiculously deep valley. The bar and restaurant had an even better view. Including a huge bay in the lake. The individual camp sites were just big enough to manoeuvre Maggie to maximize the solar panel’s performance. This exercise attracted Aucke, the owner and sparked his interest. His lodge is all about Permaculture, sustainable energy and being completely self sufficient. Solar energy was one of the big contributors to his daily life. We discussed wattage and effectiveness and soon agreed on a small competition to see whose batteries would have the highest voltage at the end of the next day. It was overcast, so not a great day for solar energy.

I quizzed Aucke about his place and expressed a real interest in the way he did things. Apart from the usual dry compost toilets, the LED lighting and battery operated fridges and freezers, I was also very interested in the terraced gardens and vegetables in them. This got irrigated by rain water mostly and some of the ornamental gardens from the grey shower water. The plants in his garden ranged from tomatoes, eggplant, papaya, lettuce and carrots to coffee (I instantly became jealous of any man who grew his own coffee) and pineapples.

Catt and I spent the rest of the afternoon in the incredibly tranquil ornamental gardens, reading books, talking about dreams and generally doing what two travelers in Africa do best… relax a little. After the sun hit the horizon darkness came at an alarming rate, but with the help of our energy efficient light, we managed dinner and an epic game of Bawo before tiredness took over and forced us to the comforts of the roof and into a well deserved deep sleep.

Day 114:
It seemed that we were the only people who had decided to stay for more than one night. The mass exodus was announced before 7am with no less than 4 big diesel engines being started up. The labouring of the poor machines up the steep hill to the main road echoed through the valley next to the camp site and a slight guilt for being lazy eventually drove me out of bed. It was a day earmarked for exploring and hiking.

A visit to the compost toilet, the shower that irrigated the gardens and a strong mug of coffee completed the preparations before setting off down the garden path towards the 150m high waterfall near by. Aucke’s son guide3d us through the vegetable gardens and his dog, Kilimanjaro showed us the rest of the way to the entrance. The falls are “looked after” by the local village and a minimum charge of MK200 per person ($1.50) secures your entrance. From the ever accurate Lonely Planet we were expecting to walk down steps for a bout an hour to reach the bottom of the falls. There were in fact 7 steps (I counted them) to the top of the falls, and a trail that led far enough away to see the falls from straight on. They were impressive! The dense indigenous and untouched forests around them and the slightly overcast skies gave the impression of rain forest, primates and impenetrability. On the way back towards the gate the lady who was on duty directed us to the caves behind the falls. These were used by the ancestors, as she described them, to hide away from the Arab slave traders in centuries gone by.

Her directions were almost as good as Kilimanjaro’s knowledge of the trial. We crossed the two streams feeding the waterfalls before heading down an almost vertical slope, using hands, knees, elbows and chins to prevent that terrible falling sensation. We found the caves shortly after and breathlessly admired the tenacity of the ancestors and giggled at the laziness of the slave traders. It would not have been hard to find people there, should one make the effort to look. On the way back up the hill we came across some local kids carrying maize to the village. There was no English to be spoken, but they obviously had a soft feeling towards our guide dog. They called him by name and patted his head and scratched his ears which caused a vigorous wagging of his tail and I swear I could hear a purr coming from his mouth. He was obviously a well known pooch.

We had decided to walk back to the camp for lunch and head up to the mission in the afternoon. Aucke came by to inspect my battery power and was visibly impressed by two things: It started to rain a little and we effortlessly pulled our awning out without pausing the chat. He liked that! The second thing was our newly purchased battery, after a an afternoon and morning of cloudy skies and a full night running the fridge was still on 12.6V which was obviously better than his bank of batteries. At this point I had to admit that our battery was brand new, and that we had driven 6 hours the previous day, which would contribute to the voltage. He seemed relieved. He also gave me a fantastic idea for charging batteries without wind or sun. He explained that a friend who lived in Mzuzu had a stream running through his property. He used a water wheel and some fancy gearing to power a car alternator to charge his batteries. GENIUS I exclaimed and started drafting an email to some engineering friends (Catt and Ollie) in the UK to punch some numbers.

The afternoon’s walk was expected to be 4km uphill to the mission followed by 4km down the same hill back to the camp site. Catt and I had been used to walking more than that on a daily basis and even after a few months spent in the car we managed double that a day on Zomba, so we weren’t scared. I was slightly bothered by the amount of small children greeting us in a friendly manner followed by a start and direct “Give me money” or “give me pens” with an borderline aggressive attitude. I did not blame them as much as the fucking idiot Musungu that corrupted them in the first place by handing our money or pens. I so wish I could one day find that person and cut his balls off… Not that I have any strong feelings about it of course.

The hill was a lot steeper than we had anticipated and the day a lot more hot and humid than we gave it credit. I did have the foresight to take some water along and that at least provided some much needed soothing. At the top of the hill we found the market and stocked up on potatoes. We also bought 5 bananas and two deep fried pastry things for the princely sum of $0.25. Close to the mission we found a coffee shop and curio store. The writing on the wall, so to speak, informed the visitor that all proceeds from the shop went to an orphan care project in the village. It seemed a much better way than “give me money” to contribute something to the community, so we entered. The most shocking thing for me was the realization of how much the carvers on the streets and in the markets were trying to rip off the tourists. This shop, on the top of a hill by a mission was the only curio shop around and had a steady stream of captive tourists to supply to. Their prices were less than half of what we had seen on the streets and no one touted you, influenced you or bugged you. It was fantastic and we supported them.

We found the mission, started by David Livingstone a short while later, but for the third time on our trip was denied access to a church. My shoulders visibly draped down with disappointment. I really wanted to see the inside and the famous lead glass picture of Livingstone himself making contact with the local chief. It was simply not to be. A nearby man told us that the church had a service the next morning at 8am, being Sunday, but I already knew that we would not have the time to attend. It was with a strange sadness and sense of failure and disappointment that I carried my tired carcass back down the hill and back towards Lukwe’s tranquil gardens and camp site. I seriously could not understand how the locals or powers that be did not allow tourists entrance to the church, charging a small fee for the pleasure. Years before I walked into a huge Cathedral in Blantyre, met the priest, had a chat and left a sizeable, voluntary donation for having the absolute privilege to view the magnificent building. Why these guys did not do the same was dramatically beyond me.

Day 115:
The loud, jovial birdsong in the forest woke me up just before the sun stretched its legs over the hills. This marked the 30th, and last day in Malawi for us and nothing left to do apart from packing up, waving a fond good bye to our friendly host and heading north, to Tanzania, our 5th country for the trip. At the very top of the infamous decent towards Chitimba and the lake we came across four backpackers thumbing a lift. I normally don’t pay much attention to that sort of thing as we cleverly removed all but the two front seats of the car. These poor kids seemed desperate though so I offered the running boards to stand on and the roof rack to hold on to while we could have their luggage inside the car. At first they were sceptical of the seriousness of my offer, but gladly accepted it when they determined the validity of it. So there we were, 6 travellers making slow but steady progress through hair pin bends and down a very steep mountain. While we were chatting away and sharing fond memories of days gone by we noticed that we were engaged in a race… Two local boys who knew all the short cuts kept appearing in front of us, looking back and smiling. They were impressively agile and quick.

Close to the bottom of the mountain path we were stopped by a local guy who owned the lodge our new friends had stayed in a few nights before. He explained that he had lost a key, found another key and found some contact lenses in the room they had occupied. This sparked an unpacking mission of some bags which revealed the keys he had lost and the absence of the keys he was holding. The big swopping of keys and handing over of lost property was accompanied by loud and excited chatter and smiling while I noticed that our competition managed to slip past, smiling and speeding up on the home straight. We had lost the race.

The road towards the border was smooth and easy and we made great time. I was always a little apprehensive when it came to border crossing days. I had never be known as the most patient person in the world and the false friendliness I had to project to officials who could either speed up or slow down my progress always bugged me a little… not to mention our unique engine number issue. On the Malawi side the formalities were dealt with quickly and easily. I even managed to convert our left over Malawi Kwacha to Tanzanian Shillings. Being a Sunday, the banks were closed, but the crooked money changers kept no office hours. I was glad to have chosen my money changer before the mob came. He was as keen to keep them away and secure all my business for himself as I was to keep away from a mob. He tried the old, and by then familiar trick of handing over notes in denominations of 100ds instead of 1000nts, but soon realized that I was not that kind idiot and game me the fair and agreed upon rate.

The Tanzanian side of the border was as quick and easy, but not free. We had to pay $50 each for visas and a further $25 for road tax and toll, or something to that effect. The man at the gate, taking down the details of the Carnet was the slowest writer I had met since dealing with the Arabic translator of passports in Pretoria. It took him a good 15 minutes to write one line in his book. Discussing our address for our allowed 90 days in the country took half of that time.

Once we had cleared the border, we realized with a shock that we were at least two hours earlier than expected and that our planned stop over place was so close that we decided to pass it by. The perpetual African village that knows no borders carried on relentlessly and finding a quiet place to stop for some lunch proved quite a challenge. Fuel was in ample supply though and we did need some of that. After the town of Tukuyu, fuelled and lunched we started climbing a mountain. I expected to gain some altitude after leaving the lake behind us, but this was phenomenal! The road side was dotted with overturned and broken down trucks around very sharp and blind corners and there was simply nowhere to pull off should you develop a problem. With that thought fresh in my mind, Maggie was plagued by the hick-ups. Every time I needed power, the engine would stutter and protest and offer little of what was needed to drag the weight up the steep incline. The problem was obvious and non fatal… our first fuel in Tanzania was dirty.

We bypassed Mbya and headed east towards Iringa, aiming for the Iringa Camp site for our stop over. We knew it was far, but felt confident that we could make it before dark. The GPS’s eta was an hour before sunset after updating itself to the new time zone. I had read and heard stories of crazy bus drivers in Tanzania before and around that time I had come to the shocking realization that no matter how many people told you these stories, you could never really appreciate the sheer insanity of it until you have experienced it yourself.

I’ll try to explain: I still had no idea what the general speed limit was. I did notice that in some villages the limit drops down to 50km/h and in others it drops to 30km/h. Our comfortable cruising speed on African tar in the Land Cruiser is around 100 – 110km/h. We slow down for villages as that would be the obvious place goats, donkeys, cattle, chicken, sheep, dogs, bicycles and children, to name a few, would indiscriminately try and commit suicide by running at your vehicle. In Tanzania they also seemed to love adding some very severe speed bumps to the already impossible equation of watching out for all the obstacles. The busses… well, they don’t care. Even driving at 120km/h on a straight piece of good tar, I was overtaken by bus after bus after bus almost pushing me off the road. In the villages we were almost rear ended and shouted at many times for slowing down for speed limits or speed bumps. I tried following a bus for a while, but after going airborne from hitting a speed bump too fast, I gave up and allowed the four that was queuing behind me to overtake. It was obvious that the challenges of driving in Malawi were pale in comparison to Tanzania and that the danger can even come from behind… in the form of a 40-seater bus!

We persevered and survived our first day in Tanzania and reached the Iringa Camp site, as predicted, an hour before dark. I was a little apprehensive as we had been told a few very scary horror stories about campsite facilities in Tanzania. This place was obviously not on that list! Without making a huge fuss or mention of it, they had neat and sparkling clean long drop toilets and hot showers in white tiled cubicles with solar lighting. The camp site we were allocated had a thatched roof to sit under which provided perfect shelter from the chilly evening breeze and came complete with the resident, massive Bull Massive guard dog. I felt at ease. We ventured to the bar for a celebratory “first day in the new country” drink and were not disappointed! Iringa Camp site turned out to be a fantastic place to stay which was not mentioned by anyone we had asked advice on Tanzania from.

Over a dinner consisting of steak and Malawi potatoes and salad we discussed our plan of action for the next day. It was obvious that the roads were good and the busses cleared the way for the braver driver who could keep up and we noticed that we were almost half way to Dar Es Salam. The decision was made. We would get up early, pack up quick and drive like the wind (Or the busses) to reach the south beaches or Dar by nightfall.

Day 116:
The plan kicked into action early and precisely. We were on the road and doing great before 8am and I already had visions of sipping my second Kilimanjaro Beer on the beach well before sunset. Funny thing about Africa though… or the universe… it always seems to want to surprise you.

Within an hour of setting off and after not being able to keep up with any of the busses who had passed us, we hit the road works. To be fair, this was the first road works that hindered our progress since we left the insanity of South African roads some months before, but we instantly concluded that we did not miss them, nor did we have fond memories of waiting in a cue for someone to decide that it was your turn to use the single lane. I had also learnt by then that in Tanzania, the most aggressive driver has right of way and the slightest hesitation showed a weakness that would be exploited by any other driver sharing the same piece of tarmac and you may as well then put the car in neutral and wait for the sum of all vehicles in the country to pass you by. It was easy for me to adapt to this way of driving and I simply started following the most aggressive driver I could find… until a more aggressive driver came past in which case I would start following him. It also came as no surprise that the government owned vehicles were the most aggressive, followed by the busses, followed by the trucks, followed by the safari operators, followed by the minibuses, and followed by the overland trucks and lastly the tourists.

The lunch hour marked our first stopping for the day and a well deserved ten minute rest. We needed fuel, but I desperately wanted to work through the dirty stuff before putting a fresh batch into the tank. I also saw a noticeable drop in pressure in one of our tyres. I was sure that the road works claimed the third puncture of our trip, but it was slow enough to not warrant changing it for a spare. One fuel stop, one tyre fill stop and some amount of hours later we started coming up to the tail end of the traffic of the city of Dar Es Salam. We were running on time and very pleased with our progress. I had also read and heard about the traffic in Dar before and that didn’t make me apprehensive… it damn right scared the hell out of me! We needed to find a cash machine and a camp site that was all. The cash machine was fairly easy and although we struggled through traffic a little, my new approach of following the most aggressive driver paid off big time!

We tried the WMCA and YMCA in the city but they were both full so decided to head to the southern beaches and Kipopeo Camp which had been recommended. This did mean driving through the centre of the city at rush hour, but there was no other way. Just as I though I had the road rules and traffic under control I was shocked by another bizarre and unfamiliar phenomena. One of the main roads had three lanes. Sometimes the middle lane was used by our side of the road, sometimes by the other side of the road, but there was no logic not markings to indicate when the switch came. It was also erratic and caused bottle necks of people trying to merge into the correct lane. The crossings were even more chaotic! I always approached with care, following MR aggressive but noticed that there were no rules at all and if you wanted to cross a busy road, you simply started driving until someone lost their nerve and stopped for you. The massive bull bar on the front of Maggie meant that I did not loose my nerve fast, but every once in a while I had to hit the breaks to let a bus or truck in.

We survived that ordeal, taking an hour and a half to travel the 9km across town, arriving at the ferry port incident free… or so I thought. Mr Police officer pulled me off the road and started explaining that I had come down the wrong way of a one way street. BOLLOCKS! I tried to explain that I was following my GPS (Thanks T4A) and it was not malicious, but an honest mistake. He did not seem to care. He explained that the procedure was that I had to pay a THS60 000 ($45) fine as I broke the law. I couldn’t really argue, as I did in fact break the law, but started to appeal to his kind nature, explaining that I honestly did not see the sign and as it was only my second day in Tanzania, he could really let me off with a warning… only once. Yeh right! He saw this as the perfect opportunity to tell me that I could get stuffed and I had to pay the fine. I walked into the office where two of his colleagues sat and asked for a receipt for my money. This was met with the same disbelief as every other time I had asked for a receipt for something that was obviously going to be a bribe. After quizzing me about the reason for the receipt he reasoned that he was trying to help me, and would charge me half the normal fine, should I not want the receipt. I decided to call his bluff and refuse payment without receipt. This was instantly met by him calling my bluff and instructing his friend to start writing. As he was behind a door, I could not gauge the validity of this receipt, so suggested a fee of one third of his original price… without a receipt. This was accepted, I paid my first bribe in Tanzania and we were allowed to get on our way after a smugly friendly explanation of the procedure lying ahead of us. Welcome to Tanzania!

Dar Es Salam is split into two parts by the port and linked by two ferries carrying passengers and vehicles across the harbour. Why there was no road or bridge linking the two was beyond me, but the ferry seemed cheap and efficient enough for us. Before my blood cooled down from the interactions with local law enforcement, we were on the car deck and floating across to the other side. It was still before sunset and we were still on schedule. Disembarking was a by now familiar chaos of aggression to make the slightest headway, but before long we stopped at the gate to the Kipopeo Camp. Their facilities seemed great, their prices fair, there was even free Wifi. The downside to the otherwise perfect place for us was the unmistakable and overpowering presence of “the great unwashed”. The camp site was covered in the universal 2m x 2m canvas dome tents of the Overland Truck companies. It was too late and we were too tired to look elsewhere so after paying for one night we found a secluded corner in the camp site where a Biker we had seen at Zomba’s Trout Farm was trying to hide away from the masses. We formed an instant bond.

The success of the day’s hard travelling deserved yet another celebratory drink from the bar. This meant that I did indeed watch the sun go down over the ocean with a cold Kilimanjaro in hand. The temptation of the reasonably priced restaurant also meant that we did not cook our own dinner or wash our own dishes. The day drew to an abrupt close as two tired people attached their pillows, not realizing the astonishing view the newt day would bring.

Day 117:
The plan was NOT to get up early. This plan would have been successful was it not for the over excited Overland Truck guide waking her clients at 4:30am by singing to them, then demanding that they get up just before insisting which was followed by a slightly aggressive delivery of ultimatums. I could not help but think: “They paid for this….” The noisies left shortly after and we managed to fall back to sleep, waking up from the sound of gently lapping waves around 8am. For the first time we opened our eyes to our surroundings and were absolutely unequivocally blown away! The sea was the most perfect turquoise you can imagine. The waves were smaller than on Lake Malawi and the water was phenomenally clear!

After the obligatory mug of Mzuzu Coffee we passed through the wooden gate, onto the perfectly white sand and into the inviting freshness of the Indian Ocean, our first site of it since Port Elisabeth, and some three and a half months before. The sea was as flat and calm as your average bathtub and the water not much cooler than that. It was fantastic and we instantly wanted to move there!

We had a plan to meet up with Riaan, a T4a contributor in town that day. Tearing ourselves away from the beach and ocean, we jumped in the car and headed to the ferry port once again. The GPS calculated our journey of 20km would take about forty minutes, but I knew better. I left an hour and a half to make the trip and arrive at lunch time at the designated shopping mall. Only the well described traffic system in Dar had other plans. If possible, it was even more chaotic than the previous day and after waiting an hour to cross the harbour we still took two hours to reach the meeting place. I was exhausted, and it was only 13:00!

The chat with Riaan proved very fruitful as he explained the lay of the land to us. He also suggested how to handle potential fines and told me that the maximum spot fine, with receipt was only THS20 000, which was what I paid in bribe money the day before. Mmmmm. As Riaan was a Trentyre employee he also directed us to one of their fitment centre to get our slow puncture sorted. After our first fast food Hamburger and chips in four months we shopped in a well stocked supermarket for the first time in three months and were absolutely gobsmacked by the variety of goods available on the shelves. I felt like someone from the wrong side of the iron curtain emerging into Western Europe for the very first time.

We struggled back through traffic and found the fitment centre. A short investigation produced an easily fixable result. It was the original first puncture from the Tankwa Karoo which started leaking again. The boys in Cape Town’s repair gave up. These guys fixed it in little time and sent us on our way, back into the jaws of rush hour. It took us surpassingly little time to get back to the ferry port, using the correct one way system this time despite what T4A was trying to tell us. The friendly official from the day before waved a smug, smiley hallo as we passed him. He won that round and he knew it.

Back at the camp site we were horrified to find the arrival of a few more trucks of people since we had left. Apparently the groups had just returned from Zanzibar, and thankfully were only staying for one night. We almost did not have a space to park Maggie, but managed to nestle in between the back wall of the kitchen and a room we thought to be a generator or compressor room. We successfully blocked one of the two main paths to the toilets and showers, but couldn’t really care less. We had a fire to make, a steak to cook and wine to drink and no one was going to stand in our way.

Day 118:
The departure of the noisies happened before sunrise. Although that obviously woke us, we didn’t even bother to open our eyes, knowing that it would be over in a relatively short time and that we would be able to go back to sleep as the drone of big diesel faded behind the sound of lapping waves. The noisy ocean eventually woke us long after sunrise. We were in no hurry to go anywhere or do anything. It was to be an admin day.

No admin day by the beach can ever start without a refreshing morning swim, so that was first on the agenda. The inviting turquoise hotness kept us busy for a good while during which time the chores were waiting patiently. We had fallen into a bad habit of leaving
Our dish washing overnight which was to be chore no 1? This was followed by the necessary laundry, some computer work and then lunch…

We planned on heading to Zanzibar the day after and wanted to turn the fridge off while we were away. The biggest chore of the day was to cook all the fresh produce in our freezer and fridge. Catt did an absolute expert job of using our mince to cook a Bobotie mix which she then wrapped into pastry to make samoosas. Genius idea I though.

The lazy morning drew into a lazier afternoon and an even lazier evening. Every time we felt hot, which was often, we would take the 50m stroll into the sea to cool down. We worked our way through an immense litreidge of water and juice and fruit and eventually just had to hit the showers around 19:00 in the evening.

We had multiple chats to Neville, the motorbike guy about where to leave vehicles, how to get to9 the ferry port and which ferry to take to Zanzibar the next day. We were confident that we had the best plan mapped out before bedtime.

Day 119:
It had to be an early start to ensure we would get to the right ferry at the right time. For some strange reason, we had no noisies in camp over night, so we became the first to rise. We did do it quietly. One last swim in the ocean to wake us up was followed by a quick shower, a ridiculous amount of Papaya for breakfast and a huge mug of Mzuzu Coffee to kick start the day. We left Kipopeo around 8am as planned and arrived at the Mikadi Lodge shortly after. Neville had established that they charged $2 a day to look after your wheels instead of the $5 a day of our chosen place of accommodation. The German owner greeted us at the bar and agreed on the pre established price, took our details and offered help organising a Tuk-Tuk to get us to the first ferry crossing. From Kipopeo the reception lady advertised a $20 taxi faire to get us to the Zanzibar Ferry. From Mikadi we paid $2 for a Tuk-Tuk to the crossing ferry, $0.07 for the crossing and could easily walk the 1km from the other side to the Zanzibar Ferry. Neville seemed like my hero by then, saving us at least $40 by investigating all the options.

We bearded the crossing ferry by 9am and felt confident that we were way ahead of schedule! As the announcement came that the ferry was about to leave, and the chain went up to block all traffic on and off I looked at Catt with wide eyed bewilderment announcing that we forgot to pack our passports! We had food and clothes and toiletries and two full sets of Scuba gear. We had our stove and kettle and coffee and milk and everything including the kitchen sink, but no passports. We did a u-turn on the deck and started running, leaping onto dry land while the ferry pilot was expertly reversing his vessel from the port. The security officer looked at us in amazed bewilderment but after explaining our predicament he allowed us back into the waiting area without another payment. He also allowed Catt to sit with the luggage and me to leave the area. I grabbed another Tuk-Tuk with a driver who only spoke Swahili, but understood where I needed to go. He raced me back, I grabbed our passports and he started racing me towards the ferry again when, without ceremony or explanation, he suddenly left the road and started darting in between huts and houses on dirt tracks through the village. I was a little apprehensive with my wallet in my pocket and two passports on me, but his meaning soon became clear as we re-joined the main road after passing a police road block. He obviously had something wrong with his vehicle, but I did not really care. I sprinted back to where Catt was and made it in time for the return of the ferry, wasting only one crossing.

This time we were almost last to get on board and nestled ourselves in between a Land Cruiser and a bicycle stacked with Coconuts. It was too tempting not to try one! A coconut that is, not a Land Cruiser. For $0.03 we got handed a fruit the size of a football expertly shaved and sliced open at the top. We drank the natural temperature, perfectly clear nectar with surprise on our faces. It was not milky as we had expected and it tasted nothing like Coconut as we had expected. It was very pleasant though, probably fairly nutritious and very cheap.

When the ferry reached the other side of the harbour we discovered that being a pedestrian offered different rules to driving a car. People were still assertive, but strangely polite. They queued, apologised for bumping into you and even allowed others to go first. This was a very unfamiliar phenomenon in Africa! We walked the kilometre to the Zanzibar ferry, carrying Scuba gear, food and wine with relative ease before being bombarded by touts and “helpful suggestions” as to where to buy which tickets. I got rid of the first onslaught by proclaiming to have prepaid tickets, but when I noticed the sign to the Flying Horse, our ferry of choice, and mistakenly pointed it out to Catt, the second wave was attaching with no mercy! We pushed our way into a small office advertising the tickets, made our enquiry and struck a deal. The price was $25 per person, as we had expected it to be. To my surprise the salesman had to leave to the office to validate the tickets. Despite wanting payment upfront, which I refused, he returned with authentically looking tickets complete with our names and nationality written on them within a few minutes. I sceptically inspected them and found no fault apart from the written $20 per ticket instead of $25. He explained, while pointing at a stamp on the ticket that the extra $5 was for port tax. It seemed logical, so handed over a $50 note which he inspected with the same scepticism I had seconds before. Once he was satisfied that the note was as authentic as the tickets, we parted happy.

At the entrance gate t the Flying Horse Ferry Company I spotted a sign advertising tickets for $20 per person including port tax. I felt slightly ripped off, but also admired the tout for keeping his cool and convincing an already sceptical well travelled fellow African that his price was fair. We arrived in the waiting area an hour ahead of schedule and I was not about to run around trying to find the bugger for $10.

The Flying Horse was one of the slowest and cheapest ferries to Zanzibar, which was the basis of our decision to take it. We still ended up with first class tickets and entered a closed top deck of leather sofas and massive arm chairs. We were the first to arrive. The second class had, as expected, some families with bananas and chickens and a few other wares. In first class however, we were soon joined by a mass of Japanese and Chinese tourists. I never thought I would feel ethnically out of place in Africa because of being swallowed into a group of Orientals. Surprise! To watch them was fascinating! They were not only true to cliché with cameras and video cameras and more gadgets you can shake a stick at, but they had mysterious mannerisms as well. Some of them wore gloves in the 45 deg cabin. Most of them had long trousers and long sleeved shirts on. The pulled bandannas over the faces when catching a nap and their lips never touched a bottle or class rim when drinking. There was no issue sharing a loaf of bread or an orange though. It was all a little weird.

This Ferry was clearly NOT the Ilala and actually ran on a time table. It left at 12:01, a mere minute late. Being a Catamaran it was much more stable and it obviously had bigger engines as you could see a wake behind it. I ventured to the upper deck outside at some point and stepping over sleeping children and bags of produce realized that it was economy class, with plastic seats. There was however loads of fresh air and a great view, but no spare seats, so we had to return to the badly air-conditioned environment of VIP class before long. We arrived at Zanzibar port two and a half hours later, as scheduled and joined the cue for Passport control. Man I was glad that we had remembered our passports when we did!

As predicted, as soon as we left the relative safety of the port enclosure we were absolutely swamped by touts advertising their own special rates and always referring to us as “My friend”. My first instinct was to sarcastically enquire about this friendship they so cherished and how you could propose to help friends before insisting on payment for the help. I resisted this, as promised to Catt, but could not resists conversing to everyone and anyone in Afrikaans only, refusing to understand or speak a single word of Swahili or English. It was greatly effective, very amusing and highly recommended to keep the “Ticks” as they are called in Swahili away from you.

We picked a direction, hoping it was the right one, and marched at a pace that your average marathon runner wouldn’t have been able to keep up with. One MR Relentless manages OK though and every time we stopped to look at our map he would appear and
Offer advice. We purposefully ignored his advice and took a different route, also speaking to him in Afrikaans until he finally gave up and let us be. I have to admit that you’re first visit to Stone Town in not easy and a little intimidating. We found one or two landmarks we had identified, but finding the actual hotels was a complete nightmare. It was purely by luck that we managed to find the first one, which was full. We found the second one which was also full and the third which was also full with the help of some guy who insisted on following us. We eventually found suitable accommodation at the Mange Lodge for $30 per room per night and made a point of explaining to the owner that we found it by ourselves and that no commission to the relentless follower was due. She smiled and accepted our explanation. It was 16:00, some 8 hours since we set off from the idyllic south beaches of Kipopeo and we were shattered!

The day was not over yet! We had some cooked meat from the day before, but needed some fresh produce, so headed for the market. Even though we had brought a GPS, it was completely useless as T4A had very little to no information on Stone Town to show. We however quickly figured out our main directions and found the market with little effort, passing a variety of interesting shops and stalls. We evens topped for a street coffee which is presented in a small cup like espresso and seems twice as strong. It was fantastic! The market was surprisingly good as well. I expected poor quality produce from a small island as we had experienced in Likoma in Malawi. This market however had huge fruit and healthy vegetables at similar prices to what we had become used to. I was impressed.

On the way back to our hotel we walked passed a tourist information centre and enquired about a Spice Tour. They gave us the lay of the land, the price and tried to commit us instantly and expertly. We did not have enough money on us, so headed back to the hotel for the wallet. On the way back out the door I asked the owner if the price was fair. She confirmed that it was indeed, but also offered to book it for us. It seemed simpler, so we agreed, handing over $15 each and making the appointment for the next day.

Dinner consisted of a freshly made salad of massive proportion, some cold Malawian pork sausages and a Bobotie samoosa or two. It was indeed a feast which just had to be washed down with some fine red wine while chatting to three wide eyed, freshly arrived English girls who came to Africa on a volunteering trip to hand out books in schools. I was almost amused by their naivety and had to tell the story of our Ilala experience to their great shock and amusement.

If I had to do it again:
I think I should have made the effort to return to the Livingstonia Mission on the Sunday morning we had left. One of the reasons I didn’t was that I felt that I would disrupt the normal practice or local people’s religious practices. I desperately did not want to do that.

The only other thing for the week I would do differently is to take a calm and relaxing day to visit the Zanzibar ferry offices to scope out the best deal and the right place to buy the right ticket.

The rest of the week… honestly, I would not change a thing.

Monday, July 26, 2010

16: Senga Bay - Nyika Plataeu NP (Malawi)


Malawi Pictures Here

Week 16 Update:

Day 106:
Even though Senga Bay was a filthy cesspit of Malawi, we had committed to stay for two nights as it was Pete and Annie’s last two days with us and none of us really felt like spending that in Lilongwe. Since the start of our deep cycle battery issues some weeks before, I had taken to parking the car facing north-east with the solar panel out, preferably with the tail in the shade of a tree. This had two interesting effects: The one was that we got hit square in the face by the sunrise every morning (I can think of much worse ways to wake up) and the second was that when we take the tent down, as I had to look at Catt from my ground level responsibility, I looked straight into the sun. We woke with the sun rising over the nose of the car.

The Cool Runnings yard was quiet and peaceful bathed in the early morning sun and if you looked towards the lake you could see only clean water and the bit of beach the staff of the place keeps clean. It was a very false sense of natural beauty the lake shore may have once offered the area. Annie had started repacking their bags and filling the voids left by the bottles of Gin they had brought out and consumed by our party of four by guide books we were sending back and their brand new Bawo board. We guessed that they had increased their luggage weight by at least 5kg.

There was no great plan for the day. We needed to shop for some food and try and get a new deep cycle battery but apart from that, we just wanted to spend a relaxing day with the parents in the warm heart of Africa before they returned to their familiar lives on Mud Island. I went to Hippy chick for some shopping advice first. She gave me a load down of Salima, the closest town and where we could find what as well as directions to the local village market. The market yielded some fruit and veggies which could deal with lunch but as it was still early, we decided to venture down the filthy beach to the other lodge for pancakes and coffee at a reasonable rate. The excited manager informed us that the chef will come take our order and within a few minutes we were walking back the way we had came from. They had no flower for the pancake mix…

The four of jumped into the sedan after an early lunch and headed into Salima in search of the places carefully marked on the hand drawn map. Firstly we managed to source a battery for a decent price. Secondly we stopped at an ice cream shop for some soft serve before venturing into the bigger market for some veggies. On the successful completion of that quest we found the butcher shop we were recommended to. Beef was one price, regardless of cut and the rump steak we bought was less than half the normal price! The bottle store next door was the cheapest we had come across in Malawi and after stopping by a road side stall for some corn on the cob we had been failing to find for a few months, we smilingly hit the road back towards Senga Bay. Just as I though we could avoid the obvious, Catt demanded a halt at the rows of curio stalls between the two towns. I could not imagine a single curio we may get, but also knew better than to argue.

My impressions were that the carvers sell their goods to resellers who in turn have these stalls. Every stall had masses and masses of the exact same things and their starting asking prices were so ridiculous that I did not even want to discuss prices any further. To be fair, there were one or two paintings that caught my eye and I almost succumbed to the urge of buying a wooden frog to announce dinner with. Annie did manage to get a wooden bowl she wanted for a fair price, but by and large, the 45 minutes we spent going from stall to stall looking at exactly the same shit could have, and should have been dealt with in three minutes flat. Now imagine how much trouble I will be in when Catt reads this…

Back at Cool Runnings everything was as we had left it. Even the people there seemed to have been in limbo since we left with the exception of a gardener who planted another 10m2 of lawn in the time we had been gone. In the late afternoon I ventured onto the beach to take some discreet photographs of the fisherman readying themselves for the evening’s duties. I still found the place filthy, but immersing myself into the crowds and in between the boats I sensed a strange charm to the environment. I was approached by a man who wanted a chat and was looking for a pen friend. He introduced himself as Arc Angel and explained that he was a good writer without anyone to reciprocate his thoughts. On explaining that I did not have an address at the time, so I could be of no use to him, he frowned unbelievingly and went on his way. Another obvious drunk person angrily stormed towards me at some point shouting abuse just before an obvious senior villager reprimanded him strongly and sent him away, apologizing to me for his behaviour. In my last few minutes I was stormed by a mob of toddlers who wanted their picture taken. Not sure what the custom was, I put the camera away and smiled happily at them. This was met by an elderly man shooing them away and telling them, obviously not for the first time, to stop bugging the Wazungu. It was a simple village of hard working; simple fisherman going about their normal daily routine despite my thoughts or customs and the dirty beach obviously did not bother them at all.

Back at mission control the packing had been dealt with, the vegetables washed and all I needed to do to complete the duties was to make a fire and cook our newly purchased Rump Steak and pour some wine. I had the easy part.

Day 107:
Cloudless morning meant cloudless sky, meant early wake up call by the welcoming sunrise. Not that I was getting tired of this ritual. It was fantastic! A quick trip to the showers revealed that the advertised hotness was absent on the parent’s last morning in the country… Just for fun. The previous day’s cleaning revealed yet more clothing we did not need and it was time to upgrade our pillows, so a nice pile of stuff went to the hippy chick for needed re distribution. She even took our old and knackered battery off our hands and after a very expensive breakfast we meandered back through the village, past the cow pen, stopping for the chickens to cross the road and on to the tar towards Salima, not stopping at the curio market as promised the day before.

At Salima our paths split. Pete and Annie went on to Lilongwe’s airport while Catt and I turned north and back up the coastal road we have travelled down on just over a week before. So after a short good bye and no tears we bought a ridiculous amount of tomatoes and headed our separate ways. We had identified the Big Blue Lodge in Nkhata Bay as our accommodation of choice for the evening as they were cheap… and offered free Wifi. Along the way we identified the strange places our drunken taxi driver had stopped to get fuel as well as the pub we went into moments before I kicked him out of the driver’s seat. By this time we could even laugh about the life threatening experience. On the turn off to Big Blue we bought 4 massive bananas for about $0.30, our cheapest for the trip so far.

Big Blue was a funny old place. Jack, the Musungu manager had taken over the managing of the place from the local owner. After our stay there I read the Lonely Planet Guide’s review and understood why it was needed to be run by someone else. By this time we had come to realize that running an establishment in Malawi is very challenging, very taxing and it takes a special kind of person to be able to do that without turning into a mass murdered or psycho, or fall into a deep depression. Very gay jack was definitely such a person. The place was sparkling clean, the facilities grate, the showers the hottest we had had in weeks and the atmosphere friendly and happy. The Wifi was indeed free, which attracted not only us, but a sea of Nettbooks and smart phones slowing the network to a pace a snail carrying a mail bag could easily overtake. This was until there were more computers that the allowed IP addresses which simply bombed out the system all together.

Despite the internet challenge we still managed to check emails and update the BlogSpot pages. We even managed to watch a movie on the big TV in the lounge before hiding away by our campsite in the car park (Only place big enough to accommodate Maggie) and cooking our second steak dinner in two days. We had a plan to return to the quieter and less polluted Wifi zone later, however chatting, playing games and eventual tiredness got in the way of that plan and finding ourselves horizontal in our palatial home on the roof was preferred to any other idea before long.

Day 108:
Jack’s place was nice and comfortable enough that we decided to spend another day. We had the luxury of slow and unreliable internet, the constant movies being played on the big TV and electricity on tap to run our computers of. There was no reason to move on yet. We took advantage of the very hot, white tiled showers before morning coffee. This was followed by a migration from the car to the lounge area which had us set for the day.

The morning flowed into lunch which flowed into the evening which flowed into dinner with an alarming pace. The only thing breaking the easy flow of the day was the steady influx of fresh clientele and the amusing monotony of the way big gay Jack was delivering his welcoming speech to every newcomer. It was evidently one of the busiest backpackers we had come across which could only mean that Jack was indeed doing a good job. I also realized once again that self drive overland travellers are the worst possible clients for a place like that. We came with our own vehicle, containing our own food and rink and the only money we spent was the piddley fee of $4 pppn for camping.

Before we knew it it was bedtime again. The night was warm and welcoming and the only flap closed on the tent was the one next to the light we were parked by. I fell asleep instantly, but woke up in the middle of the night with a fine spray in my face. It had started raining. With ruthless efficiency we closed the tent flaps and rain covers, listening to the growing storm outside. It was epic! I could not believe that that much water could fall from the sky in such a short time, never mind that it was supposed to be the dry season in Malawi. We however, were snugly dry and safe inside our trusty tent with not a worry in the world.

Day 109:
It was still raining when we got up. Our failed attempts at sending a last few emails and checking a last few websites meant that we quickly made coffee and rushed over to the lounge area in the hope that ours would be the only computers there at that time. Even though it was before 7am, we were obviously not the only people with that idea as I counted four machines before we even sat down. We did manage our chores none the less. We were also witness to an ugly scene involving big gay Jack and a Dutch couple we had met at Mvuu some time before. The couple had rented a tent from Jack for the evening because the lodge was full. When the rain came down it became very clear that this tent had seen much better days as the water ran straight though the leaky floor. This in turn soaked their sleeping bags, clothes, books and everything else they possessed. They were understandably PISSED. What I did not understand was why they didn’t move straight into the comfortable lounge area once they realized the tea bag nature of their tent. Anyway, Jack’s solution was a complementary night in one of their finest rooms which I thought was fair and just.

The rain had briefly stopped, so we hurriedly closed out slightly moist tent, covered it up, packed our stuff and headed for the third and final steaming hot shower before paying up and heading off. Poor Jack looked stressed when we left him.

Our route took us back up the mountain towards Mzuzu where we had seen the biggest and nicest vegetables you can imagine some weeks before. Only with the persistent precipitation, the stalls were empty and the driving horrendous. In Mzuzu we managed to replenish some stocks form supermarkets and the market and even managed to have the new deep cycle battery tested to make sure it was working correctly. It was still raining when we left town and made our destination of Vwaza Marsh on the edge of the clouds and in some sunshine before lunch. We had gained much altitude since leaving the lake shore and this was very evident by the wind and temperature.

In the late afternoon we decided to take a drive along the marsh's edge. As this was fairly deep into the dry season, the driving was easy and the ground rock hard. We didn't see a huge amount of game, but the Kudu herds we did see were massive. In one of the herds I counted 29 individual animals and the big daddy carried at least 58 inches of horn. The deeper pools were full of hippos, but the promised hundreds of Elephants the guidebooks bragged about were absent. The ever present Tsetse Flies were relentless in their attempts to enter our car though, so we kept the windows closed and aircon on.

On our way back to camp we did stumble across a small herd of Elephant, but that completed our sightings for the day. I was slightly disappointed in the place to be honest. The Campsite felt un-kept, the game viewing was non existent really and the tsetses made the whole experience a little uncomfortable.

During our evening ritual of making dinner we were visited by a herd of something. With the help of the Fenix light we tried to identify them, but because of the thick bush around the camp site this was near impossible. Catt guessed Buffalo as the noise of the herd moving through the bush was substantial, but apart from glistening eyes, we couldn't really see any shapes. I was not about to walk into the bush at night to try and identify a Buffalo either. With no answer to the puzzle we went to bed, relieved that our bedding was dry after the previous night's storm.

Day 110:
When I opened my eyes I was being stared at by a Fiscal Shrike who took a perch on a branch right by my window. When he realized that we had eye contact, he put up a massive racket and took the chore of waking Catt right out of my hands. The morning was sunny and clear and the temperature much higher than the previous day. We got up, did our chores and requested a hot shower.

A few minutes later we were visited by the camp manager who still owed us a receipt for the camping fee. Still without any paperwork he informed us that their hot water drum was leaking and they could not make a fire under it to provide hot water. His solution was to suggest a cold shower. I did not mind the idea of a cold shower that much, but he seriously could have told us about the problem on arrival. That way we would have been prepared, or refused to stay. I felt a little tricked.

We decided not to shower in the end, hoping that our next destination would provide better facilities. At the gate I stopped to collect my change which could not be given the previous day due to a lack of float in the till. The gate attendant smiled shook her head and told me that she still did not have change for me. I asked if I could pay the fee in US$ and get my MK back, which seemed a sensible solution to me. Only she frowned and theorised that since the invoice (For the amount due, not the actual amount paid) was made out in MK, I could not pay her in $ and I had no choice but to come up with the correct money (Which she knew I did not have) or leave the change with her. Corrupt fucking COW was pretty much what went through my head as I slammed my door in anger and drove off. Catt shook her head at me as she did the math and the change was only $1.50. I did not care. It was the principal of the matter and Vwasa Marsh left a foul and mysterious odour in my mouth.

Our journey took us on a well used, but quite neglected dirt road through some villages before hugging the Zambian border and spitting us out at the very top of the mountains at the gate to Nyika Plateau National Park. This was Malawi's oldest and biggest national park and reportedly home to herds of Roan Antelope and Zebra. The main road into the park had fine red dust on which made negotiating the way once passing oncoming traffic on the 50 odd kilometres to camp quite interesting. We made it to Chelinda Camp's reception without much incident after spotting what we thought may have been Hyena and a single male Roan.

After checking in we headed to the small but neat camp site some 2KM away. We were greeted in camp by two female Bushbuck and the welcoming smoke coming for the water boiler's chimney. We immediately recognised that we were going to enjoy our stay at Nyika. The showers were hotter than hot and the ablutions sparkling clean. Patterson, the campsite attendant clearly took a great deal of pride in his job.

We immediately decided to stay at least three days and for that reason also decided to pitch our ground tent. This way we could go on game drives early and late without the need of putting down the roof top tent. The bulk of the afternoon was pent baking bread, drying towels (We forgot them outside in the rain storm in Nkhata) and generally relaxing in the high altitude sunshine. Our peace was slightly disturbed just before 16:00 with the arrival of another vehicle. Seconds before the disappointment set in I noticed that it was a bright red Land Cruiser belonging to Rita and Sasha, a Swiss couple we had met in Liwonde a week or so before. From our first meeting is was clear that we were like minded people who had similar itineraries, so it was not very surprising that we bumped into each other again. They told us about a family or Roan they spotted on the way in which was timed perfectly with our decision to go for a drive.

We found the Roan within 15 minutes and were not disappointed! The Plateau itself has little to no trees and the rolling grassy hills stretches as far as the eye can see. The ground was littered with wild flowers and a myriad of different colours creating the impression of a giant paint bucket fight preceding our arrival. This, coupled with the dramatic sun lit clouds in the background made for stunning photographs of the world's tallest antelope, the Roan. We soon realized that the guide books did not exaggerate when describing the sheer amount of life on the Plateau... for a change. There was Reedbuck and Roan around every corner and with the low sun skipping over the grassy rises, the environment turned a bright golden yellowy pink showing off this magnificent place to the two new visitors.

We reached camp only minutes after the sun finally dipped behind the furthest horizon to the welcoming site of a lit camp fire, courtesy of Patterson. The temperature had dropped QUITE A BIT by this time. It was icy cold and time to dust off the mountaineering gear and thermal underwear... I kid you not. The rest of the evening was spent huddling around the welcoming heat from the log after log being placed on the fire. It was only after the last log's flame started flickering low that we filled our hot water bottle and sprinted for the well prepared, snugly warm bed inside the tent. We did not suffer from cold for the rest of the night.

Day 111:
Nice thing about being stationary for a few days is that you don’t need to cram the total experience into less time than what is needed. We absolutely and resolutely refused to even contemplate braving the early morning cold. In fact, we stayed hidden beneath the comforts of Goose Down until the sun was shining brightly on the Nylon outer skin of the tent and it almost became uncomfortable to stay inside... Almost...

Our laziness of the previous night meant that we had some dishes to deal with. When Pete and Annie were with us, Pete always did the dishes as we weren’t into preparing food. I suddenly missed him a lot! On the upside, the piping hot water meant that my hands didn't get cold and the chores could be followed by one of those showers you just can't turn off.

When checking in we had noticed that the lodge had a lounge and bar with a fireplace in. This was on the banks of a reasonably sized Trout dam and while I was burning to dust off the fly fishing gear, Catt was burning to read a book in front of a fire place. The lodge catered well for both of us. I was casting away within an hour of leaving the camp site while Catt was sitting “inside” the welcoming flames of the pub's fire place.

I could see the small trout all over the dam and had a nibble at the fly I chose on almost every cast. I couldn't really understand why I was not striking successfully until one of the creatures followed the fly right to the bank before making it's feeble attempt at breakfast. The poor little bugger was no longer than my hand and its mouth was simply not big enough to get around my bait. I tried a variety of flies and had success twice with a brightly colour thingy I could not recall the name of. Only my success was short lived as the two fishes I landed were so small that I decided to release them. Lunch was NOT destined to be freshly cooked trout and by 11:30 I had to concede to the left over chicken for sustenance.

The afternoon brought a chilly mountain breeze we needed some shelter from. The great advantage of a ground tent is that it provides effortless shelter during the day. By mid afternoon I had run out of computing battery power and convinced a very reluctant Catt to leave the comforts and warmth of the tent for a short game drive. The drive took us to another dam, aptly called “Dam 3” as it was the third closest to the lodge. This dam reportedly had bigger fish in but after an hour of trying without as much as a nibble on the bait while being started at by a great big Roan, I gave up and decided to try again at the lodge’s Dam 1. Catt was really happy as this meant that she could return to the fireplace.

This dam was full of action! The evening rise was in full swing by the time I reached the water’s edge and the excitement started mounding up inside me. I had found out where the deeper water was and was truly hopeful of securing dinner. Once again, the only fish I managed to land was smaller than my hand and after releasing the second one of those, I had to accept that Nyika’s Trout would have to wait for another year.

Our second evening in the camp site was almost wind still and a lot warmer than the first. Patterson had lit a fire for us and left us a mountain of fire wood as well. We cleverly moved our table to right next to the fire pit and kept the flames high right through dinner and up to bedtime. I noticed we had two logs left in our supply.

Day 112:
Rita and Sasha’s car starting woke me up way after the sun had crept over the horizon. The tent was nice and warm inside and I heard Patterson putting the remaining two logs on the fire to re-start it. I stayed in bed contemplating the reasoning for the wasted fire wood. The only conclusion I could come up with was similar to Government budgets. If you do not use up what you are allocated, your next supply will be of a lesser amount. Before leaving the snugly comforts of the Goose Down I made a firm decision to use every bit of wood provided to us that evening.

It was game drive day. We got into the car unwashed, but with coffee in hand. It was very cold, and Maggie protested greatly to the idea of starting and idling. The engine had never been a great fan of altitude or cold. Once we had that obstacle overcome, we set off to a pre discussed viewpoint on the map we were given at reception. At least half the roads we were travelling on were absent from the Tracks 4 Africa GPS maps. Although I found this a little disappointing, it wasn’t that suspiring as the trusty T4A had become closer to guideline and further away from gospel as our trip had progressed. They had clearly not been to Nyika in quite a while.

Our game spotting was fairing a load better than our navigational devices. We saw herd upon herd of Roan, some Zebra, a Side Striped Jackal or two, Klipspringers and more Mountain Reedbuck you could shake a stick at. We even spotted a fire engine red 70 series Land Cruiser containing a Swiss couple on the horizon. My mid morning we had completed our circuit and as we turned into the camp site we were welcomed by a family of Bushbuck grazing around our tent. It was deemed a successful game viewing morning.

We had taken to showering around lunch time on the Plateau to make use of the “heat of the day” while we were separated from our clothes. She showers in camp were heated by log fire and some of the hottest showers I had ever experienced! This obviously meant that we were allowed to misuse them and get stuck under the heated waterfall as we had established that you never know when the next good shower will be. The practice here was to stay under the shower until it felt like your core temperature was higher than it should be. This meant that you could dry off, get dressed and walk back to the car or tent without feeling the cold at all. It was a good practice!

The afternoon game drive again took us on roads that T4A was unaware of. The tricky thing here was to gauge the distance we could do before dark and whether we had to turn around, or continue the loop we had planned. The northern loop as we decided to call it had less game than the morning’s attempt but the scenery was truly spectacular. When the sun was low and the light golden I had to say it out loud: “The guidebooks under described this magnificent place!!!”

We made it back to camp just before dark and to the welcoming flickering of flames from the fire that was made for us. I noticed the pile of wood was slightly bigger than the night before, but was determined to use it all! As this was our last night we had decided to use the roof tent. The heavy dew on the mountain top meant that the ground tent took until mid day to dry out. We had cleverly packed that away during the afternoon. The challenge however was to find a level space the size of an 80 series Land Cruiser. The tent stand was the only place.

I tried very hard to use up all the wood without actually making a bonfire. By the time dinner was dealt with, the games were played and our eyelids got so heavy that we could not keep them open any longer; there were two pieces of wood left. I was convinced that Patterson could read my mind and provided two pieces more than you could use in one evening around the fire.

If I had to do it again:
Honestly, for the first time since we started our travels, there is nothing I would do different. We travelled safely to incredibly places and stayed the right amount of time.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

15: Zomba Plateau - Senga Bay (Malawi)


Malawi Pictures Here

Week 15 Update:

Day 99:
I was woken up by the sunshine flooding into the open window. It was warm and pretty outside and the plan for some hiking was appealing to all. I was really keen on trying my fly rod in the Trout Farm pond seeing as I had only used it twice since the purchase in week 3 and I still owed Catt the purchase price in fish. This plan was cancelled fairly quickly as the manager told me that it was hatching season and no fishing was allowed. This did not only count for their dam, but included all the Zomba’s streams and ponds. The disappointed in me was HUGE! Fly Fishing on the Zomba Plateau had been one of my great ambitions on this trip and a played a big role in me buying the gear…

Once everyone was awake and ready we decided to take a walk to a viewpoint. We had a choice of two: Queens View, named for Queen Elisabeth who came to visit and Emperor’s view, named for the Emperor of Ethiopia who came to visit as well. The route took us passed William’s fall which was named for…. A William I suspect… The Bradt Guide’s map was fairly basic and useless and although the Lonely Planet had a nice detailed map, the book was too big to carry. We left with a small GPS in hand, relying on a sense of direction, a sense of adventure and dumb luck.

The trail took us from the cottage passed the camp site and along a mountain stream. The indigenous forest around the area was wildly impressive and the breathtakingly beautiful. The latter resulting in a slower than usual pace and lots of appreciation of our environment. We came upon a place we thought was William’s falls, paused for some photographs and with the help of the GPS found a road which headed in the general direction we wanted to go. Before long we found a well worn footpath which looked like a short cut so ventured onto that, keeping an eye on the GPS and the general direction of travel.

Before long we realized that the whole mountain was a labyrinth of well worn footpaths, but as it only had ne road, we were confident that we would not get too lost. Besides, a circumnavigation of the plateau seemed possible in a full day, and we could not see ourselves doing that by accident. We often saw and greeted some local people gathering wood. I remembered being told that a plantation forest needs pruning every once in a while to ensure that the trees grow straight and high and this seemed to be exactly what these guys were up to. They were not cutting down trees as such, but the lowest branches of the pine trees. This would then be tied in bundles measuring 3 meters in lengths and carried on their heads up or down the paths we were walking on. It was unbelievable how many logs and how much weight these men and woman managed to carry on their heads!

After a few hours hiking and seemingly no closer to any marked viewpoint, we found the road and decided to turn back for lunch. This was fairly easy going and as we chatted our way down the hill we were met by hikers gong the opposite way. This definitely seemed the preferred way to find the viewpoints, but we were confident that we had a far superior experience taking the scenic route. Around one bend we saw a worn wooden sign which marked the William’s Falls. We had left the road a couple of hundred meters before that earlier and completely missed it. Oops… The falls themselves were small and unimpressive in my mind. I could not even see that they would be of more interest in the wettest season. I did feel that the world should have a standard as to when a sight should be allowed to be called a “waterfall” and when it should be called “Rapids”. William’s falls fell into the “Rapids” category for me.

No fishing meant no fish for lunch, so instead we cooked a mountain of pork sausages and finished off the loaf of bread and the cheese we bought the previous day. It felt like comfort food and I liked it. Even though I had vowed not to base our travels on chasing internet connections, it had been more than 2 weeks since our last connection. After pigging out on pork Catt and I set off in search of Wi-Fi.

The Ku Chawe Inn provided a Hotspot connection and offered a one hour, unlimited bandwidth card at MK600. Their coffee price increased from MK300 the previous day to an unexplainable MK450 over night, so we stayed thirsty while doing admin. We did manage to get our money’s worth by using two computers on the same card though.

By late afternoon the parents made their appearance which meant a little more walking. This time we walked passed the Zomba stables, the big and impressive Mulunguzi Dam, back past the Mandala falls (Rapids) and on to the comfortable cottage at the trout farm. We managed a respectable 16.2km of walking in the mountains for the day.

The fireplace was lit without delay, the G&T’s poured and we all sat with our feet up, relaxing until way after sunset. The Cobb was employed to cook dinner in front of the fireplace with. That is a feature of the thing that I really appreciated as it meant that no one needed to stand outside in the cold to get dinner ready. Before long the day grew to an abrupt end with four tired hikers hitting their individual pillows like sledge hammers.

Day 100: (WOW! We made it to 100!!!)
I woke up early congratulation myself and Catt for being on the road for 100 days. The showers were hot and the coffee ready by the time we got up and after spending a good hour packing the cars we set off down the mountain. We needed to buy food for three days, get some fuel, some money and drive a measly 80km on a Saturday. I was convinced we were in for an easy day…

I dropped Catt off at the Metro as we had established their meat was of good quality and about half the price of Li8longwe’s Foodworths. Pete and I visited the bank and managed to get some cash out without issue. I went to the fuel station next to the bank for fuel and… Well… there was none. Africa had different plans for us on day number 100. At least the Metro provided the things we needed and the market we visited after was impressively clean and cheap.

On the way out of town we stopped at every fuel station only to be told the same story: No Diesel… At least Pete managed to fill up the rental with Petrol, so one of us was OK. Zomba used to be the capitol of Malawi so I was amazed that their pumps would be dry but as we were heading to Liwonde I wasn’t too worried about the situation… Until we reached Liwonde and could not find fuel there either. We had enough to make Mvuu Camp, our planned place of residence for the next three days. We even had enough fuel to get back into town after the three days. The frustrating thing was that we were paying to be in a wildlife reserve for three days without the ability of going on game drives. We had booked and paid to ensure that we had space with the parents and could not make another plan. We had the option to pay the expensive game drive fee, or spend our time in camp, waiting to get word on the fuel situation, hopping for a delivery before we had to leave. That really pissed me off!

We reluctantly made camp by lunch time. Riaan, the new general manager showed us to a really nice site in their camp ground and after mentioning “echo lodge” for the fifth time, told us that he would get us a tiny bundle of fire wood which was most certainly not enough to cook on. This fortunately was completely unnecessary as we were yet to make a dent in the mountain range of charcoal we acquired a week or two previous.

I was a little irritated by Wilderness Safaris Malawi though. Firstly, the guy in Lilongwe should have told us that there was a massive fuel problem in Malawi. We discussed our complete itinerary with him to make sure that we could drive a sedan where we wanted to go. Secondly, if we did not have charcoal and needed wood to cook on, we would have been stuffed.

In the afternoon I called Tim, who we had met on the Ilala the previous week. Tim worked in Liwonde town and could let us know when the fuel came in. We had just enough to get us to town, but not enough to get back and out again, so we could only start the engine when we were 100% sure of supply. Riaan was unable to help us as they get only one fuel delivery a year and they often struggle to make ends meet. Needless to say that we spent the rest of the afternoon in camp… relaxing in our trusty hammocks.

Day 101:
We had established that the park’s roads were passable by normal car, so the four of us piled into the sedan and went for a game drive. The park didn’t seem to have that many roads, so we followed the river north from camp. It was a cloudless day and the low sun provided brilliant lighting on the many animals we saw. Warthog was “gardening” in big numbers and Waterbuck was in abundance. There were many Hippos along the river’s edge and even though it was not prime birding season, the water birds were plentiful.

Within an hour and a half we had reached the edge of the park. This was marked by a huge Baobab tree and an informal ferry port. The small boats were stacked high with bicycles and people and were being rowed across the expanse of water. I did not envy the passengers or crew who had to make the crossings. Our sightings dwindled slightly on the return trip to camp, so we made it back by mid morning to commence operation hammock once again. Even through it was mid winter in Malawi; the day grew hot and dry. The swimming pool in camp offered a welcome refuge from the heat though.

Around 15:00 we received word from Tim that one of the fuel stations in town had a diesel delivery and started pumping to customers. Catt and I packed down the tent, jumped into Maggie, fired up the trusty 1HZ engine and set off on a trot after sharing this valuable information with another camper with a diesel Land Cruiser. The speculated one hour drive took us 45 minutes. To our utter astonishment there was no cue at the pumps and the supply was holding. We also found out that they were not rationing the volume per customer. To ad to our fortune, we had enough cash to fill our tanks, so the pumping commenced.

It takes about twenty minutes or so to fill the 256l we can carry and in that time I usually chat to the attendant, or help him by pumping myself. This was no different. We chatted about football teams and country politics mostly. He told me that he had been pumping diesel non stop for the preceding 4 hours and was getting tired, so I took over the control of the nozzle for a while. I asked him how safe he felt with the massive wad of cash in his pockets. He smiled and said: “This is Malawi my friend. I feel perfectly safe.” We agreed that we would have felt a whole heap different had he been in South Africa with a mountain of cash in his pocket. With 245 litres filled up we came to the end of our chat. We paid him just over MK55 000 in crispy notes, got some advice as to where to buy Tonic and set off down the road.

Malawi is supposedly known for the Gin they produce. I’m not sure what they usually drink it with, but Tonic is fairly challenging to get hold of. The small Superette around the corner had a fresh supply though, so we managed to swop our empty crate for a full one. It was just past 16:30 by the time we re entered the park. This meant that we could slow our pace dramatically and actually have a game drive. The main track to camp follows the river, so the sightings were as good as the morning’s drive. In addition to the normal plains game we expected, we also saw three different herds of elephant crossing the road. We were amazed by the amount of small calves in the herds and not surprised by the aggression of the young males or the shyness of the maternal females.

We reached our camp site just after dark and a few minutes before Pete and Annie would have started to worry. Catt and I pitched the tent and prepared dinner in the fast and efficient way we can and had a fresh G&T in hand in now time. It was also the night of the Football World Cup Final, so after dinner we walked over to the lodge’s conference centre and joined the staff and other guests in front of the massive projector screen. I was slightly disappointed when the game went into extra time and almost relieved when it finished. It was past 23:00 by the time we made it back to out tent which was waaayyyy later than we had been going to bed, so falling asleep was not exactly difficult.

Day 102:
The one activity we had decided to do was a boat cruise with the lodge. Although the cost was $30 per person, it offered a rare opportunity to see a huge amount of bird life and some animals on the river banks. The cruises started at 8am because the animals apparently don’t congregate by the river earlier than that. After the late night that suited us perfectly.

David, our guide was excellent! He managed to get us really close to many birds and even within a few meters of a Malachite Kingfisher. His knowledge was vast, his manner excellent and his stories entertaining and informative. In addition to the common game we were used to seeing in the park we saw the biggest Crocodiles you can imagine and even a big male Bushbuck in the open. The concentration of Hippo in the river is quite high, so we were never too far away from a pod cooling themselves in the water. On the way back to the lodge he spotted some Elephant in the reeds on the far bank and ventured in their direction. One of the big males was completely open, belly deep in the water and feasting on the succulent reeds while David expertly manoeuvred the boat to within ten meters from him. He recognised this male as one that had charged him before and explained his caution to us with a colourful recount of their previous meeting. After a good twenty minutes by the elephants we headed back to the lodge which marked the end of the best boat safari I had ever been on. I felt that the $30 fee was a bargain for the experience.

Back in camp we dealt with an early lunch followed by some quality hammock time in the heat of the day. The lodge had solar geysers for shower water which meant that the only time you could expect reasonable heat from the spout above was between 13:00 and 16:00. You’d think that a place with that kind of reputation would do better. By 16:00 however, we had all had our daily wash with hot water and was ready again to on our second game activity. We piled back into the sedan and ventured south from camp. The perfect afternoon light danced on the water and trees around the river’s bends and offered many stunning photographic opportunities of the plains game we had grown accustomed to seeing. Liwonde is also not a big park by any standard and the roads are fairly limited. This meant that we managed close to all the places south of camp in just over an hour and made it back to our comfortable retreat before the sun was down.

Day 103:
It was time to move on and we had to leave early! We were packed up and in the cars with engines purring down the road by 6:15. Within twenty minutes our journey came to an abrupt halt. There was a breeding herd of Elephant in the middle of the road and they showed zero intention of moving on or letting us past. Pete was leading our two vehicle convoy in the sedan which did not seem to register as anything significant with the herd. I squeezed past with Maggie to see if I could coach them to move on, but this was met with some aggression and a hasty retreat. There was nothing we could do apart from waiting patiently for them to decide to move on by themselves. I tried to push past one or two more times but eventually had to concede that we were in for a long wait. Not that watching the interactions and daily life of a four or five generation strong breeding herd of the largest land animal was a great hardship.

Half an hour later we were let past one by one and resumed our journey out of the park. About five kilometres or so before the gate Catt spotted some Bush Pig. That was the second time in my life that I had seen them and the second time on the trip. They were pretty skittish and did not hang around for unprepared photographers to get their gear in hand. The lesson was obviously to keep my camera on my lap and this was rewarded within minutes when we spotted two Sable Antelope less than 50m off the road. The cloudy morning did not offer any significant photographic opportunity, but it was still fantastic to see these rare antelope in their natural environment. Our arrival at the gate, half an hour behind schedule marked the end of our morning’s game drive and our wildlife experience while the parentals were with us. I could not help but smile at the fact that our sightings that morning could easily satisfy someone’s life long ambition to see rare species of African wildlife.

Our journey took us north along a good tar road and on to the very bottom of Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi) and then Cape Maclear, bypassing the hectic and non recommended craziness of Monkey Bay. Our mission for the day was to reach the base of Kayak Africa by 10:30 to be transported to their Mombo Island camp by boat. With our Elephant roadblock and the difficult driving through millions of villages and thousands of schools we still manage to arrive before the deadline.

Mombo Island is 10km off the main land and small enough to Kayak around in less than an hour. You can walk all the paths and criss-cross it in about an hour an a half and if they are full, it is inhabited by 12 guests and 8 staff. That is it! No fishing is allowed within a kilometre of the island which theoretically means that no fisherman would be allowed to be in the area. Kayak Africa was historically one of the companies I did photography for in Malawi. This enabled me to negotiate a trade exchange and lower rate for the four of us for two nights stay. They had become very expensive, so if it was not for this rare opportunity, we would have never been able to go there.

The friendly and efficient staff signed us in, helped us load our luggage, SCUBA gear included, onto their boat and served us a well deserved mug of filter coffee on their deck. This was the site of my very first SCUBA dive seven years earlier. Jury, the co-owner who lives on site came to great me and we had a short reminiscing of the way things used to be. I had been there seven years earlier when Jury and Marzi, his wife was running the place and they did most of the work themselves. In my seven year absence Jury had lost his leg after breaking it on an island and not getting medical help for three days. Marzi had passed away after falling of a boat somewhere on the lake and apparently drowning. She was never recovered. This served as a stark reminder that not even life in paradise was all it was said to be.

The adventure of the green wooden boat taking us to our island retreat lasted at least 45 minutes. The locally made boat was seemingly reliable, but shockingly unstable and the minimalistic diesel engine provided very little in the way of powerful propulsion. As we were approaching the island I pointed out our humble accommodations on the big rocks facing the sunrise. It was a phenomenal site to behold and the speechlessness of everyone on board testified to its grandeur. We docked onto a pier and after spilling out onto the wooden walk way was welcomed by Tanya, our friendly Malawian hostess.

Tanya explained the lay of the land and the workings of the island to us before showing us to our beds. The accommodation consists of permanent Safari tents on wooden decks with a thatch roof over head. Every tent sleeps two people, has a hammock swinging on the patio and can not be seen by any other tent on the small island. Every patio has a panoramic view of the lake and ours was to be the first one to get warmed by the sun in the morning. All tents had en suite, dry compost long drop loos and bucket showers. The accommodation is on a small rocky outcrop joined to the main island by a wooden walk way bridge. The main island hosts the kitchen, dining room/bar and a living room area all with comfortable sitting places and the obligatory Bawo boards dotted around. The private and secluded beach had a few kayaks, a heap of snorkelling gear and a beach attendant to see to your every need. This was NOT our typical budget accommodation or activity provider. We felt terribly spoilt and strangely privileged.

A buffet lunch was served promptly at 13:00 and announced by the croaking of a carved wooden frog. Pete and I dug in and to the embarrassment of Catt and Annie managed to stuff ourselves with three helpings. The food was fantastic! The weather on the lake was strangely cloudy and a little cold on that day and we made use of that phenomena by hiking all the little forest paths marked our by the lodge’s staff. The weather was quite good for that activity as the humidity in the forest was very high even with the clouds. The high winds meant that the sunset cruise on a little wooden boat with 15hp engine was cancelled. This meant a relaxing late afternoon in front of the Bawo boards while patiently awaiting the dinner frog.

Dinner frog croaked at 19:00 sharp and prompted the appearance of beef fillet and some other bits, also in a buffet form. This meant that Pete and I could really get stuck into the food once again. None of us thought it possible, but we even put our significant lunch time efforts to shame and the girls were not too impressed. The other guests didn’t seem to mind though and the kitchen seemed to have an unlimited supply as they re stocked the dishes every time we manage to empty them. I was impressed! By 20:00 the other two guests had gone to bed and we were the only ones left in the dining room. We were working hard at over indulging in the wine we had brought on the theory that it would make the food we ate seem normal. It didn’t. Food comas set in just before 23:00 and I instantly fell asleep on the comfortable bed in the comfortable tent on the magnificent rock with a panoramic view.

Day 104:
The brightness of the sun rising over the flat lake woke us up around 6:30. We had decided not to be lazy and get up to take some photos to justify our stay and with the perfect light and the morning sun the hammock was employed to portrait the relaxing environment future clients could expect. As if by magic, coffee arrived by waiter within 15 minutes of us getting up. We “ordered” our hot shower and commenced operation photography until another man arrived with a bucket of hot water for our simple bucket shower. For this shower water we were asked if we wanted it warm, medium or hot and if we wanted one or two showers. The water then gets heated on a fire by the kitchen to the desired temperature before being carried in a bucket to your en suite shower for your utter enjoyment. Oh the decadence of it all!


The breakfast frog croaked at 8am but by that time the clouds had rolled in and the temperature had dropped significantly. Although a little disappointed in the weather, the food more than made up for it and the weight in my stomach made the decision to return to life in the hammock quite easy and acceptable. I almost found it strange that we could adapt to being spoilt so incredibly much so easy after having to be self sufficie3nt for so long. I did not mind any of it though.

By 9:30 the clouds started parting and the sun came out. The temperature increased exponentially and half an hour later it was hot enough for us to venture into the world of water sports. Kayaking was first on the list. The beach guys helped us prep and pushed us into the water with some warnings about the winds. Catt and I had a quick paddle around the small tented island to test the waters. The waves were surprisingly high and the steering surprisingly tough and going into the wind was surprisingly hard. We still decided to go around the main island and set of with Pete on our heels. Behind the island we found a wind shadow which made the workload almost non existent and the general environment relaxing and fun. While enjoying the easiness of transport we did prepare ourselves for the onslaught of the waves and wind on the last bit of our row. When we hit it, the fun dialled down, the work increased and the adrenalin started pumping. It was full on work to keep the boat upright and pointed in the right direction while still making headway. I had the advantage of remembering the lay of the land and knowing where the finish line was before the others, so when the last rock we needed to pass came into view I was excited and relieved to be close to home. Back at the beach we were helped from our boats and congratulated each other on our conquest.

The lunch frog announced the arrival of the next expertly prepared buffet and by this time the girls had given up on trying to get us not to pig out. We were served Catfish, a first for me and it was delicious! This time I did not overdo it though as we had a plan to go scuba diving in the afternoon. Lewis, our dive master arrived on the afternoon boat with full cylinders and within twenty minutes of his arrival we set off on the small green boat to the back of the island where the wind could not get to us. I was a little apprehensive when I saw Lewis putting on a hoodie as well as his 5mm wetsuit, but thought he was just used to much warmed water in the summer. The preparations on the boat were insanely easy in the perfectly still water. It was as if we were on dry land and after getting ready and doing checks Catt and I rolled into the water followed by Lewis. This moment marked the full circle in my Scuba diving career. We descended quickly and found the water very cold indeed. The visibility was terrible, but the cichlids plenty and the geography underwater fascinating. I also had a bread roll in my BCD pocket and at the perfect moment I took that out and presented it as food for the millions of little tropical fish around us. 20 minutes into the dive we were starting to get cold and already anticipating the end of diving. We rounded a big rock, went through a few swim through and under some overhangs and Lewis expertly had us back at the boat on our safety stop at 45 minutes, as he had said he would.

Once we were all on the boat again, the skipper radioed the kitchen asking for two very hot showers to be ready and waiting for us. I thought that was an incredibly insightful thing to do. The ten minute boat ride back was easy and as the diving was in fresh water, we did not have to wash our gear. We simply hung it up on the dive deck and by the time we reached our tent, the piping hot shower was ready and waiting.

Our last night on the island was very similar to our first night. Pete and I totally over indulged in the expertly prepared buffet dinner and while playing cards after dinner we also made a decent dent in our wine supplies. It had been a long busy and exciting day so it was once again no real hardship to fall asleep in the comforts of our tents.

Day 105:
Catt and I woke up long before the sun’s first rays hit the tent. The skies were clear, the wind still and with zero light pollution, the stars were incredibly bright. The best part was that we did not need to move from our bed to appreciate the stars as the netting in front of the door was so big that we had a near perfect view. The clouds started building as the sun tried to heat up the rock in front of our palace. We tried to encourage it by moving to the hammock, duvet and all. Once again, as if by magic, morning coffee arrived within 15 minutes. I was relieved that we had decided to through some clothes on before moving to the hammock.

The breakfast frog called us to the restaurant and by this time the clouds started parting. The welcoming heat from the morning sun made it a pleasant last few hours on the island. I even made Catt and Pete go for a swim with snorkelling gear so I could take some photos. By 9:30 we had had our fill of food, our very hot showers, packed our clean and dry dive gear away and were ready to leave. The green boat was bobbing around against the jetty and after a last chat to Tanya, we climbed aboard. The ride back to the mainland was smooth and easy. The wind seemed a little calmer, but the instability of the wooden boat was still surprisingly apparent.

After settling the bill and packing the cars we sourced some bread and tomatoes for lunch and set down the bumpy road back towards Monkey bay. Catt and I stopped in at the local clinic to have a look. This clinic was established by the mother of a boy who drowned in the lake some years previous. It is staffed by Scottish volunteers and local nurses and offers very decent medical care for the local village. Non locals pay a little more and non Malawians pay a reasonable fee to help fund the clinic and subsidise the locals. We found this a great project, expertly run and impressively professional.

On our way out of the area we popped into the Pumulani Boutique Hotel. This was managed by Luke and Betty who we had met in Zambia at Mukambi a few weeks before. We were just nosy to see the place really as they charge over $500 a night a person it wasn’t like we were going to stay. The place was strangely minimalistic with massive villas hidden on a hill side next to the lake. They have a Dhow which they sail with, a private beach, a speed boat and offer a range of activities on the water. We stayed long enough to have a coffee, get the grand tour from Luke, and chat about the challenges of running a fancy hotel in an African country and set off before the lunch hour.

Our destination for the day was Senga Bay and the recommended accommodation there was Cool Runnings. By this time we had found that driving in Malawi always takes longer than the estimated GPS times and always requires 100% concentration 100% of the time. The sheer number of small children on the roads is mind boggling and the way the Malawians manage to load up their bicycles with an insane amount of wide cargo completely defies any logic.

Arriving in Senga Bay we followed the yellow smiley faces to Cool Runnings. I laughed at the fact that it was no longer strange to drive through a typical African Village to get to your lodge. It was no surprise to find a high fence and closed gate which was opened by some village kids who promptly get shouted at by the manager to leave the wazungu alone.

Cool Runnings was run by a crazy hippy chick who did a heap of work in the local community. The place itself was a typical African backpackers and house with big gardens and lush green lawn. It was, once again, like camping in someone’s back yard for hardy any money at all. After checking in and ordering dinner we pitched camp and headed for the beach. My word that was a disappointment and a subtle shock!

The beach was filthy! It was littered with plastic and stained by fuel and oil from boats in the area. The busy fishing community was busy going by their daily lives which included mending nets, bathing in the lake and washing clothes. The air reeked of rotten fish and the general feel of the place was hostile. This all was accentuated by the presence of fences and burglar bars on every beach side property. We strolled into another lodge, advertising Scuba diving, Wi-Fi and pancakes only to find out, for the hundredth time in Malawi that the advertising boards had very little to do with the actual reality of what you would find. It seemed that Malawi was the home of false advertising.

Back on the lawn of Cool Runnings was a different story altogether. The atmosphere was friendly, the staff courteous and efficient and the general feel was close to relaxing island life. I much preferred that to the bad world outside of their fence. With dinner imminent we were summoned to our table. Three orders of Rump steak and one order of Chicken arrived. My jaw dropped! The chef expertly stacked the plates high enough to feed an average African state from and the taste was simply out of this world! The prices were quite high, comparing to a South African average, but the quality was phenomenal! With full bellies and a few games of cards over a few glasses of vino we came to the end of our 105th day on the road… and liking it all!

If I had to do it again:

You’d think that by now I would have had enough experience to always make a plan to fill up my fuel tanks when I can. The curve ball in Malawi is that you are very limited to the amount of money you can get from a cash machine. What I should have known is that you can use the same card twice in the same machine, doubling your daily allowance. With the two cards that we have, and employing this technique, we could have managed to get enough money out to fill the tank and avoid the fuel crisis. So we learn…

Zomba was fantastic and the trout farm a good choice. Mvuu was great and the only real option in the park, although I do believe that two nights would have been sufficient with a boat ride on the full day that you spend in the park.

Mombo Island and Kayak Africa was once again a rewarding and fantastic experience. There is honestly nothing negative I can find to say about our time on the island. They are pricey though! For the budget traveller, you can visit their Dombwe Island camp; self cater and spend a lot less money, so it’s worth investigating. If budget allows though, Mombo Island is an absolute must!

Senga bay is simply not worth the trouble. It’s not even really a suitable stop over as the only way to reach it is from Salima and it will take you 45 minutes each way by car. There are many more and better places and ways to visit the lake.