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.