Malawi

Friday 13th April

We woke up fairly early and were on our way by 7.30am. We took 3 hours to complete the 80kms from Chitipa to Karonga on Lake Malawi and there we all drew money at an Atm, filled up with petrol and went to the internet café. Thank goodness petrol is now R8.50 instead of the R12 – R15 we were paying in Zambia! Downloading to our web is still proving to be a challenge – the café had a dial up connection with a speed of 26 kbs which is half the speed of a dial up at home. So it took us 40 minutes to just read our email and dump prepared text to the blog. There was no way we could download photographs. The cell coverage here is good and in Zambia it was intermittent, however, the towers do not have Gprs/3G data connection so we can’t get our emails via our cell phone. The satellite phone is very slow and very expensive so I’m afraid our communication is sporadic. I hope we are not frustrating you all too much but we are doing the best we can.
We then drove down the M1(a tarred road!) along side the western shore of Lake Malawi. The scenery is really spectacular and the lake impressive. We went about 80kms south before finding an absolutely beautiful campsite called Sangilo Sanctuary. There was a steep descent to Sangilo but the end result was worth it – a totally private beach with big rock boulders at either end. On the pure white, non salty beach was the kitchen, restaurant and bar area. The lake has gentle bobbing waves(just for me) and is a pleasant 25 degrees(just for Dave). We couldn’t resist their evening menu of an avo starter with cream cheese followed by a choice of lake fish or lemon braised chicken with veggies and sauted potatoes for R65 a head! It was the perfect end to an idyllic day.

Saturday 14th April

We decided to spend another day at Sangilo as it was just so restful. The owners are a married couple with 2 little girls – one turns 5 tomorrow on Daryl’s birthday and the other is 18 months old. The lady is a doctor from Scotland – she came here 10 years ago on a contract and has never left! The weather was wonderful and we just lolled in the lake and played cards and read our books. Another tough day in Africa!

Sunday 15th April

We left at 7am – we are getting good – and headed west inland over the mountains that surround the lake. The view was breath taking and we got a birds eye view of the enormity of Lake Malawi. We drove SW to Rumphi and then up into Nyika National Park. The Nyika Plateau is 2400m above sea level and is quite a different landscape from that around the lake. On the way we stopped and bought local produce along the road – whatever the locals have for sale, they just leave in a bucket on the road and when you stop they appear from nowhere to serve you! I bought a pumpkin for 50c and a cabbage + 4 tomatoes for R5! The tomatoes are absolutely delicious obviously organically grown! We are now camped at Chelinda Campsite in the Nyika Plateau and it is just like being in the Drakensberg. They lit a donkey and we had wonderful, steaming hot showers and are about to sit down beside the camp fire. Tomorrow is my boy’s birthday and you are really in our thoughts Daryl – Happy birthday son we hope you have a wonderful day and that everyone spoils you rotten! Hope you enjoy your presents – we love and miss you stacks.

This plateau is about 40 kms from the lakeside as the crow flies, but is almost 2kms up and you can certainly feel the temperature difference-Sunday night it went down to 9 degrees and the afternoon had been 19 whereas the lakeside was 25 to 30 degrees!

Monday 16th April

We left at 8am and headed back down the road towards Rumphi and then the Lake. We stopped to look at a “basket bridge” which was originally built in 1904 and is still maintained and used by the locals on a regular basis. Further up the pass over to the lake we took a turning to the Wungra Falls which was 8 kms off the road. A local met us and said he would guide us on a 20 minute walk-not too steep-to the falls. So off we all set except Maureen, in our slops, no water or anything. Well, 3 hours later we got back to the cars, with only Neville having actually made it the last 40 meters down to the bottom of the falls! You needed to be a mountain goat to do this walk and in fact it was very dangerous with a sheer, slippery, muddy path vertically down. As we said to Jeffram(our guide) it was VERY steep and you needed hiking boots, rescue ropes and definitely water! Anyway, we all lived to tell the tale although I, for one, can hardly walk today on Wednesday!
After our long walk we were all exhausted and decided to just get to the lakeside and find a camp instead of going to Livingstonia, as had been our original plan.

Tuesday 17th April

We left at 8.30am and headed 10kms up the lakeside before turning inland towards Livingstonia. This was a really exciting road which was 15kms long with 20 hairpin bends, besides other twists and turns, which ascended 1 000 meters, and was definitely more challenging than the Sani Pass road. The view was breath taking and the drive was really worth it. Livingstonia is an ancient mission town which relocated up into the hills to escape malaria.