Day 15: Lilongwe to London

Morning tea at the bus station

We woke quite early and headed out for breakfast. I was yearning for a café where we could sit down, relax and enjoy a good breakfast. I would have loved a Australian / British style brunch, but that isn't really Malawi's style.

We stepped inside one café only to be told the chef hadn't yet arrived for the day. Walking round the corner we found a bakery that was open and decided to pick up a couple of croissants, although they sadly didn't have anywhere to sit down. We continued strolled and seemed, inevitably, to end up back at the bus station.

We saw a popular looking tea stall and decided to grab a couple of seats. It was quite a sight to see the man running the stall pour the tea. Fresh tea leaves were placed in the sieve and hot water poured through to give an instant brew. Milk powder and sugar were heaped in and then the plastic cups were handed to us.

Watching it being prepared it looked like it might be awful, but the sweet tea hit the spot perfectly. The locals were all having huge door steps of bread slathered with butter, but we politely declined as we'd already had our croissants.

We got chatting to the guy next to us who was heading down to Dedza for the day to watch a football match.

Street dough snack

On the way back to the hotel to pick up our bags I bought a fried dough ball for pennies just to see what they tasted like. Bland was the answer.

We took a taxi to the airport and had to give our driver part of the fare along the way so he could fill up with petrol.

There were two flights departing close together and sleepy Lilongwe International wasn't really geared up for it with only one departure lounge and security scanner. It would have been all too easy to end up on the wrong flight, but luckily that didn't happen to us!

We tried to spend our final Malawian Kwacha on two cups of tea, but didn't have enough change to afford them at the inflated airport prices. We must have looked a bit forlorn leaving the coffee bar as an America student followed us back to our seats shortly afterwards with two cups of tea. What a lovely lady!

Our flight up to Nairobi was uneventful. We had an eight hour layover before our connection to London. Our original plan was to use the time for a mad dash into the city to check out some of Nairobi's highlights, but we both decided that we didn't really have the energy.

We asked if there was an earlier flight to London we might be able to change to (no was the answer) and then checked out whether we could access to the business class lounge. You could only buy a three hour pass to the lounge so we decided to hold off as long as we could before going in.

Once inside the lounge wasn't really up to much, but at least we got a seat, there was wifi and free booze.

Day 14: Cape Maclear to Lilongwe, Malawi

Our final full day in Malawi was another one spent travelling, something we seemed to have spent quite a lot of time doing during our trip. Generally I enjoy days on the road when travelling as a great opportunity to see some of the countryside up close and meet local people, but there were a couple of occasions on this trip when longs days of travelling grated a bit. Generally it wasn't when I had enough food with me to keep me going!

We woke up about seven and had breakfast by the beach, soaking up the last of the glorious view of lake Malawi before checking out. We drifted onto the main street and waited for a lift back to Monkey Bay. I was expecting to be balancing on the back of another pickup truck, but to my surprise a mini bus turned up after thirty minutes of waiting. We looped round town a couple of times to pick up more passengers and then head out of town. The first leg of our trip cost 600 MKW.

We were hoping to be able to travel back to Lilongwe via Golmoti and Dedza as it is a much shorter route than having to head south before looping north again to the capital. Unfortunately it is a much less frequently travelled route and we'd missed the only bus of the day we knew went via that route. When we arrived at the Monkey Bay bus station we were approached by a fixer / tout offering to help us. When we turned down motorbikes he disappeared for a while and then came back with and a pick up truck. We got seats in the cab and he drove us painfully slowly across to Golomoti, making every attempt to save fuel. If the road had even the fairest downhill incline he turned the engine off and let us coast. It was slow, but he got us there safely.

The road between Monkey Bay and Golmoti was sparsely populated even by Malawian standards. Our driver managed to pick up a few fares along the way, but it was probably the first time we'd be on private transport that wasn't full to bursting. The second leg of our journey cost 2,000 MKW.

In Golmoti we were straight onto another minibus and set off pretty quickly. Some locals were turfed out of the front seat so we could sit there. It makes me feel a bit guilty when this happened, and I'm fairly sure we weren't paying any extra for the privilege, just being given special treatment as tourists. Having spent quite a few cramped hours crushed into the back of minibuses during the trip I knew have fantastic the front seat was and my guilt didn't extend far enough to refuse the offer. The front was also the only place in the bus with a seatbelt.

As I reached down to put on my seatbelt I could feel that the seat was a bit damp, but I didn't realise how wet it was. I had a thoroughly soaked bum by the time we reached Dedza! In Dedza our bus emptied even though the sign in the front window said it was going all the way to Lilongwe. We were switched busses and for the second time on our trip money changed hands between the money boys on the two buses and our originally agreed fare of 2,500 MKW covered us for the whole distance.

We'd done the whole trip for 5,100 MKW, just over £10. It compares quite well with the $200 being quote for a private taxi the whole way!

The final leg from Dedza to Lilongwe was painfully slow. I'd enjoyed ascending up through the mountains as we'd left Golmoti earlier in the day, but by now I'd had enough. I read my book for the final part of the trip.

We arrived back at Lilongwe bus station just after 4pm. We quickly checked back into Sunbird guesthouse where we'd stayed on our first night an were given the same room (No 13) and headed for the shopping centre, aiming to get there before it closed for the day. Inside forty minutes we'd been to the pharmacy to buy bilhazia tablets and a malaria test kit and whipped round the supermarket to get holiday gifts (tea, coffee, gin and hot sauce).

Couldn't resist the photo. I saw two of these centres during my travels

We then popped round the corner to DAPP a charity shop where I was hoping to drop off some clothes and shoes I didn't want to take home. Despite getting there a couple of minutes before 5pm they has already closed. It was a disappointment not to have been able to drop off my donation, but I was impressed with how efficient the rest of our shopping had been.

Shopping complete we stopped in the shopping centre for a drink and then headed back to our hotel and then almost immediately out for dinner. We headed back towards the bus station and to the restaurant where we'd had breakfast on our long day of travel from South Luangwa to Blantyre. The area round the bus station was party central with lots of bars and night clubs doing a lively trade. We just settled for dinner. I finally had the samosa I'd been hankering for in the last week. It was underwhelming.

Finally a samosa. Didn't turn out to be that exciting

Final lake fish of the holiday

We headed back to bed quite early. The Sunbird was a bit of a come down compared with our lodges for the previous few nights at Cape Maclear and Zomba Forest Lodge. It had hot water and an ok shower which hadn't always been the case during our travels. It was a cold night.

Day 13: Cape Maclear

A sunlounger and a book. That was basically our day.

There aren't many tourists around in Cape Maclear and each lodge only seems to have four to six rooms, but you can tell that we are in tourist central Malawi style. As we went to bed last night there was a disco blaring, but I luckily managed to drop off without too many problems waking around 6am.

We headed for breakfast around 9am and I was served a huge pot of tea that took me over an hour to drink. Ed and I both read our books until gone midday, only rising to look at the view or to change between the sun lounger and hammock.

It was a blissfully relaxing morning. The most energetic thing I did was to text Becks.

Building works in Cape Maclear

We raised ourselves for a walk around 12:30. We headed west through the town and I was amazed how many curio sellers there were compared with the number of tourists in town.  Thankfully we didn't get too badly hassled. There are more persistent touts on the beach, but the lodges seem to have it quite well organised and non of the touts come onto the properties.

Hitting the western end of town and not finding an internet café we turned round and headed to the Fat Monkeys, the most easterly lodge in the village. We were hoping to find a wifi connection and to get a drink. We mananged to get a drink.

Sunset over Lake Malawi

While we were having lunch we got chatting to a 23 year old English guy from High Wycombe. He has been travelling for the last sixteen months and has another eight months to go before arriving back in the UK. He started by driving the length of the Americas on a motorbike and is now cycling from South Africa to Trafalgar Square. While we were talking I worked out he was the guy that we saw on the day we travelled from South Luangwa to Blantyr.

Around 3pm we walked back up the beach to our lodge to read and lie on the sun loungers. It was a hard day.

Washing clothes by the lake shore

We stopped reading around 5pm to take in the amazing sunset over Lake Malawi. There were kids playing on the beach, locals crowding round a fishing boat that has just come ashore and a sky that was slowly turning red. We drank beer and took photos of the sun setting.

After the sun had set we walked up the beach to a restaurant called Banapaya. There was a powercut in the village, the first we'd experienced during our trip, and the restaurant was lit by candles. For most of our time in the restaurant we were the only customer and the food took an hour to arrive (which seems to be about usual). The staff seemed genuinely pleased to see us and wanted to make sure we were happy which was nice.

After dinner we walked back down to our lodge, had a final beer and turned into bed at 9:15pm.

It was the most fantastically relaxing day, with gorgeous views as a back drop. You couldn't really ask for more.

Day 12: Zomba to Cape Maclear, Malawi

Masongola Hotel, Zomba

I slept better on my second night at the Zomba Forrest Lodge, there is something very appealing about sleeping in the pitch black and complete silence.

Another smokey shower and then more excellent homemade muesli for breakfast. We only ate two of the four muffins set out for us so the other two were packed for the road. Tom kindly drove us back into town. The track from the lodge was pretty slippy due to the rain.

He dropped us of at the Masongola Hotel. One of the oldest buildings in Zomba it has the feeling of faded glory. They served us an over expensive tea in thermos flasks on the lawn. We had a quick look round the accommodation annex and saw monkeys playing in the trees and climbing into one of the rooms through an open window.

After our tea we walked into two to catch a minibus towards Monkey Bay. We weren't sure if we'd get a bus the whole way so caught one promising to take us to Managochi, even though the sign on the front said Liwonde (only about half way). We decided to relax, go with the flow and see what happened.

Malawi - the home of second hand Royal Mail bikes

As we drove north the landscape started to change. We spent the day driving through wide flat valleys. There seemed to be more land under cultivation next to the road, mosques replaced churches, river beds were dry and the mud/thatch buildings we had seen were replaced by brick and corrugated iron constructions.

In Liwonde we were switched minibuses for one headed to Managochi. I didn't see it happen but the money boy from our bus must have paid the next driver as we were never asked for cash. We were underway again within five minutes. Integrated private transport at its best.

The guide book talked up Managochi town, but it seemed very scruffy to me. When we walked into the bus station we got touted into a minibus and sold a ticket for Cape Maclear. We had to wait an hour for the bus to fill up before it departed. I was dying to try a street snack samosa, but no seller came to the window of our bus as we waited. I did manage to take a photo of an old Royal Mail bike as a consolation instead.

Lake Malawi

Our driver up to Monkey Bay was pretty sedate. I probably should have been grateful for his cautious approach to driving, but I just wanted to get there! No music was played on any of the minibuses during the day. A welcome first.

In Monkey Bay we were switched from the minibus onto a very overcrowded pickup truck heading to Cape Maclear. The pickup had thirteen people, a baby, a large supply of plywood and around ten sacks of maize piled onto it.

I felt very precariously perched on the edge of the truck with my feet dangling over the edge and clinging onto a cask of maize for dear life. Thankfully our driver went pretty slowly. The truck was so overcrowded that on one of the hills five people had to get off and walk up as the pickup couldn't take the weight.

Our beach hut in Cape Maclear

We arrived in Cape Maclear around 4pm and headed to Gecko Lodge (run by Ed's distant relatives). Sadly they were fully booked so we headed a couple of spots down the beach to Migoza. A idyllic, of expensive beach hut*. I had a headache and was sugar crashing as we hadn't had any lunch and just wanted to stop travelling rather than worry about whether we could get a better deal somewhere else.

Around 5pm we walked up the beach in search of food. The place I was aiming at (based on the guide book) no longer seemed to exist and we ended up at Taipei Lodge instead. We were the only customers, my beer was warm and the food took over an hour to arrive. However, the whole Tiger fish caught from the lake was tasty when it arrived.

I'd decided to walk up the beach barefoot, but the sand was quite grainy and full of shells and it was quite uncomfortable on the way back. We stopped half way for a beer in another guesthouse called Mufasa. The night guard tried to engage us in conversation, but I think we both wished he hadn't.

We were in bed by 9pm that night.

A map of everywhere I visited in Malawi and Zambia is here.

*The beach hut was $65 per night for the two of us. It was a bit of a shock to be paying so much compared with the cheapies we had been staying at. However, after the shock subsided I really enjoyed Migoza. The beach hut right on the idyllic Cape Maclear was pretty special.

Day 11: Zomba Mountain, Malawi

Walking track on Zomba Mountain

I could hear rain during the night and it looked wet out when I drew back the curtains. Tom, our host, said that it wasn't raining but we were in the cloud layer and water was condensing on the trees.

I started the day with a lovely warm shower, easily the best of the holiday (not saying much). The water smelt smokey as it had been heated over a wood burner during the night.

There was a slightly lift in the clouds after breakfast so we decided to go for a walk. We headed up the drive and then turned left along the track and were rewarded with great views of the valley below bathed in sunshine.

We decided to walk uphill towards the top of Zomba mountain. As we climbed we passed a man chopping wood and a few women walking. One women had an enormous log on her head and a baby on her back. There was no way I could have carried that much and I don't know how she managed to keep her footing on the steep and uneven ground.

Walking on Zomba Mountain

We returned to the lodge and relxaed for an hour or so before lunch which was an excellent sweet soup with sweet potato flatbreads.

After lunch we went for another walk heading along the same path as the morning so that I could get some photos of the valley below us. We caught a glimpse of a man cutting wood with a huge long saw in the forest and saw more local women walking along the track. (The forest was supposed to be protected and managed by the Forestry Department, but there seemed to be a lot of clearance going on both legal and illegal.)

Back at the lodge we went for a walk around the boundary one of the property paths. It was refreshing to see some virgin forest unharmed by the deforestation all around.

After our walk we sat in the garden enjoying the last of the afternoon sunshine. The Latvian TV crew that were supposed to be staying for the next two nights arrived, but unfortunately for Petal and Tom they left again when they found out there was no electricity for their equipment.

Banana leaf

As I was writing up my diary Petal showed us some mango monkeys crossing the property by jumping from tree to tree. Some of the younger monkeys were nervous of the thinner branches and larger jumps. All of the monkeys eventually made it and it was fascinating to watch.

Day 10: Mulanje to Zomba

More howling from the plumbing during the night that woke me a couple of times.

We had breakfast in our hotel around 8am. No chips for the second day in a row (I was almost missing them). We ordered the scrambled eggs again and it came out as more of an omelet but was still very tasty.

After breakfast we headed straight to the bus station and were bundled into a minibus before we'd had a chance to walk the 50m up the road to the official bus station. As we got into the bus I tried to check it was the shorter route to Limbe via Midima than the longer road via Thoylo (pronounced Cholo). We ended up on a Thoylo bus, but we got the front seats and a good view of the tea plantations so it wasn't all bad.

The journey to Limbe took two and a half hours. The music was very loud.

At Limbe bus station we were fought over by the touts and ended up in a minibus leaving straight away for Zomba. The time the bus blazed Islamic rather than Christian music, the first time I'd noticed Islamic music in a week into our holiday.

Unusually for a minibus it didn't start / stop the whole time. We had to wait in a petrol station just outside of Limbe for the Presidential Motorcade to pass. We then followed the motorcade for a while, but managed to pass when they pulled into a village for some campaigning. The road was being redone and it was a bumpy journey.

The minibus nearly drove straight through Zomba and it wasn't until I questioned that they stopped the bus and let us out on the far side of town. We arrived around 2pm and we were both a bit grouchy, me from a lack of food.

As we walked back into the centre of town we stopped at the post office so that I could get some stamps for the cards that I bought in Blantyre a few days earlier. We then had a quick spin round the market before stopping in a café for lunch. I managed to spill ketchup all over the table when I squeezed the bottle only to find the cap was on properly. A little embarassing.....

We'd arranged to stay at Zomba Forest Lodge which is run by the daughter of Ed's distant relatives that we met in Blantyre. Petal picked us up outside the supermarket in town just before 4pm and we drove up Zomba Mountain to the lodge. As we headed up the mountain we drove past the Presidential Residence where the President was due to arrive later in the day.

When we arrived at the lodge we knew we'd arrived somewhere a little bit special. It was tastefully decorated inside, filled with local materials and totally off grid with candles, parafin and solar lamps. The hot water comes from a wood heater.

After the sun had gone down we spent a good view hours chatting to Petal and Tom round a roaring log fire in the lounge. It was good to speak to more residents of Malawi. They have a more modern view on the current situation in the country and how best aid dollars can be spent. It felt like chatting with old friends and dinner was easily the best food we've had in Malawi so far.

Can you believe it was a day where I didn't take any photos?

Day 9: Mulanje, Malawi

 Ed and I in the tea plantations

We got up just after 8am and had breakfast in our hotel (no chips for the first time in four days). After breakfast we walked across to Chitikale in plenty of time for our tour of the tea plantations at 10am.

While we were waiting for our tour another Brit turned up. Julie is a researcher from Leeds University who has spent her last ten summers in different parts of Africa studying deforestation and was hoping to see the tea estates on her day off. Oddly we were split into two groups for the tour. Ed and I headed off with our guide Simon.

Simon didn't say much during during the tour, but it was good to have a brief chat with a local Malawian. It made me realise that it was the first time we'd had a proper chat with a native Malawian. He asked us about school in the UK. As far as I could make out, in Malawi education is free until 8 years old, then there is secondary school up to 12 years old and then college which sounded more vocation and lasts between four years (mechanic) and six years (doctor / lawyer) depending on what you study. Simon told us secondary school fees were around £100 per term for a government run school which sounded like a lot of money compared with the average wage to me.

We started in a privately owner tea estate and then crossed into the government run Chitikale estate. They were growing two types of tea, a smaller leafed Malawian variety and the large leaf 'Indian' tea. The government estate wasn't in as good as condition with the private estate with weeds growing in between the tea plants. We were told the government company didn't have enough money to pay the staff.

Cows grazing in the tea fields (eating weeds not the tea) 

They prune the bushes back hard every five years and let them regrow. Simon told us that every fifty years they replace the bushes completely, but we saw some fields which had tea plants older then that.

As we walked we saw cows eating the weeds / grasses in the government run plantation, women washing clothes in the river and it was good to pass through some villages off the main roads that we hadn't had the chance to see before.

Our tour ended in Mulanje and after a quick rest we went for lunch at the only other hotel in town. The service was very slow, but it wasn't a bad beef stew. After lunch we went for a walk through Mulanje village via the bus station / market and found the World Bank sponsored internet cafe (which was closed on a Sunday). The walk took all of the 30mins, Mulanje is a small place!

Field label

We spent most of the afternoon lounging in our room reading. Around 5pm we headed back to the hotel where we had lunch (which seemed to delight our waiter) for a beer to watch the sunset.

It was then back to our hotel for dinner and a couple more beers. While we were having breakfast I saw a local turn up with a couple of chickens tied to the handle bars of his bike and try (unsuccessfully) to sell them to the hotel owner. Inspired by some local produce I ordered the 'local chicken' which appeared to be code for a tough old bird. It raised the question where all of the other chicken we have been eating comes from? Do they have battery farming in Malawi?

Day 8: Blantyre to Mulanje

Mount Mulanje

I put my ear plugs in as I went to bed fearing that the nearby disco would keep me awake, but had a surprisingly good nights sleep. We had a leisurely breakfast (egg and chips for the third day in a row) and headed to catch a minibus just before 9am.

The journey across to Limbe was much quicker than yesterday even thought we got stopped a junction for around 10mins as the Presidential Motorcade swept past. It all seemed a bit over the top and several people in the minibus were tutting in disapproval.

Two police cars swept the road to make sure it was clear and then there was a long pause before a black Land Rover Defender, Hummer, Toyota Landcuiser carrying the President, Hummer, Defender, a small army truck carrying soldiers and then rather bizarrely a mobile home swept past. Malawi has felt like such a safe society I wondered what the point was, the PM and the Queen don't travel round so ridiculously back home.

The bikes were barely carrying any cargo compared with some we saw!

As soon as we were out of the minibus in Limbe we were straight into another one headed for Mulanje. The minibus was empty when we got in so we got the prime front seats and I even had the luxury of a seat belt! It took 40mins before we left Limbe. We pulled out of the bus station, did some circling of the main roads and then headed to a petrol station to pick up passengers. It was the first time I saw a driver pay touts for introducing passengers to the bus. (From then on I saw quite a few bus touts. The passengers were heading in the direction of travel anyway and I'm not sure what value the touts added and therefore why the drivers paid them. A form of protection money?)

I dozed slightly as we headed through the green countryside. At one point our minibus took a strange detour off the main road and then up a dirt track to rejoin it only a few hundred meters later. We didn't pick up or drop anyone off and I wondered what we were avoiding. We'd already passed a couple of police checkpoints that morning without hassle.

Not too long before Mulanje we stopped at th bustling market town of Nkando. It must be the bicycle capital of Malawi. There were hundred of bikes lining the roads and presumably for sale.

We arrived in the small tea town of Mulanje, checked into our hotel (which was incredibly cheap at £3 per person per night) and walked back up the main road to the previous town of Chitakale to organise a tea estate tour for tomorrow. Organising the tour was surprisingly easy considering some of the things we'd read in advance about how hard they were to find.

We had a drink in the towns expensive pizzeria (£8 a pizza!) and then went for lunch in a local restaurant.

Cycling next to tea fields

After lunch we had a walk through Chitakale's small market. All of the stalls seemed incredibly well stocked and you'd be able to find most things that you need there. After the market we walked back to Mulanje taking a few photos of the tea plantation along the way. The area was photo gold with bright shop fronts, market stalls, women washing clothes in the river, cyclists and people generally milling around, but something was making he hold back from taking photos. I didn't want to intrude on their lives.

We dozed / read for a while and then hiked 1.5km up hill to the former District Commissioners office, which is now the Kara O'Mala hotel. We had a couple of drinks sitting outside the hotel while we soaked up the views and watched the sunset. There were around ten Europeans / North Americans doing the same thing on the terrace of the hotel. It was a shock to see so many other white faces in once place as we had seen surprisingly few other tourists so far.

A sundowner at the Kara O'Mala

We had dinner back in hotel which seemed to be the social hub of Mulanje. A guy from Lilongwe who was working in Mulanje came to talk to us. His company is drilling bore holes in the area, a project partly paid for by a UK organisation. He said another part of the family business was into transportation and his brother had been to Blackburn a couple of times to buy trucks.

Day 7: Blantyre and Limbe

Tobacco auction room in Limbe

I was woken at 5am by the sound of crockery being put away in the kitchen. Malawians seem to rise early. After breakfast at the guesthouse (egg and chips again) we walked into town to catch a minibus in Limbe.

The minibus took forever to travel the short distance to Limbe and we couldn't work out where we'd been dropped off when we arrived. After we walked around for a while and through the huge open air market (selling a lot of second hand clothes) we found the train station. We asked for permission to take some photos and were denied. It seemed a bit strange for public transport!

Smiling chap moving a sold bale

I was feeling a bit queezy as we walked away from the train station and through Limbe. I wasn't sure if it was a lingering bug or the anti-malarial tablets.

We walked towards the tobacco auction rooms, the main reason for coming to Limbe. We asked one of the guards at the gate if we could enter for a look around. He called a manager, who phoned another manager and we were allowed through the gate and shown into an office. As we entered the office a group of people watching the cricket on TV were shooed out and we were invited to sit in front of the desk. Yet another manager was telephone and then we had the green light to see the auction floor!

The smell of tobacco hit us as we walked onto the floor filled with large bales of tobacco weighing around 80kg each. The open outcry auction had ended for the day, but there were still some direct sales going on. Our guide explained to us that there were three different types of tobacco. Most of the tobacco came from small producers who were selling one or two bales each and it was being bought by the big boys for export. Prices seemed to range from $200 - 400 USD per kg (not bale).

It was fantastic that they let us in and after 10 - 15mins looking around we left again.

Old UK fire truck

On leaving the auctions we took a minibus back to Blantyre and visited an internet café where I learnt there had been a leak in my flat back home. I wish I hadn't checked!

We popped by the guesthouse and then had a traditional lunch of nsima and chicken. After lunch we walked out of town of town to a primary school which is on / near the site where Ed's grandparents house was. We knew that one of the houses had been demolished and couldn't find the other one.

Outside of the school there was a posted showing the students using RM computers. I used to build computers in the RM factory when I was a uni student. I was quite pleased to think that one of my machines could be in Malawi!

Sunset views from the Sunbird Hotel

After a rest at the guesthouse we went for a couple of G&Ts at the Sunbird Sochi Hotel to watch the sunset. The Malawian gin was really good and was only £2 each in one of Blantyre's smartest hotels. Fantastic. The gin was cheaper than the tonic which was amazing.

Enjoying a G&T

For dinner we visited the Ethopian restaurant again for more good food. I was tempted by a dessert I'd heard called the Dusty Road at Blantyre's top restaurant Club 21, but I was so full we headed back to the guesthouse instead.

Day 6: Blantyre

Victoria Hall in Blantyre

We had breakfast in Blantyre Lodge which didn't prove to be as uncomfortable as I first feared when we checked in. After breakfast we called the Henderson Guesthouse to see if they had any rooms, pleased to find out they did we checked out and walked across town to drop off our bags.

After checking in (and treating ourselves to a room each at the reasonably rate of £9 a night including breakfast) we walked into town for a look around. We walked past Blantyre's oldest building the rather sad looking Boma and then past the Victoria Hall.

Fabric stall in the market

After checking out the colonial buildings we drifted through the backstreets, past some private security guards being drilled and into the markets. The market seemed more lively than the one we visited in Lilongwe and quite a few people asked to have their photo taken which I found curious. They didn't want ask for a copy of the photo or any money, they seemingly just wanted to pose for the camera.

I bought mum some traditional Malawian fabrics in the market.

Pineapple stall in the market

After the market was walked up to Mandala House, the former home of the Great Lakes Trading company which was set up by two early Scottish settlers. We had a drink in the smart Mandala café which was seemingly frequented by the European crowd. I noticed that the crockery was from Australia, a small but extravagant expense in a country like Malawi.

It was interesting to read the papers and discover that inflation was at 30%, interest rates at 25% and about a new DfID project that was launching. With inflation that high we should notice prices rise during our visit. I decided I'd keep a close eye on the price of a bottle of water.

 Mandala House

After our drinks we had a look round the art gallery / shop downstairs and round the reading room upstairs.

We then slowly drifted to St Michael and All Angels church where Ed's uncle is burried having died at the age of four days old. A group grave diggers who were working in the graveyard helped us to search for the grave and after fifteen minutes of searching we found it.

After a look at the inside of the church we headed back into town for a late lunch (4pm) at an Ethiopian café near our guesthouse. It turned out to have some of the best food we ate in Malawi.

St Michael and All Angels Church

 
In the evening Ed's distant relatives collected us and took us to their house for dinner. They live in a large(ish) colonial house just outside of the centre of town. Sadly it was dark when we arrived so we didn't get a good view of the outside, but the lounge where we spent most of the evening had gigantically high ceilings.

They seemed to love life in Malawi for its simple pleasures, well aware that they didn't have all the luxuries available in the UK but not caring at all. They were very hospitable.

Dinner was some lovely fish from lake Malawi prepared by their cook. I think it's the first time I've ever been cooked for by domestic staff!

The grave of Ed's uncle

South Luangwa to Blantyre

An old British fire truck in Blantyre

This was a long day of travelling. I was worried about our journey getting to South Luangwa. But the journey back was even more adventurous.

We woke at 2:30am as the minibus was supposed to be collecting us at 3am. Thomas, one of the night guards, came to get us from our hut and told us that the minibus was on a school trip that day so we'd be taking a taxi instead. Thomas told us they were from the same 'company' and I got the impression he thought it was safe, so we agreed a price and hopped in.

We cruised through the first few villages we drove through with our hazard lights on and gently beeping the horn, trying to attract additional customers. We picked up a few people along the way and luckily our driver was pretty sensible in the dark. Around half way to Chipata we picked up a lady, her child and a lot of luggage. The extra luggage wasn't great for the old Toyota Corolla and the car struggled a bit after that.

The journey back to Chipata hadn't been as thrilling as when we travelled in the other direction (mostly because it had been dark). We arrived in Chipata around 6:30am and as we approached the bus station passed a shop with a sign proclaiming they were "Direct importers of second hand clothes from the UK (Ltd)". Genius.

After a quick stop at the bus station we continued onto the border. As we were leaving town we stopped at a petrol station and realised that petrol was £1.20 a litre, pretty close to the price in the UK.

At the petrol station our driver asked us for some extra money as the original fare we had negotiated only covered to the bus station. We got the impression that he'd borrowed / rented the car for the day and probably hadn't made as much money on the journey to town as he expected. We were planning to give him all the Zambian money we had left anyway so didn't mind too much.

The border was again very hassle free (except the money changers). In no mans land between the two border posts we noticed a Welsh truck and a number of 10yr old UK registered cars. The mind boggles at how they ended up at a random border post between Malawi and Zambia.

We got an immediate taxi from the Malawian side of the border to Mchinji and then an even quicker transfer into a minibus to Lilongwe. The minibus was old, but luckily not too crowded so I had a good seat. Along the way we passed a European cyclist who we would bump into later in our trip and found out he was an English guy cycling from the southern tip of Africa all the way home to the UK.

Just after half way our minibus hit a goat. Luckily it seemed to be a glancing blow to the hind quarter of the goat who went spinning through the air and then ran off without too many issues. The only damage the bus seemed to suffer was one of the fog lights popping out.

We arrived back to Lilongwe at around 10am, had some lunch, changed money at the bank and then boarded a midday bus to Blantyre.

The coach was absolutely packed with fold out seats in the aisle making five across. I got the last 'proper' seat in the middle of the back row and Ed got the  broken fold out in front of me. When he sat down the broken chair back fell backwards crushing my shins.

As we left Blantyre a Minister got onto the bus and we had a church service with prayers, a reading, sermon and then finishing up with a hymn and collection. The service was in the local language and I couldn't understand any of it, but most of the passengers seemed quite happy.

The bus journey took six hours and was complete purgatory. I did a mix of sitting, standing and swapping seats with Ed, feeling under the weather most of the way. By the time we arrived in Blantyre we'd been on the road for 15hrs and I'd had enough. I was probably quite grumpy company!

When we arrived at the bus station we got a taxi to Henderson Guesthouse only to find out they were full so took another taxi back to the Blantyre Lodge. Uncomfortable beds and somewhere which had seen better days, but at least they had a bed.

Safari Day 2: South Luangwa National Park

Our safari 4x4 with the French couple we were 

sharing our safari lodge with

I woke just before our 5am wake up call and was lying in bed listening to the hippo dawn chorus from the river below us.

We set off just before 6am and seemed to be the first safari truck into the National Park for the second day in a row. We started by heading to site where we saw the leopard hunting a puku the night before. Godfrey, our guide, was hoping that our leopard would have managed a kill after we'd left and there might be some hyenas in the area. We didn't see any signs of the leopard, hyenas or a kill.

 

Baby elephants by the road

After a quick look round we headed off to a part of the National Park that we hadn't been to before in search of lions. We saw plenty of paw prints and tracks, but no actual lions. I was still buzzing from last night and enjoying the amazing scenery so wasn't disappointed by the lack of lions.

We drove through wooded sections, followed a dry river bed and saw open plains. There weren't as many animals as yesterday, but we saw plenty of zebras, were trumpated at by elephants, saw giraffe, buffalo, waterback, puku, rhino and different birds. Quite a lot really!

Ed and I at morning tea

At our morning tea break Godfrey was explaining that the area of the park nearest to the gate currently doesn't have a pride of lions. There used to be a pride containing two males, three adult females and a number of cubs. One of the males was baited across the river by some hunters and then a pride from the north came into the area and killed the other male, all of the cubs and took the three adult females back to the north with them. It will take a year for all of the old prides territorial markings to disappear and a new pride to move into the area.

There is a smaller pride of one male and two females to the west of the park entrance, but they are currently roaming quite a lot and hard to find.

Herons sitting on the back of hippos

We got back to our lodge around 11am and had an early lunch under the trees next to the river. After lunch we walked into town as we wanted to get some cash out of the village ATM. It was a hot walk in the blazing hot sun and the ATM didn't accept any of the three cards that we tried!

When we got back to the safari lodge I jumped into the pool to cool off.

To bushbacks looking quizical

We set off on our evening drive an hour earlier than the previous day, at 3pm, as our French companions preferred their safaris in the light rather than the dark. We saw a group of fifteen giraffe as we approached the gate of the National Park.

We spent the first couple of hours driving towards the Presidential Lodge that is situated in the park. It was getting easy to become blazé about all of the animals we were seeing. On our drive we spotted a large herd of buffalo, baby elephants and giraffe only a few months old, waterback and kubuku. The 'golden hour' before sunset is a gorgeous time to the in the National Park.

Enjoying a sundowner

We stopped near the river for drinks before sunset and could see a couple of fisherman's hunts on the far bank. Just before the sunset we set off again to head towards a watering hole where the small pride of a male and two females had been spotted a couple of days before.

Before we'd reached the watering hole we found a lion sitting by the riverbank. We were the third 4x4 on the scene and a fourth arrived not long after we got there. (The drivers weren't in radio contact, so there must be some science to their tracking.)

The lion was just sitting there, totally unfazed by our presence and seemingly wanted to sleep.

I was sitting on the back of a safari truck, drinking a beer and watching a lion with stunning scenery all around. Does life get any better?

Lion!

After taking some shots we drove off and the sun quickly set and our search light came out. As we were driving I could see another 4x4 in the distance away to our left. They had their light focused on something and Stephen scanned out light in that direction and proclaimed a lion. How he could tell from so far off I have no idea!

We turned round and tore off back down the track we were on and down another side track to get a closer look. We arrived just in time to see the lioness stride in front of our vehicle and into the bushes. It was only the briefest of glimpses, but it was amazing to catch sight of two lions in one night.

Enjoying a beer while watching a lion. Does life get better?

After the lion sighting we headed for home. We drove up a track through a wood that we hadn't been up before and came out not too far from where we'd seen the leopard the night before. As we were heading across the plain we saw two vehicles in the distance shining their light up into a tree.

The same leopard we had seen hunt was sitting up in the tree with her baboon kill. She'd climbed the tree to protect herself from hyenas. She was sitting their quite peacefully, with only the tail and a few bones of the baboon left. We saw her scratch the tree which is apparently quite unusual.

Our leopard from the previous night who had carried 

a baboon kill up into the tree

After a few weeks (and three different photo angles) Godfrey announced he wasn't feeling well and we needed to get back. When we got back to the lodge, Dave the manager, said he thought Godfrey had malaria and sent for strong drugs. I can't believe he was able to drive us on safari while he had malaria, he must have felt dreadful.

There was a snake in the dining room which we were told was poisonous. Thankfully it didn't get too close to us.

After some confusion about booking out taxi for the morning we headed to bed. I wasn't feeling too well as I turned in with a mild fever. I don't have malaria, I don't have malaria...

Hunting with the leopards

We'd been driving through the South Luangwa National Park with our search light on for an hour post sunset. We hadn't seen much during that time and I was beginning to think of dinner back to the safari lodge.

Then, as we rounded a corner, we caught sight of a leopard in our search light.

No sooner had we seen the leopard than we turned away from the cat, stopped our 4x4 and the search light went out. Silently both our guides slipped out of the car and headed towards the front wheels. Thankfully we weren't leaving the leopard, they were simply locking the differential as it was sandy ground ahead.

With our guides back in the vehicle we started to move forward, slowly tracking the leopard as she weaved through the cover of the long grass. She had an incredibly graceful and light footed movement as she made her way through the grass.

Our search light panned from the leopard to a few small groups of puku and impala in a clearing ahead. A couple of the groups of impala moved away, but one stayed where they were. They seemed a bit skittish, but they weren't running. I couldn't decide if our car was causing them to be alert of they could sense there was a cat not too far away.

As our leopard reached the edge of the long grass her movements changed and became more purposeful. Her body suddenly looked a whole lot more muscular.

Godfrey, our driver, swung our vehicle into the middle of the clearing and killed the engine. We were sitting there in complete darkness. I'd last seen the leopard just five meters from our open sided vehicle. I momentary wondered if she'd fancy a European instead of a puku, and if she did, I was the closest one.

We sat there in silence. Every thirty seconds our second guide, Stephen, would momentarily use the search light to illuminate the sky. From the peripheral light of the beam we could see the leopard had edged forward. She was lying under the bonnet with her tail just visible. The small group of puku still hadn't moved and were standing in the clearing away to my left.

A second blip of the light and we could see that the leopard was inching forward, hugging the ground as she moved. Darkness.

I'm not sure what made Stephen do it, but after what felt like an age, he put the light on again. This time, instead of pointing the beam into the sky he shone it directly at the ground, fixing the leopard in the beam.

She wasn't happy at having her cover blown and quickly danced backwards, round the front of the car and into the long grass. Amazingly the puku hadn't seen her and they stayed where they were around thirty meters to our left.

As humans we'd interfered in the hunt. There wasn't really time to decide what I thought about that as Godfrey started the engine to turn the car round and follow the leopard who was arching round behind us in the long grass.

Godfrey repositioned the car so that we were facing the the puku who were around twenty meters ahead of us now. We killed the lights and this time they stayed off.

We sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity and then we heard a death growl.

Stephen had the light on in a flash and found the leopard almost instantly. She had hold of a puku roughly twice her size near the neck. The puku wasn't giving up and almost as soon as we'd found them with our search light, the puku broke free and ran away.

As the puku scattered our leopard stood there in the middle of the clearing. I was surprised that she didn't have another go and tear after the injured puku which had just broken free.

It was one of the most amazing things I have witnessed in my life. Truly. Incredible.

Safari Day 1: South Luangwa National Park

Giraffe - are you looking at me?

We were woken with a knock at the door at 5am for a 5:30am breakfast in the lodge. As the sun rose we could see that Thornicroft Lodge is built on the river and the strange animals noises we could hear during the night we from the hippos below us.

After a quick breakfast we were on the road by 6am with our guide Godfrey. Safari here we come! We were at the park gate within 10mins, paid our entrance fee to the friendly staff and it felt like we were the first people into the park for the day.

Trees in the river

I wasn't really sure what to expect from a safari, but thought sightings would be precious with animals hard to spot. The park had an immediate wow factor with animals everywhere. We saw impala and puku immediate and then giraffe, zebra, baboons, elephants and warthogs all within the first half hour. Later on in the morning we would also see buffalo and hippos.

We spent most of our five hours in the park trying to track a leopard. We saw footprints and heard the warning calls of baboons and birds nearby, but didn't get a sighting.

The damage at the base of the tree is caused by elephants

rubbing themselves against the trunk

It wasn't just the animals, the scenery in the park was stunning too. There were wide open plains, wooded areas, termite mounds and areas cleared by elephants with just the tree stumps remaining.

Godfrey, our guide, almost seemed annoyed that we hadn't seen a cat, but I couldn't have cared less. For my first safari experience I was pretty overwhelmed. We'd seen a lot more animals in the first morning than I thought we might during the whole trip and the National Park was just glorious.

Young elephant

We got back to the lodge around 11am and had an early lunch sitting by the river with a French couple who were also staying in the lodge (but hadn't joined us on the game drive). We spent the middle part of the day reading in the shade while watching hippos and crocodiles in the river. After a bit of indecision I decided to go for a dip in the pool as well. There was an initial cold shock as I got it, but it helped me to cool down by a few degrees which was very welcome.

Hippos

After tea and a slice of cake we got back into the safari truck just before four o'clock and headed back into the park for our sunset drive. The park was a lot quieter, in terms of the number of animals, than it had been in the morning. However, as the sun set there was a beautiful warm orange glow which gave the park a magical look. It really was the golden hour.

Zebra

Just before six o'clock we were driven to a spot of the river to have a drink while we watched the sunset. As we pulled up to our sunset spot we heard some baboon warning calls nearby. We jumped back into the 4x4 and headed towards the sound of the alarm calls.

Puku

We found the leopard pretty easily as two other safari trucks has already found the animal. It was amazing how close he walked to the 4x4s and how unfazed he seemed by our presence. At one point the leopard was walking right towards our vehicle. I asked our guide if it was ok to take photos, "yes" came the reply "just don't stand up!"

The leopard walked into some long grass and we could no longer see him. We drove round to the rear of the bush / long grass, but couldn't see the leopard reappear.

Sunset over the river

We headed back to the river, where it was now almost dark, for a beer and some snacks. I was drinking a beer, watching a new moon illuminate a beautiful river, having just seen a leopard. Does it get much better.

After our drinks we got back into the 4x4 and started driving with a search light. We'd been driving for an hour and hadn't seen much. I was starting to think of dinner and heading back to the lodge and then we rounded a corner and saw one of the most amazing things of my life.......

Our first sighting of a leopard

Licking his lips - hopefully not because I look tasty