Chipata to Lake Malawi

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We crossed the border into Malawi. Frustratingly we discovered, on being handed back our passports later, that our Yellow Fever certificates had disappeared from our passports since handing them to Kat for bulk processing prior to entering Zambia. This was a niggling worry as theoretically we could be stopped at some borders without them. We reached the Malawi capital of Lilongwe. We queued in the hat for ages at a cash machine. We saw a man with the biggest growth on his neck that I've ever seen. We then rushed to an internet cafe for half an hour to email the travel clinic back in Nowich for duplicate Yellow Fever certificates. They are availalble for £10 but the difficulty is getting them to us. Lilongwe is very poor - we met some street kids. One in particular moved us and we made him a cheese roll which he sadly consumed without smiling - it was so sad. Tom also gave him and his friends a can of fish and some money for bread. Malawi feels very African - the roads are dotted with very tradtional villages many with missionary schools. There are numerous brick kilns with the clay dug right beside the kiln. We stopped for lunch at a campsite called Zulu Kraal. The roads are teeming with people - most walking but many on push bikes as well. Mwangi has to use the trucks loud horn almost incessantly to clear a path. It was a long hot journey but we finally arrived late afternoon at Chitimba Beach. The site is beautifully situated beside the beach on Lake Malawi. We went into relaxation mode and spent the evenng in the bar playing drinking games with inevitable results. A few of us ended up on the beach listening to the breaking waves. The whole place iis infested with tiny lake flies. They get everywhere and swarm around any lights in dense wavering clouds.

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Photos

Sugar cane workers
We passed a convoy of sugar cane trucks with the workers crammed aboard