Interesting events in Malawi

---

1st August Day 5 South Luangwa National Park to Luwawa Forest

We all managed to wake up up on time except for our 84 year old group member….yes 84 years of age! The age range on our tour is from 19 to 84 which makes for interesting conversations :-) We had a quick breakfast and were on the road just after 6am….travelling back along the same bumpy road back to Chipata to pick up provisions for the next few days in Malawi and our planned sangria (made by our one and only Spaniard on the tour and pasta night (cooked by the single Italian guy on the tour) at Kande Beach. This was our last chance to spend our Zambian Kwacha as we were heading to the Malawi border.
Chipata is close to the border and the crossing was amazingly easy and quick into Malawi at the Mchingi border. We stopped about 30 minutes up the road for another lunch on the side of the road. We had just started setting up when a group of young children appeared and a few of the guys from the tour went over and had an impromptu football game with them…..well after the children had gotten over their fear of the very tall Canadian guy on our trip. We ate our lunch and had a little left over so I took it over to the children….I wasn’t really prepared for the frenzy that broke out over the few slices of bread that we had so then I distributed the luncheon sausage out amongst the smaller children who took it as if I’d given them the best present ever which tore my heart out.

Malawi is an incredibly poor country with a small but heavily populated land area. It was noticeable that there were a lot more people around walking everywhere with babies on their backs and suitcases on their heads.

We made it to our camp in the forest at about 5pm after a bit of off road driving through dirt roads that disappeared at times and it seemed like the trees were going to smash the windows as we drove through them but we made it safe and sound. The camp feels like a Nordic lodge with lots of trees around, a lovely big open fire and a bar/restaurant that would look fine in any ski resort.
We set up camp and had a huge pasta dinner (bring on the carbs!!) and sat around the camp fire talking rubbish for a few hours….we were planning a sleep in for the morning as we had nothing to get up early for which felt great.

2nd August Day 6 Luwawa Forest
Well today is 2nd and I was woken up at 4am to the sound of rain on our tent….totally unexpected and as my pack had literally exploded in the tent the previous night I had to quickly try to pack everything away before it got soaked. I thought it would just be a short shower but 3 hours later it was still pouring down and Kath and I were starting to feel like we were going to float away so I packed up and moved my stuff into the dormitory and booked a bed for tonight :-)

We had breakfast in the rain and are now sitting by the fire in the bar/restaurant reading books, writing diaries and playing monopoly. The rains stopped now so a few people are off for a walk but I don’t think I’ll be wandering very far.

Well it’s now a few days later and things took a bit of a different turn.
After I stopped writing the weather changed in the afternoon and was sunny and very warm so everyone drifted off on different walks. I wandered around the lake with Mel and Leona (our resident 84 year old), Luwawa is a beautiful place in completely different to what you expect from Africa. The forest is about 1300 metres above sea level and as a result has it’s own microclimate; quite cold and wet which was unexpected in Africa.

3rd August Day 7 Luwawa Forest to Kande Beach

We woke early again, thankfully in the dorm as it was once again raining outside and managed to pack up pretty quickly and hitting the road for 7.30am. We had 2 extra passengers as an Australian/Kiwi couple had hitched a ride with us to the beach.

The road was pretty muddy going out but we thought that Freddy would be able to manage it but after a slippery 500 metres or so the truck went sideways in the mud and fell backwards into a big ditch…..nearly going over on it’s side in the process….a very dramatic and scary minute or so as I envisaged backpacks and people falling on top of me! When we managed to all get off the truck is was pretty clear that Freddy was well and truly stuck and after many attempts to dig him out we all ended up back at the lodge trying not to get too depressed about being stuck in the forest. I guess if we were back in NZ a tractor would be found pretty quickly and we would have been back on the road straight away but this is Africa and there aren’t that many tractors around……apparently the closest one was 50 kms away.

Well anyway Cassidy our tour guide moved heaven and earth to find us a mini bus big enough to seat 24 and a ute to carry all our bags, mattresses, tents, food and cooking equipment which arrived in the afternoon. We all piled in on top of each other (we will no longer complain about Freddy!) and the ute was loaded up in the air with the tail gate down and bags hanging off the back……we had soooo much stuff. We then had a slow 4 hour journey to Kande Beach arriving after 9.30pm into a camp feeling like the Beverley Hillbillies in our beaten up old minibus. There were 6+ overland trucks in camp and a whole lot of drunken people……it felt like we’d arrived at a big party and we were the only sober ones there. Cassidy bought us dinner at the camp restaurant last night after we’d put our tents up in the dark and we drifted to the bar for a couple of drinks before passing out exhausted, hoping that Freddy would be sitting at our camp when we woke up.

4th August Day 8 Kande Beach
Woke up early and met for a walk through the village that the camp is a part of. The village is called Mbamba and the people are some of the friendliest that I’ve met so far in Africa. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Africa but I’d have to say that they seem to have one of the most positive outlooks and are very welcoming. We walked through the fields of cassava and it was explained how they peel the roots of the plant and dry them out before pounding and grinding them into a powder to use for bread and making the porridge that everyone eats. While they also grow sweet potatoes and maize (to make maize meal) cassava is their staple food and eaten for most meals.

We were able to visit the village school and met lots of the children and the teachers. The school has over 500 students and only 3 teachers, one class has over 220 students in it.....I’m not sure how much teaching is actually going on. The children sang the alphabet song to us and danced a little.

We then walked over to the village clinic and met the local doctor who is actually only a medical assistant, he works with 2 nurses to look after at least 150 patients a day. The clinic is for outpatients but they do have a ward for maternity and without knowing where we were going they ushered us into the maternity ward where a woman was lying with her beautiful 1 day old little girl. The doctor later told us that 75 percent of the patients he sees each day have malaria….something that could be reduced drastically if mosquito nets were available and used. On the way back to camp we were approached by some of the local guys who pointed out different things before directing you back to the camp via their dodgy looking craft shop.

We’d had news that Freddy had managed to get out of the ditch but had promptly fallen into another one so was still stuck out in the forest for another night……..

The rest of the day was spent back at the beach and bar, reading, sleeping in the hammocks and using the internet. We had decided to have our sangria/pasta party that night as we needed some fun. Some of the people on our trip are in accommodation rather than tents and at this camp they had beach front chalets so we all moved over there to enjoy sangria while the sun was setting. Juan our resident Spaniard mixed up a concoction that tasted fabulous and went down far too fast. While we were doing that Andrea from Italy was cooking up a chili tomato penne pasta dinner which was also fabulous and one of the guys from the trip had managed to acquire a delicious banana cake for desert :-)

The rest of the night is a bit of a blur but we all had a great time and got to know each other a whole lot better.

5th August Day 8 Kande Beach to Chitimba

Woke up again to no Freddy sitting in camp….we’d started to think we were going to have to finish our trip in a clapped out old minibus. Most of the other trucks packed up and drove to Chitimba but we had decided to have the morning at the beach since we’d missed out on the first day. I went for a walk back to village with one of the girls from our trip and met one of the little boys I’d met the day before. His name is Should and he was off school sick as he had malaria. He proudly took us to his home and introduced us to his family before putting on his sneakers and announcing that he would take us to the village….very cute. When we got there we found that it was market day and the street was full of people and stalls selling used clothing, shoes, bowls etc. It was nice to wander around and chat with the locals.

We had hoped that Freddy would make it to camp to take us to Chitimba unfortunately he wasn’t there. Instead a minivan even more clapped out than the other one arrived and a smaller ute to take us. We managed to load 21 of us into the minivan and all our tents and food while the ute took all our bags. Cassidy told us just before we left that Freddy was out of the mud and would be meeting us in Mzuzu a town halfway to Chitimba but when we got there found out that Bernie had to take him to another town as there was no diesel in town. The diesel truck actually arrived in town while we were there but the queue of trucks waiting was out into the road and back about half a km.

So we bought more provisions and piled back into the minivan for the last 2 hours to Chitimba. We arrived exhausted and just a little freaked out from the crazy trip through the hills to camp with huge double trailer trucks screaming up and down around us and the tar seal in some places just wide enough for one car. But when we got here we loved it. We’re staying on the beach again on Lake Malawi but this camp is a lot smaller and cosy…..we could hear the sounds of the waves on the beach…..we also knew that Freddy was on his way so all was good! Bernie got here quite late and there was a rounding applause as he drove into the camp…….finally we could get our trip back on track.

---

Comments

[Erik Danielski]

future.
Hi, Nice to read about your interesting adventure, but what about the rest. I have heard that tha past couple of weeks have beeing kind of interesting aswell?! Erik