Blogs from Karonga, Northern, Malawi, Africa

It's continuously tempting to use superlatives when writing a blog, but equally I try to keep them to a minimum to remain fair to the competing subjects. But this one simply has to be full of them. Refreshed from Nkata Bay, we decided to head for a small town at the top of a big hill in Northern Malawi named Livingstonia after the great explorer. Rather aptly, there is no straightforward way of getting there! Thankfully, there is a backpacker's hangout at the bottom of the hill which provides a decent enough stop before the early morning hike - necessary unless you are very lucky and happen to coincide with the weekly bus that goes up there or one of the very few private cars that aren't already totally full. The lodge was extremely pretty and ... read more

REVISED WITH A FEW PICS! Hello All; Well we had a thankfully uneventful, if not quite comfortable, trip back to Blantyre. Mini-buses the whole way. I think we had to change 4 times. One more night in Blantyre, we actually managed to get tickets on the luxury, overnight, bus leaving the next afternoon at 4:30 pm to Mzuzu. We were all excited. These buses are really nice. Comfortable airline style seats, AC, curtains on the windows, etc. Well our excitement didn't last to long into the trip. After we got on there were only about 10 passengers on board. Then we stopped at 3 more bus stations and the seats filled up. That was fine. Then he just kept stopping and more and more people got on board. We actually ended up with 65 seated passengers ... read more

Narrow strips of sunlight broke through the badly constructed walls of the shack - which according to its’ sign - claimed to be a RETSULAUNT. The floor consisted of evened out cow-dung, a greyish-brown sense of cool, on which I lay flat on my back, trying to soak up as much coolness as possible. Outside the day was sweltering and languid. The men of Karonga sat chattering on rickety benches in the shade while the women sat in the belching sun outside the rice mill, with their heavy sacks of produce. Aili lay next to me on the ground and was already fast asleep. She was just as exhausted and over-heated as me, if not more. The kind owner of the “retsulaunt” walked barefoot back and forth a few inches from my head. She had a ... read more