It's a long way to Lilongwe!

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Dear Blog readers

It has been a long time between blogs. Tom and I have been on the islands of Chizumulu and Likoma on Lake Malawi for the last week or so. I will attempt to fill in the gaps since my last entry. Since cavorting with the elephants in the Serengeti much water has passed under the proverbial bridge. As I write I am in the capital of Malawi, Lilongwe which feels like a big city after chilling out on the islands but is in fact not very big at all when compared with London or New York.

We travelled from Dar Es Salaam to Nkhata Bay in Malawi on a variety of buses and minibuses. It was wonderful to reach Butterfly Lodge in Nkhata Bay for it was here that we met Aili and Bobbie from Sweden. Aili and I have known each other since 1984 when she and her mom and dad, Kjell and Solveig lived in the flat above us in Darwin. We have remained friends and have visited each other in London and Gothenburg since. I had not seen Aili since about 1992. She and Bobbie have been in Africa nearly two years and are cycling from Capetown in South Africa to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia-a mammoth trip.

We did our reminiscing and travelled together on the good ferry Ilala to the beautiful island of Chizumulu in Lake Malawi. It was great fun negotiating our way on and off the ferry with Aili and Bobby carrying their bikes above their heads in the overcrowded boat. The island has a population of 4,000 and has no TV, cars or computers. It has electricity at certain times of the day and its people are warm and friendly with a rare innocence. Tom and I walked the length of the island one day and had 38 children join us holding our hands and thinking it great fun to be with the strange mzungu (foreigners).

After a few days on Chizumulu we took the dhow to Likoma, the larger (6,000 people) neighbouring island which has 10 cars. The island also has a cathedral which is rather incongruous for such a small place. It is huge and was built in about 1900 by missionaries. It is really rather majestic.

Whilst on the dhow with bikes and all, Bobbie engaged some local Christians in a discussion where his committed atheism caused great consternation and at one point he was accused of the 'serious offence of blasphemy' for suggesting that Mary was unmarried to God when she had sex with him to conceive Jesus. Fortunately all ended happily with handshakes and smiles but for a moment there I could see us all languishing in a Malawian prison. These people take their Christian beliefs pretty seriously.

On Tuesday we rejoined the Ilala which calls at the island twice a week with supplies and had a long trip to Nkhotakota an old slave trading post. During the journey we met many interesting people including John smith a South African who spoke with a more upper class accent than the Queen and who had managed plantations in Kenya. He was a charming man and the epitome of all my images of the colonial master. The trip was lovely sitting in the breeze on the top deck with all the other whiteys who could afford the $25 first class fare. At Nkhotakota we got the excruciatingly crowded mini bus (25 passengers) with its collpased seats to Lilongwe. A4 hour journey which felt more like 4 days. Our journey was brightened at the start by a grimy man named Aswad who wanted to be our pen friends and come to Australia. He spoke good English but seemed rather detached from my reality. He asked me to send him Napoleon Bonaparte's Interpretation of Dreams (Is there such a book?) I gave him 50 Kwacha (about 40 cents) for a meal and he sang us a song through the window of the bus as we left. Only in Africa!

When we reached Malawi's new capital city of Lilongwe we had the culture shock of returning to modern life with its traffic queues and street hassle. It is a strange mix of the modern buildings so familiar in Europe and African's on bicycles carrying bananas on their head.

We stayed a day before moving on to the former colonial capital of Blantyre where I now write. My first impressions of Blantyre were awful: unfriendly, unhelpful and expensive. It is the commercial centre and we couldn't get into the backpacker hostel so had to pay what seemed like heaps of money for a business man's motel which made Fawlty Towers seem like the Ritz. Although there were two of us, only one could have the included breakfast. We only got one towel and the mosquito nets were down from the ceiling. The man who was to fix them never came and the carpet was a mix of frayed offcuts from several other carpets. However the beds were great. The shower had only hot water too hot to stand under. We have now moved to the backpackers. Sheer luxury.

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