Blogs from Malawi, Africa

I thought I would share with you what I can see at this moment in time. I am sat on the balcony in the bar at the Grecko Lodge in Cape Maclear, Malawi just as the sun is about to set. In front of me is an area of Lake Malawi so vast it could be mistaken for the sea. It is calm and little waves lap the shore. Directly ahead, plonked majestically in the lake is a mound of island where we had lunch earlier today. It is triangular in shape and is covered with dark green trees and shrubs. From here it looks like the top of a huge head with afro hair that has the face submerged in the water of the lake. Have a look at the photos and hopefully you will ... read more

Hey! We made it to Africa, but we can't talk! We are having a hard time finding internet so we won't be able to access our blog until the beginning of June. We are having a blast though! Talk to everyone later!... read more

The journey 6th – 7th May 2012 Clare and I left home at 12ish on Sunday and had speedy trip down to Heathrow with Leader. Both of us were slightly worried that our bags would weigh too much at check-in despite me and Will weighing them at least 50 times at home. Needn’t have worried - got a nice check-in girl at Kenya Airways and everything was fine. All of the bags were just under the 23kg limit apart from one which was 27kg and was accepted without us having to de-cant and swap contents of the other bags around. Boarded the 8pm jumbo to Nairobi and settled down to what we thought would be a good night's sleep on the 8 hour flight. Not to be, thanks to a white Zimbabwean with one ... read more

It's been awhile since our last entry as we were without a camera for a good few months. Unfortunately we were unable to get pictures of our amazing time swimming with whale sharks in Mozambique as well as many other wonderful experiences. We spent 5 months living and working in Cape Town where we had a great time making friends and breaking hearts. With only a month left in Africa we dediced to spend it in Malawi with our African family.... read more

It was another long day of driving yesterday to Chitimba, where we finally got our first glimpse of Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa. It's the eighth largest lake in the world, and home to countless species of fish. I'd love to see the biggest lake in the world, because this one was really impressive, to the point that at first I automatically thought that we were driving by the sea before I realised that, miles away, I could make out the faint outline of the far shore. Lake Malawi is a source of income for the locals, with many of them catching and selling fish from the lake or else catering to the tourism trade and offering snorkelling excursions to see the diverse underwater life that thrives there. The water is clean and warm, ... read more

Heading down south to Blantyre we managed to hitch a lift with a couple of nice truck drivers. This was our only option since the three busses that were supposed to be passing by between 4-5pm arrived three hours later all completely packed with around 20 people standing in each. Well normally this would be fine for us but since it was going to be a 12 hour trip over night we thought better of this and gave up on our hope to go that night. We are not really sure if the busses are like this all the time but the fuel crisis (and every other crisis here in Malawi) has put too much pressure on car owners and they have no option but catch the public transport also. As well our impression of some ... read more

The nice description ‘Africa for beginners’ in the Lonely Planet book sounds great and of course you are expecting quite relaxed, friendly and a beautiful country, we were really looking forward to hit the road by backpack in an easy way this time. But when we finally arrived to this country and faced to extreme poverty, hassle which remained us a ‘light’ Kenya and remote capital city so we understood that our trip through Malawi won’t be so easy and it is nothing for beginners in our opinion. The situation is getting worse for every day and we are rushing though this country because you never know what it can happen in the short time of period. However we booked a bus ticket from Lusaka to Lilongwe and the boarding time was 4.30am. It was absolute ... read more