Guest Blogger Mzuzu - Lilongwe

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Thurs 31 May

Drove back to Mzuzu and, relief, an open petrol station. We’d only passed one other over the last four days, and that was out of diesel. Reputedly we’d been near to somewhere that sold it in 20 litre cans that they collected on the bus - but I hadn’t actually found that retailer. Then southwards down the lakeshore to Kande Beach. A bit of a culture shock as it is a large backpacker stop geared up for the overland tourist trucks and there were three of them there - about 60 travellers. One was the same truck that Tamsin had traveled in through Namibia so she reminisced with the guide and made a date to meet him again in Zanzibar, where they both expect to be in a couple of weeks.

Fri 1 June

Up at 7.00 am for a horse ride. Not my favourite form of transport - but a very pleasant way to see the local villages. Finished with a bareback ride in the lake - waist deep (my waist, not the horse’s waist - wherever that may be).

Then a long drive (about 400km) back to Lilongwe. Reasonable tarmac road (built with foreign aid) but initially very empty. A signpost early on said ‘ Next ATM in 250 km ‘. For the first 100km (about an hour) I was driving and Tamsin was asleep. When she was awoke I told her we had met three vehicles coming the other way, and overtaken three. Mainly packed minibuses. No big trucks - the local villages must be virtually self sufficient. And although there were no vehicles there were lots of people walking or cycling along the roadside, and lots of schoolchildren all in blue or green ‘uniforms’.

Arrived at Lilongwe early evening. The president’s wife had died. Funeral on 9 June. Speculation in news as to whether Mugabe will attend.

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