6 Vehicles & 8 Hours to Lilongwe

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The day I decided to leave Cape MacLear for Lilongwe was a Sunday, which is never a good day for travel in Africa. It was made even worse by the fact that Joyce Banda, the country's new female president was visiting Monkey Bay. Despite getting up early, myself and Dmitri from Belgium, had missed what was supposedly the only pick up going to Monkey Bay to Cape MacLear that day. After a while of asking around, we eventually found another pick up to take us to Monkey Bay. From there, we were put on another pick up to the junction of the road, heading towards Dedza. At Dedza, we were told we could get a bus to Lilongwe.

At the junction we found a pick up going to Dedza. We waited an hour and half, in what was now the baking midday sun, for the pick up to fill up. We were also delayed by the commotion that surrounded the visit of Joyce Banda. Much had been made of Banda's decision to sell the government jet and a fleet of 60 vehicles, which the previous President Bingu had deemed neccessary to rule one of the world's poorest countries. However, the convoy that accompanied Joyce Banda would suggest that there may be a few more modern SUV's that must be surplus to Malawi's requirements.

We eventually all piled into the pick up, which really struggled to start and once it did began to lose fuel very quickly. This wasn't helped by the driver turning off, then restarting the engine every few metres in an attempt to conserve fuel! This didn't work and we were out of fuel after only 30 km and the driver hopped on a bicyle he kept in the back with a can to get some fuel. Our prospects were looking bleak, but only then after talking to some of the other passengers, did we discover that the pick up was never going as far as Dedza in the first place.

In our first stroke of luck of the day, another pick up passed by and we jumped out, along with the passenger who had told us of the driver and conductor's deception, and into the passing pick up. The conductor had a bit of a fit and demanded our fare off us. I threw him 100 Kw for the two of us and told him where he could go.

This new pick up wasn't going to Dedza either, only to Golomoti, which was only half the distance. At Golomoti, we again got lucky when an Axa bus going to Salima passed, 5 minutes after we had got off the pick up. This bus was packed to the brim and there was barely room to stand, but we got on, confident that we would get a bus to Lilongwe from Salima. After 2 uncomfortable hours we got to Salima, transferred to a minibus to Lilongwe and arrived there at 5.30 p.m., where I watched the Euro 2012 final and had an early night.

The next day, I spent wandering around Lilongwe. I had hoped to replace my tent after one of the poles had broke, but there was nothing small enough available in stock. There is not much to Lilongwe and at this stage there was a familiar formula to most of the African capital cities. I went to the market, which was bustling and chaotic, without much of interest to buy for me. From there, I took a minibus to the "new" city centre, which is a lot more modern, but is not very interesting.

Between, the old and new parts of the city is the Lilongwe Wildlife Sanctuary. They have quite a number of animals here that have been rescued from poor conditions elsewhere, including a one eyed lion taken from a zoo in Romania. Maybe I have been spoiled from the safari I had been on and the other wildlife I have seen, but I found it to be not much more than a glorified zoo, from a visitor's point of view.

I spent that evening back at the Mabuya Camp. Carlsberg have a monopoly on the brewing of beer in Malawi and is the only brand available. Their lagers include Carlsberg Green, Special Brew and their own version of a local brand. Unfortunately, Lilongwe had run dry of all the Carlsberg lagers. It is produced in Blantyre and there had been some halt in production and stocks had ran out. All that was available was a Carlsberg Stout, which tasted as bad as it sounds. It was pure coincidence that I decided to leave Malawi the next day....

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