Blogs from Southern, Malawi, Africa - page 5

Last weekend was fantastic! Emma had meetings in Zomba (“big city” in the south) and Mangochi (right on Lake Malawi), and she took us with her. The drive took about 5 hours, but it was incredible. I finally saw the Africa that you see in the movies. For about 1/3 of the journey, Mozambique was to our right. Apparently the road was the border, so we had to stop at about 5 border town checkpoints. The landscape was incredible. You’d look to the right as the sun set behind the distant mountains and think it was the most amazing sight you’d ever seen, then you’d look left only to discover that the way the shadows and changing colors of the sky accentuated the hills and valleys of Malawi blew your mind. I tried to draw an ... read more

Malawi So after the sun, sand and sunburn of Zanzibar, the WI bus headed back on the ferry to the Tanzanian mainland then over the border into Malawi. The terrain got hillier and we camped the first night in the hills at an old farmhouse. There wasn’t a great deal going on here so we went for a walk and explored the local area. We found a lake and spent ages trying to work out if there were any hippos or crocs residing – we decided against the jump in and see method to find out! Also, the next morning we were given some new tent rules. So far we think the Africa camping rules are as follows… 1) Try to avoid coming in the rainy season (Beaumonts failed rule 1 – it rains like crazy ... read more

The next day I chatted to Mike for a bit before he set off back to Salima. Turns out in the storm I had broken my phone - it got wet. I sat at the breakfast table for a few hours and ended up having a really good conversation with Edward about politics, South Africa, USA, China, the future, investments etc. It was an interesting and in depth conversation. It was Grant's birthday so after wishing him happy birthday, I set off with them into town to try get my phone fixed. We waited in a tiny 'African Mobile Service' shop for about an hour while this guy took my phone apart and used chemicals to displace the water and then used a box and a light bulb to dry it - amazing, and after all ... read more

After three months of sitting on coaches, mini-buses, safari-trucks and on the couch watching soccer games, Malawi was going to provide some great opportunities to get off our butts and do some hiking. We skipped through Lilongwe, Malawi’s rather unexciting capital, staying only long enough to do a spot of shopping. My sunglasses were floating somewhere in the Zambezi, by now no doubt approaching the Indian Ocean, and the last piece of the plastic airline cutlery, which we had been using since our flight to Johannesburg, had finally broken. The sunglasses, cutlery, as well as our broken torch, replaced, we headed south towards Mount Mulanje, which meant a few more hours on another bus. We stopped for a night at a town called Dedza as a warm up exercise and hiked up the local mountain, after ... read more

Full update to follow from one of the group, but in the interim.... Like group A, we also shortened our trek by a day and have come down the mountain a day early, six days proving quite sufficient to satisfy our thirst for adventure! The trek was good fun, if a bit challenging at times, personally I rather enjoyed the 'up' bits but not the descents. I was, however, the exception to the rule and came down this morning like a proper old woman with my walking poles, taking very tentative steps to avoid damaging my rather wobbly knee! Off for a celebratory meal soon and then we will decide how to spend our spare day tomorrow before we head to Liwonde National Park for our safari.... Miss Bennett ... read more