Blogs from Malawi, Africa - page 3

Where were we? Oh yes, arriving early for our bus from Dedza to Blantyre. Well, it's a good job we did as it turned up a good 40 minutes early and didn't hang around for any stray passengers! It was comfortable and almost empty so we had sooooooo much space. You know where you can stick your minibus rides after this!! We didn't even stop to pick up or drop off anywhere along the way. You might have guessed We were so early we had to wait for the guy from our B&B to come and pick us up. What a novelty. Bonifant Lodge is new. You can tell it's new because it still smells new. Despite being collected from the bus, our arrival seemed to be a surprise to them. We managed to get the ... read more

Getting to Lilongwe took a little longer than we had anticipated. First, once the minibus was full, it headed down to Salima where it dropped off all but three passengers. Those three (ourselves included) were then herded onto another minibus which waited by the side of the road and drove around filling up for what seemed like hours. Eventually it was full to the point of suffocation with baskets hanging off the back and fish tied to the windscreen wipers at the front. Well, at least they were not inside. A painful journey of incredibly fast driving, brake being slammed on, and passengers both getting off and getting on then ensued. It was raining as we reached the edge of the capital and that was when we were made to change bus again. So much for ... read more

Nkhata Bay wasn’t quite the backpacker haven we had expected to find. Maybe once upon a time it was, but nowadays everyone heads to one of two waterfront places a few kilometres across the bay. A shared taxi from Mzuzu was an easy 45 minute ride on good roads and we were deposited in the heart of the bustling town centre alongside the cheerful fishmongers who seemed surprised that we didn’t want to buy their catch and drag it along with our luggage. We opted to stay in the town to see what it still had to offer, and the Ilala Bay hotelwas cheap and cheerful so we stayed there. Life in Malawi usually stops a couple of hours after the sun sets at 6pm. Sadly for us, that wasn’t the case at Nkhata Bay as ... read more

The majority of travellers head to Chitimba when visiting this part of Lake Malawi. We opted for a couple of nights at Maji Zuwainstead. We were attracted by the contribution they make to the local economy and the possibility of seeing some development work in progress. It didn’t quite work out that way. Our minibus dropped us off by the main road and we dragged our luggage along a rough track for about a mile to the entrance. Having booked on Booking.com we were disappointed to find that they were not expecting us but pleased because the walk-in rate is substantially lower than on the website. The downside of not being expected was that the rooms were not exactly in a welcoming condition, or at least we hope that was the situation. Although our “gold” room ... read more

So, we left you in a dusty town near the Malawian border. All that remained of our time in Mozambique was one final chapa to the border town of Mandimba. Another horribly early morning start in yet another impossibly packed minibus, along a very bumpy dirt road took us to the border. They were building a new road alongside this one as we got closer to the border and I can't tell you how much I longed for us to be driving on the flat, smooth(er) surface! Anyway, we eventually arrived at the border town, transferred to a couple of mototaxis to take us the last few kilometres to the Mozambique border itself (where the mototaxi driver tried to tell me the policeman wanted money and when I refused backed off saying that the policeman was ... read more