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Published: January 23rd 2007
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Beach Olympics, Chintche Beach, MalawiLunched in Mzozu on Tuesday before heading to Nkata Bay Curio markets. I traded clothes, a pillow, toothpaste, a book & a sandwich for various wooden souvenirs. I was so organized I even bought my Secret Santa present & silly gift for our Christmas day game. We continued on to Chinteche Beach, I had a couple of drinks before dinner & an early night.
Wednesday was pretty cool because somebody came up with the idea at breakfast to play Beach Olympics. We picked four teams from a hat. Mine was named Yok's Pussy Possy because we had one male competitor (Yok) & four females; all other groups had two men & three women. The opening ceremony took place at 11am & we got through six of the ten events before breaking for lunch.
Firstly we had to run to the waters edge & fill a one litre bottle with holes in the bottom, then race back & fill up one of the washing bowls. The first team to fill it till overflowing won; we came second. The next event was the egg & potato relay, third was the long jump, fourth the potato shotput & finally the front
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Beach Olympics, Chintche Beach, Malawi & backwards running relay. Lunch from the restaurant took quite a while, in which time people ran out of steam & the afternoon's pool events were cancelled. We tallied the score & our group had the most points without even using our Joker!
Had a few drinks in the early evening to celebrate our win before helping Romy with the vegetarian dish that had to be remade. The original had been cooking in the wrong pot & had burned onto the bottom of the pan. We managed to save some vegetables from on top, but had to throw the rest away & begin again from scratch. Fortunately it didn't take long & dinner wasn't ruined.
After tea we had the Beach Olypmics Awards Ceremony & Romy presented each of the four groups with a prize. The Pussy Possy received nuts & a bottle of Zappa, which is an evil drink much like Sambucka; looking forward to cracking it open some messy night in the near future... Finished the evening off with some stargazing by the pool, then headed to bed.
The campsite was woken in the early hours of Thursday morning by a mini hurricane. It
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Beach Olympics, Chintche Beach, Malawi came from the lake & ripped through a row of tents, upending some & forcing everybody to batten down the hatches. Rach & I woke up, tried pulling the flaps down, got the zip stuck & ended up physically hanging onto the front of the tent so we wouldn't flip over. Once in the eye of the storm we had time to fix the zip, before hanging on again whilst the other side passed through. Becky was stuck in her tent & freaking out, so Rach & I tried comforting her as the eye passed through, then Phil let her out once the storm had passed. Paul rescued a very wet Jen & Vic, who ended up on top of their collapsed tent & helped Rach & I move ours closer to the shelter of the truck. At the time it was a pretty scary experience because we didn't know what was happening, or how long the storm was going to last. It was also bizarre because it ripped a path right through the middle of the campsite, demolishing some tents & not even waking the occupants next door - just like the tornados do in the States. I just
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Beach Olympics, Chintche Beach, Malawi wonder what became of all the fishermen out overnight. Their boat lights were visible from shore & I'd hate to think what that wind could have done to their tiny vessels. After the excitement died down, we all returned to our tents & thankfully there were no further dramas.
Up early, we broke camp & crossed the border into Zambia. The truck pulled into Mama Rule campsite on dusk & we put up tents as the weather began to turn ugly. I managed a cold shower before the rain began, then sat in the truck writing my journal until dinner was ready. We ate spaghetti bolognaise under the tarps because it was still wet & I opted for a beer free evening.
Friday was a long day of driving & we arrived at the Eureka campsite in Lusaka just before nightfall. The cook group made a wicked chicken & vegetable stew & I once again wrote a little journal while dinner was being prepared. Second night in a row without any beer, but I still managed to get Zambian beer caps from the barman for my young cousins back home.
We crossed into Zimbabwe on
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Lunchtime at Beach Olympics, Chintche Beach, Malawi Saturday morning at the dam border. They have dammed Lake Kariba & control the water flow to create electricity. We spent a few hours at a shopping centre to do food shopping for Christmas on the houseboat. Finally, some free time to spend doing journal entries on my blog, or so I thought. It seems the net was down for the remainder of the day & they didn't expect it to be up & running until late tomorrow. Just my luck, I don't think I'll ever get caught up with this bloody blog...
Drove to Warthogs campsite at Kariba, set up camp & it was so hot, I headed straight for the bar. Made an agreement with Becky & Blair to go on a three day bender over Christmas, but they're lightweights & I don't think they'll actually go through with it.
Continued drinking & decided a swim was in order, so the group headed down to the pool. The water was a bit manky from so much constan use, but I was merry enough to still go in. Phil & Yok tried to start a dunking game, but I kicked their butts & stood on their heads
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Truck YMCA, Zambia at the bottom of the pool. Something I can thank my brother for is teaching me how to play fight like a boy.
Stayed in the pool until the other Absolute group started doing running dive bombs from the garden. They were getting more daring, jumping further & further from the edge & I couldn't bear to watch. I was convinced somebody was either going to fall short of the water or suffer a spinal injury from hitting their head on the bottom. Returned to camp & nothing much was happening so I hung my mozzie net on a tree, blew up my rollmat & went to bed. Was so tired I was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. Didn't even hear everybody pack up & go to bed, even though they had to walk right by me - I just crashed right out!
Went shopping after breakfast on Sunday morning to buy alcohol & last minute supplies for the houseboat. Went straight to the bay & boarded Osprey, our home away from home for the next two nights. Waited for all our gear to be loaded, settled into our rooms, ate lunch
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Truck YMCA, Zambia & relaxed for a while before we arrived in the middle of the lake & it was time for a swim.
Romy & I started the trend of jumping from the second level of the houseboat into the water. Before we knew it, just about everybody had given it a go. I was glad to have gone first because if I'd waited, I'd have thought too much about the height factor & would probably have chickened out.
Had a chilled out afternoon, drunk a few beers, lazed around then Romy dressed us all up in crazy outfits. I was given a hideous brides dress from the dark ages to wear, with long sleeves, which was sooo hot. We ate dinner in our dress up gear & continued drinking, swimming & partying. Sometime later in the evening it was proposed everyone go swimming naked in the houseboats pool cage. The idea caught on & soon, just about the whole houseboat (except the crew of course) was in there. People were doing naked bombs, naked handstands & flipping into the water; it was great fun. Then our Beach Olympics bottle of Zappa came out & it got passed around until
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Chicken dinner at Eureka campsite, Lusaka, Zambia there was none left. Nobody got too messy, which was great because it meant no really severe hangovers for Christmas Day. Whoever said Christmas Eve had to be boring has obviously never been in the Naked Cage - a great night had by all!
Woke up Monday morning & it was finally Christmas Day - yay. Santa had even visited the houseboat during the night & we all received a miniature Santa sack with a couple of lollies & a personalized wood carved key ring - very cool. As per my three day bender agreement, I began drinking at breakfast & alternated beer with nanna naps all day long. Ate a late lunch, which had so much food we'll be eating leftovers for meals to come.
Continued drinking & we opened our Secret Santa presents as the air began to cool with the beginnings of evening. Robert dressed up as Santa, Romy was his helper & we all got up one by one, sat on Santas lap & received our present. It really made it feel like Christmas, even though we were thousands of kilometres from friends & family & in the middle of nowhere.
The
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Truck Yahtzee, Zimbabwe whole group trapsed over to the other houseboat to play Romys silly present game. Everybody sat in a circle & each person got to choose a gift, either from the new wrapped pile, or one already opened by somebody else & the game continued until everybody had a present. A few of us stayed on for another beer, then returned to our houseboat for more drinks, a late night cheese platter & into bed before midnight.
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