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Published: October 23rd 2008
Lou: Hello! So our last update we were about to head to Iringa, which was a lovely little town. We climbed up the Gangilonga Rocks and had fab views over the valley, went to Neema Crafts Centre where they employ disabled and disadvantaged people and make all kinds of crafts, scarves, jewellery, paper out of elephant dung - we had a tour and got to see some of the fresh dung, mmm. That was fascinating to see. And we also managed to have our first ice cream of the trip! The place we were staying had just been revamped as well, we even had a tv in our room and Mark was very pleased as he got to watch Man U!
After a few days in Iringa we headed south towards the border, had to stop in Mbeya which was not very nice, just the closest town to the border, then headed on to Malawi. First stop was Mzuzu, which was quite welcome after Tanzania as it has banks and supermarkets! We stocked up with cash and supplies and then headed to Vwaza Marsh. We got there just before dark and didn't see any animals the first night. It is
very remote and we were staying in a hut with like a roll down mat for a door and the staff all seemed a bit clueless. I think the lack of security and anyone who seemed to know what was going on freaked us out and we couldn't sleep the first night! Also we thought an animal had got in but it turned out to be the mat/door blowing in the wind!
The second day we went on a walking safari, our guide Hassan was so funny, we learnt lots about animal dung and trees! His favourite phrase was "and here we are having this tree" and he even tested us at the end to make sure we had remembered how to identify the trees! Another gem from Hassan "so you saw buffalo in Tanzania? Ok so tell me about their eating habits... and can you identify the dung?" He was lovely and very enthusiastic but just overloaded us with information! And he also spent ages trying to catch an ant to put in this hole to draw out an ant lion, which is just a little insect that eats ants but he was determined he would lure it
out of it's hole to show us!
Also rather confusingly he would say "and this is the what? the dung, of the what? the hippo" and we weren't quite sure if we were supposed to answer or "what" was just an integral part of his sentences. But it was good fun, we saw elephants, hippos, horned antelope, impala and warthogs, was very different to a driving safari though as couldn't get very close.
We did our first bit of cooking as well as was all self catering. Then after tea on the second night we were sat on the patio of out hut after dark and a twig snapped behind Mark and I turned round and there was an elephant coming right up to the hut. It came and shook a tree in front of the hut to get the fruit down and literally went right in front of us, it was amazing. We saw some hyenas, baboons and impala further away and then a family of 6 elephants came right in front of the hut. There was a mum, dad, 2 older kids and 2 babies and one of the babies started walking towards us and we were a bit scared in case it's mum came back to see what was going on! It was just incredible to see them so close up and we both managed to sleep that night! Although were woken up in the middle of the night as an elephant was trying to eat the roof of our hut!
Headed back to Mzuzu, part of the way was on a pick up truck - I was perched on top of a suitcase on top of a crate and we got really dirty from all the dust blowing - I made the mistake of licking my lips and ended up with a white line around my lips and the rest of my face dark brown, much to Mark's amusement. Next stop was Nkhata Bay, and we were planning on heading to Ruarwe which is a little village on the lake in northern Malawi. The owners of the lodge there were staying at the same place as us in Nkhata Bay and were heading back the next day so we arranged to get the boat with them.
There was 8 of us going as guests plus the owners on basically a fishing boat with all our luggage, it was good fun! And we got to stop for swims. Ruarwe was amazing, we stayed there 5 days and we had an amazing camp site over looking a waterfall. Mark was in his element cos he got to jump off stuff! There was a balcony with like a 9 metre drop into the lake and various rocks and things you could climb up and dive off. We did a river walk one day which was like ghyll scrambling, it was lots of fun. And just down from where we were camping was a slide rock where basically you climbed up and slid down the side of a waterfall so we did that every morning!
The food was really good too - one day they sent someone down into the village to get a goat and then one of the guys staying there killed it and we had goat stew for tea! Although I did terrify Mark when I jumped off the balcony as you're supposed to jump right and aim for a certain point and I basically stepped off instead of jumping and was absolutely fine, but from above it looked like I was heading straight for a rock!
Ruarwe was definitely one of the highlights so far, it's an amazing place and all the people staying there and the owners were lovely. Headed back to Nkhata Bay on the ferry on Monday and had a few more days chilling out on the lake. Off to Lilongwe today and then on to Zambia to camp in trees with monkeys!
Love Louise and Mark xxx
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Billy Boy
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scary carpets
Mark/Louise, Your trip sounds fantastic. I now have a phobia about my rugs attacking me and have banished them to the garden shed. Mark I believe Elephant dung is good for your complextion so you must smear some on before going to bed. I look forward to reading your blogs. Keep safe.