Hi all,

Thought I'd be a little more organised, so its only a week between blogs! Hope everyone is having a good New Year.

So since I last left you, we left Kande beach and drove to Malawi's capital, Llongwe. On our way there, we got involved in an 'accident'...well we were driving down the road past two cyclists. One of the cyclists decided to overtake the other and their wheels collided and he feel off. Although he walked away and only had a tiny cut on his leg, we got stopped at the police road block and escorted down to the local police station. After a couple of hours, they decided that we had to pay a fine (about $15) for dangerous driving by overtaking on a bend (although it was a long, straight road!). We were quite lucky though, as the family were trying to make us pay for medical bills, despite not even touching him! Once we were in Llongwe, we had another interaction with the police...we managed to see our Dutch friends (who left the truck in Nariobi) and they gave us a lift back from the shops to our campsite (about 500m). We got pulled over by a traffic cop who said we were breaking the law by having four people in the backseat. He gave us a fine of about $10, and said once we paid the fine, it was ok to have four people in the back of the car for 24 hours! We started arguing and saying that it was because we were tourists, so he said if we saw anyone local doing something illegal, we should tell him. I pointed out that the local bus was driving on the pavement, but he didn't seem particularly interested! So my friend and I went to the local station to pay and my friend basically accused them of being racist. They were very nice in the station, and I tried to bribe them to forget the fine (the guy wanted to join us for a drink that evening, so I said he was stealing our beer money, and suggested that he could join us if he threw out the fine). Unfortunately that didn't happen, but to date, we haven't had any further police altercations (though that was only a few days ago!).

So after Llongwe, we drove into Mozambique. Unfortunately we only drove through Mozambique for two days, bush camping in between, but it does look like an interesting country. It looked a lot poorer than Malawi, but again everyone was very friendly. From Mozambique, we drove into Zimbabwe where I currently am. We started at Chimanimani National Park, where we hiked and went swimming underneath the coldest waterfall ever - our arms were going numb when we were swimming! From there we visited Great Zimbabwe Ruins (which Zimbabwe was named after) - we didn't pay for entry or the tour, but when we were a little hyper, we went and visited the ruins, and also went to a cultural market next door (the woman came back to open up for us).

From Chimanimani, we travelled to Antelope Park where I am now. Our journey here was a little eventful, as our tour leader contracted malaria, but she's recovering well. Antelope Park is amazing - they are a rehabilitation and conservation centre mainly for lions, to increase the lion population in Africa. This morning I went on a lion walk, which involved walking through the park with two female lions (they're two years old, but they're massive), and we stroked and posed with them (I even managed to hold its tail!). After that, I spent some time with the elephants, feeding them, sitting on their knee and sitting on their back - they are massive, so much bigger than the Asian elephants. The elephant was so funny, as it kept trying to push me off its knee, with a combination of its ear and trunk! Tomorrow I'm watching lions feed (i.e. We stand behind a mesh fence whilst big chunks of meat are put on the other side of the fence and male lions charge towards us), I'm playing with lion cubs and going on a lion night encounter (when we watch the lions hunt game in the dark). I can't wait - this place is so good! From there, we're travelling onto Bugowayo and then onto Vic Falls.

Sorry this is a bit long, still on a bit of a high from earlier! I hope everyone is doing well, let me know how you are.