I slept relatively well in the night even though I got my sleeping bag out in the darkness of night as I was a tad bit on the cold side after the damp evening. It was due to be a long day on the bus, especially as we had a boarder crossing into Malawi. We had agreed the night before that instead of leaving at 5am after breakfast, we would leave at 4am and have breakfast and make packed lunch on the road. So the morning, it was just a case of stumbling around in the dark packing and putting down tents.
As we had all got into the bus, the seat rotation was clearly not working, mainly because a few at the back had not rotated and just up seats and moved. Jess had to intervene and make sure people were seated, luckily a few characters offered to move, even though they had done their fair time at the back. There was a few characters who were not happy and comments were flying about in the bus. It all seemed stupid, as people should be old enough and mature enough to sort it out and even make allowances for the group, but it seemed a few were a little too egocentric for the group.
Anyway, we were on the road in the dark morning. We managed to get out of the camp and up the mud track without taking out anymore structures and one of the campsite vehicles lead the way through the windy path. I learnt my lesson from previous long journeys and had my headphones as a companion. I did not sleep for the first stage of the journey, although it was much cooler than the last long journey, although it had not rained again in the night the grass and underfoot was still damp.
We were having breakfast at the original campsite they normal stay at, as they were picking up some meat from them in order to continue to support them whilst the overland trucks were not visiting. It wasn't a long drive here, only around 60km, and were easily there before 6am. The procedure of getting everything out started. I was on kitchen duty today, so helped to get the things ready for the sandwiches. Packed lunches normally involved; bread, sandwich meat, cucumber and tomatoes. Again I made 2 mini sandwiches to enable me to graze throughout the day and I also made a honey mini guy for a snack.
Once our lunches were made and put into their little paper bags, and once breakfast had been consumed (cereal and toast) and packed away we were back on the road. There was still a slight uncomfortable feeling within the group and a few individuals.
The mornings travel was fine, I combined listening to music, reading and dozing to past the time. We had the few occasional toilet stops where we could stretch our legs. People always seem to be buying food and drinks at the services, as though pennies were not an issue, I was beginning to realise that money wasn't an issue for some of our group.
We made good progress throughout the morning and early afternoon. The scenery that flashed past the windows was pretty much the same as always. Although the vegetation did seen to be getting darker and the landscape a little more mountainous.
We got to the boarder around 1pm, and the process of getting stamped out of Tanzania and into Malawi started. A man came into the bus as we stopped for fuel just before the boarder (there was no dealsil in Malawi so we needed to stock up), as Jess and James had arranged it he exchanged for us our Tanzanian shillings into Malawi Kuta. It took a while for us to all figure out the conversion rate to dollars (and to be honest I still don't know). I was making the assumption for working out costs the £1 = $1, so it was easier and at least I was also underspending to what I thought I was spending.
Getting through the boarder was painful. Getting stamped out of Tanzania was simple, just complete a card, hand it in and get stamped. But getting into Malawi was long, even though none of us (apart from Enricko, Swiss, but he had his in advance) needed to pay fir the visa. We had to complete the standard form and hand it in, yet the process of simply getting our books stamped was long, with everyone taking over 5mins, and when there is 2 people working and 24 of us, it takes time. I was frustrating too that locals seemed to have their own queue and/or just pushed in. I managed to jump in the local queue once they had all been debt with. I was stamped without a word from the immigration man and I headed back to the congregation of our group waiting in the shade before we were all complete and good to go. I think the process was a bit quicker than James had expected, as often the bus will get held up behind other vehicles and they normally wouldn't let them push to the front if all the group were processed but today we made good progress and we were just waiting for people to be processed and not the bus.
It wasn't long before we were back on the bus, now in Malawi. I was excited to be in a new country. The language was different, they spoke English, the countries language and then the main tribes language, but most tribes had their own language. As we crossed the boarder we were on higher ground and we had 10/15mins of rain outside. It was heavy but almost refreshing too. The trucks we had passed going the opposite way to us said they had experience rain for the whole time in Malawi. We progressed through Malawi and it wasn't long before we saw the lake, I say a lake it looked more like an ocean. It is 365miles long and 52miles wide. It is the third largest in Africa but the second deepest in the world! We wonder down the roads with the lake popping in and out of view.
As we were coming to a police check point (which there was a lot in Malawi) one of the girls Anya took a photo. We were warned previously not to take photos at checkpoints or boarder crossings. We can only assume she did not know it was a policeman. Anyway the policeman saw and demanded the photo was deleted. There was some confusion in communication between Anya on the bus and the man outside. After trying to show him she had deleted it, she got off he bus (accompanied by Jess) to show she had deleted, but that wasn't the end of it. He took her to their little office at the checkpoint. After a few mins James too went to help sort it out. They were gone some time whilst the rest of us were stranded on a running bus (when I pointed this out of the the guys Josh, went to stand by the drivers door). After about 10 more mins all three of them emerged from the office and back on the bus. We had assumed the policeman wanted a bribe, but no, he wanted to lock Anya up in a cell over night and take her to court the next day. Apparently offering a bribe didn't work (apparently they don't take bribes in Malawi) but Jess simply appealed to his Christian nature for lenience, to which he did. Anya was very shaken up by these events and at first felt embarrassed but after a while jokes were made about the situation.
We drove for another couple of hours, where I again slept, listened to music and read. We arrived the camp site.
The campsite was right on the beach of Lake Malawi and the view was stunning, just like a beach with mountains around. We put up our tents and arranged our bags. There was a few craft shacks outside the gate of the camp and Jess had told us they were good to visit. I was in kitchen duty but when I went to help I was told to go look at the crafts and then help. As I walked out, you are immediately harassed by the owners. I decided I would look around all the shacks although I wasn't planned on buying anything. It was entertaining the owners introducing themselves 'Mr Cheap as Chips' and 'Mr Wheeler Dealer'. As I walked between the shacks I was always asked my nationality and when I said English the topic of football always came next. Every owner said they were the cheapest price and most had a story to tell either about their family or needing things for school. As hard as it sounds, you become immune to the sob stories that people would tell, I am sure they were all sincere, but everyone had their own story. After managing to look around them all I was glad in some sense to be back in the camp where it was hassle free.
I reported to my cooking duty where I chopped garlic, kidney beans, baked beans, butter beans and calaloni beans (they were for a sauce and Jess preferred them chopped before they were mashed). Dinner was meant to be chicken wraps with salad, guacalomi and a bean sauce. James the previous day had brought the wraps but it was only when we tried to cook them did we realise they were meant to be cooked from frozen and these were definitely defrosted, so were sticky and did not cook very well at all. After a failed couple of attempts (they tastes good even if they looked like a mess) and Jess and I had read the packet, there was a menu change. We were to have to chicken with pasta with the beans as a sauce. It worked very well. As there was a change of plan dinner was delayed and everyone had come together for food. As they waited the topic of seats and the bus popped up. It felt like we were getting nowhere with people making suggestions just for people to shoot them down. It was going in circles so I left them to it and went to see if I could help Jess finish the last stages of cooking. I did warn Jess and James about the discussions that were going on.
After another 5 mins dinner was served, chicken pasta, guacalomi and salad. It was very nice and all was silent whilst we ate. There was even pudding, Kate had helped made a bread and butter pudding with jam. This was then baked in a large pot with a lid with hot coals on the top. The pudding was scrummy to say the least!
After dinner Jess and James tired to intervene with the whole seat rotation. They said they had never had a group who had this problem before so it was new to them too to try and sort out. Eventually a plan was suggested but a few people were not happy. There was a compromise in the end, the 4 who were at the back for the first 4 days (they claimed it was 8, but most of that was Zanzibar or safari) would sit at the front for 2 days and the rest would rotate, then for the last few days everyone would rotate (moving 4 sets of seat at a time). A few comments were also made about people not doing their jobs and pulling their weight. I decided to get away from this I would go for seconds and avoid the conversation, not because I was angry or didn't like the outcome, just I couldn't understand why everyone couldn't pull their own weight, as I had gone travelling to avoid the stupid little things, yet here they were again.
After dinner was complete and the washing done, some people went to the bar to play either jungle speed or monopoly cards. I sat, watched the people playing cards and tried to write me diary, and failing miserably. After they had finished cards some went to sit by a fire on the beach along with another overland truck that was there who was going our route but in reverse (starting in Cape Town). When the cards finished, I admitted defeat and joined in the fire. I had a nice chat with an American from the other truck and heard about his work when he was a biologist tracking turtles and his research on hyenas. It was very interesting to hear. It wasn't too long before I went to bed, as it had been a long day.