Malawi

Malawi is said to be the poorest country in Africa but it was also up there with one of our favourites. The Malawi people have very little but they are all full of smiles and supper friendly. The country is 900km long and 700km of it is Lake Malawi. Our first stop was Palm beach camp at the southern tip of the lake. Lovely camp spot with the beach all to ourselves. The camp is owned by Rieta, a South African who has been there 22 years and has set up a school in the local village and takes volunteers in for work (accommodation and food provided in a beautiful spot). At camp a local asked if he could wash our car which to be honest needed it after Mozambican roads. He did a great job and all for £2. Jonny and I went for a walk through the local village and where surrounded by many small children who could just manage "hello, how are you" most don't speak English. Sadly in Mozambique and Malawi deforestation is a major issue and just in this small village you could see why. Locals chop down tress to; cook bricks for houses, make charcoal, have fire wood, build houses ect. Back at camp we got chatting to a local who sold paintings, African people are amazingly talented just a shame we don't have the space to buy lots of their wood work and paintings. However on this occasion we did buy one, Jonny and I both liked the same one a small painting of the lake and 2 local woman so we bought it (£8).

What was a shame is Malawi was going to be a whistle stop tour as we did not have long till we were meeting my parents in Zambia or I think we would have definitely spent longer. So with just one day at Palm beach we headed for Monkey bay and then onto Cape Mclear. Monkey bay was a good place to stop for some food shopping before cape Mclear so we pulled over at a market stall. I bought tomatoes, potatoes, onions and eggs all great to make an omelet for dinner. The guy tried to charge me to much for eggs and when I said that was too expensive he said "madam but this is a touristy area" I replied " I am buying an egg not a fricking painting" and with that I got 40% off.

Cape Mclear was a beautiful spot just extreamly busy as we arrived on the weekend and it is the closest spot on the lake to Liliongwe the capital of Malawi. To buy food in Malawi is expensive as its imported from South Africa, not products that you cant get in the market of course but to eat in restaurants or local spots is cheap so we did. Malawi was not our healthiest of destinations as food tended to be burger and chips. At Cape Mclear we spent a few hours eating and drinking nice cold beers. Later in the afternoon I went snorkeling and what a refreshing change in fresh water and not salt water in the sea. The visibility in the lake is about 25m and so many colourful, beautiful fish. Sadly Bilharzia is in Lake Malawi but everyone swims and takes the chance and so far both Jonny and I have been fine.

Late evening we were strolling along the shores of the lake when 4 local kids asked if they could play us some music with their home made instruments. They had made drums and a guitar out of what ever rubbish they could find and so I was dubious but they where very good. The next day we got a boat out to Thembe island with some local fishermen to go snorkeling and have a local lunch. The snorkeling was beautiful and the lunch was fish from the lake with rice, tomatoes and spinach leaves, very good. We then took the boat round the island to see the fish eagles what amazing birds and to see them fly down and grab a fish very impressive.

Back from the island at 2pm we decided to head for Senga bay but we were caught out as the sun sets a little earlier on the lake and so we had the last 30 minutes to drive in the dark. Driving in the dark in Africa is never fun; you don't know where you are going, often the roads are in bad condition or have the odd potholes, the cars have no lights or they drive with full beams and blind you, goats cows and donkeys run across the roads and there are many cyclists. Luckily a campsite in Senga bay called Cool Runnings was well signposted with smiley faces so we found our sleep spot for the night ok.

Cool runnings campsite, what a great spot with lots of shade and grass but also right on the Lake shore. The camp is owned by Sam an ex Zimbabwean who has been through some tough times but now does lots of community run projects in the village. An ex nurse and does work with the hospital in Salima 30 mins away. One morning she came running over and asked what blood type we were. Jonny being AB and very uncommon was no good but I am O + and she said they had an 18 year old girl who had a severe bleed over night and desperately needed blood. So Sam drove Jonny and I to the local hospital which was a real eye opener for us.

Salima hospital has an area with 45 000 people to care for and when Sam showed us the blood bank there was one bag of blood. Blood is a difficult battle for African hospitals as most locals cant give blood either because they are carrying diseases or have strong religious beliefs against giving blood. There were hundreds of locals waiting to be seen just sat all over the floors of the hospital. I was very impressed with how professional they were at taking the blood. First they took a small amount for testing to make sure I did not have Malaria, HIV, TB ect and they had clean gloves and needles (checked this before we left as we carry our own). After 20 minutes and they were happy with the blood I lay on a bed and gave 300ml of my blood. Afterwards Sam gave me a Coke, I decided to head outside as inside the hospital was so hot (no aircon even) but just as I got outside I felt very unwell so we had to laydown outside for 30 minutes before we could head off for ice cream.

Malawi still has major fuel shortages and there was no diesel in Salima so we carried on up the lake to Nhakotakota where we found diesel but they don't take Visa cards at fuel stations and the ATMs where out of order or broken (typical). We had enough money to put some fuel in to get us to Nakatar bay where we could get more diesel.

On the way north we decided to stop in Chintheche and camp at Chintheche inn which was a lovely secluded spot with great facilities. We bumped into a French couple we had met at Senga bay and it was just the 4 of us camped on the beach, beautiful.

The next day we headed for Nakartar Bay, which was nothing special, a busy local town where fishermen come in and out and the ferry to Mozambique departs. We camped at big blue star again nothing special when you washed your dishes you feet got washed as well as there was no pipe work. Turned out that Nakartar bay had no diesel either and we were told Mazuzu being the largest town in the north would have some.

Arriving in Mazuzu we spotted very long ques at the petrol stations but when we asked they were queing for petrol and there was no diesel. There where 4 petrol stations in Mazuzu and none of them had diesel. Within minutes of being spotted in town trying to get diesel our car was surrounded by young guys trying to sell us black market diesel. We decided to grab a coffee and think out our options, we had one spare jerry can of diesel which would just get us to the Malawi/Zambian border but only just. We decided to camp the night in a lodge car park and see if there ws diesel the next day. At 7am Jonny walked into town only to be told no diesel and they don't know when they will get diesel as there is none at the depots. We decided to be on the safe side and as we did not know what the roads to the Zambian border where like we would buy one Jerry extra of black market diesel. At $3 per litre is was supper expensive and you felt like you where doing something naughty as you had to get it behind the back of the fuel station. We where worried about the quality but luckily it was fine and we drove on towards the border.

Arriving at the Malawi border post with Zambia at Lushoto we discovered there was no one in the immigration office. I waited for 30 minutes before asking someone outside playing marbles and he cycled off to fine the immigration officer. When he arrived he said nothing stamped our passports out and off we went. At the Zambia entry I got a 30 day visa free on my South African passport and we had to pay $50 for Jonny on his British passport. We also had to pay $25 carbon tax for bringing in a foreign car. It was then goodbye Malawi and into Zambia.

Next our adventures in Zambia, the only country in Africa not to have been through a civil war.