Up before dawn at 4.45am to get to the bus ready for our trip to Lusaka, we weren't allowed to stow our bags in the hold so instead they were shoved at the back of the bus. All seemed a little strange but on arriving at the Malawi/Zambia border all became clear. Customs search through all the cargo in the hold but don't seem to bother about the actual passengers and anything on the bus. It all appeared to be a concerted effort to try and keep the border crossin...

Back on the road and a surprisingly easy journey to Lilongwe, as opposed to the shockingly bad soap opera accompaniments to long distance bus journey's in Tanzania we now appear to have progressed to excessively loud gospel music. A couple of hours is all well and good but I must admit it gets rather tiresome around 8 hours in. Lilongwe is small, spread out and doesn't have a great deal to offer. We are camping in a tiny little tent and sharing a mattress, no...

Now we are back in Nkhata bay for a few days before heading south to the capital Lilongwe. Staying right on the lake again, thankfully in a solid little chalet and not quite so much at the mercy of wretched mosquitoes. James has discovered that our waterproof dry bags are a perfect floating vessel for a few bottles of local beer and can be swam out to a pontoon on the lake as you can imagine it's a rather pleasant way to watch the sun go down. Tomorrow we leave ...

After a few days on Chizi we moved to the nearby island of Likoma. The usual transport between the two is a sailboat that we were reliably informed left daily between 10am and 2pm and that the crossing took anywhere between 1 and 5 hours. All in all not a particularly accurate timescale, but in fairness a lot was to do with the direction of the wind and not just African timings. Fortunately we were able to secure passage on a small fishing boat (complete with e...

Crafternoons in Malawi The hum of an ancient sewing machine, the chatter of women gabbling away at me in Chichewa and busy fingers threading delicate beads onto linen and it's my idea of heaven. Who would have thought I'd be able to indulge in a bit of crafting in Africa, let alone on the tiny island of Likoma nestled on the Mozambique side of Lake Malawi. I've spent the day with the ladies working at katundu an ethical workshop on the island. I've been taught...