Day 28, 26 February: Chipata to Nkhata Bay
We had not lost any fuel, so left quite early to get to Nkhata Bay on Lake Malawi. Another place that Michelle & I had visited in earlier backpacking days, so were keen to stop in again. No more than 100 km out of Lilongwe, I noticed the fuel guage dipping rapidly. Suspecting the worst (the leak), we stopped quickly and it was confirmed. A short round of curses and we carried on, trying to get fuel stations out of Margaret. She thought to send us westward into the remote mountains of Malawi. I know her ways, and decided to watch the guage and hope to reach Mzuzu (about 195km's) through some hilly terrain. A short call to our friend and patron saint of Bigfoot, George, in Cape Town, who confirmed my theory that we should still have at least the main tank of fuel available, even if the second runs quite empty. The second 'gravity feeds' the main tank. The hills were great for this gravity stuff and the fuel guage climbed steadily as we climbed the hills and dipped the valleys.
Comfortable that we would reach Mzuzu (as the one tank filled faster than the other leaked), the route via Mzuzu was beautiful. The road climbs into misty highlands that are commercially forested. This area is very reminiscent of the Sabie, Graskop and Hazyview areas of Mpumalanga (where I grew up). The smell of pine, the sharp escarpment, the Bell loaders and forest roads to the side, even the way the roads curve made me feel like I knew where I was driving. It was refreshing an cool though, and a very pleasant afternoon. Looking at the mists, I sensed that good coffee could also be nearby.
Mzuzu is the second largest center in Malawi, and a busy town. More relevant was Mzuzu panel beaters (Margaret actually helped to find them). A quick stop and we were booked for a Saturday repair. Welding and fuel tanks sounded dodgy to me, but when they mentioned that the tank gets taken off for the job, I knew that they were OK (George told me that this was anyway necessary, as well as filling it with water).
A very steep, but spectacular narrow tarred road drops down from the misty escarpment to the beginnings of the Great Rift Valley, and Lake Malawi.
We checked out a few places in Nkhata Bay before checking in for the weekend at the Big Blue Star, where we got a reed hut on stilts overlooking the beautiful Nkhata Bay, favourite chilling spot on the backpacking circuit. The pace is slow here.

Day 29 - 32, 27 February - 1 March: Nkhata Bay

Saturday was tank repair day, so I went back to Mzuzu while Michelle & the boys started on schoolwork. The guys at Mzuzu panel beaters were quick and professional, identifying a few weak spots where internal reinforcing in the tank had been spot-welded. The spots were weakened, so they set about rewelding the cracked spot and all the others. With the extra fuel tank out of the way, and Bigfoot on a pit, I grabbed the opportunity to inspect the errant spare-tyre mechanism (not possible with the added tank in). Everything seemed OK, and a healthy dollop of gross red grease had it working like it should (15 years without use had made things stick rather badly). So thanks to the inferior Dueler we have the spare tyre mechanism ready to use whenever the Yokohamas have to come out again (which seems quite frequent, given twice in one month following 15 years).
Back in the Bay, we chilled in the lake a little. Everything was spread in and on our little hut to dry (the back of the bakkie was getting decidedly damp and dingy). Naturally, it also rained today (it rains every day, sometime).