We had our last delicious coffee with Francis at Utengule Coffee Lodge and had a look around the beautiful bedrooms they have created at the Lodge. They were absolutely stunning and each room had a magnificant view out towards the mountains. As the garage didn't take credit cards we had to take a last trip into Mbale to get money from the ATM to pay for the repairs.On the day before we had once again been stopped by the police for 'speeding'. This time the officer told us the fine was only 20 shillings (about £10) but Peter told him we had no shillings left. He said we had just spent our last money in town and were leaving for Malawi the next day. The officer laughed and let us off. On the road to the border as we were leaving Tanzania there had been an accident and the police were there. One of them came over to us and it was the officer from the day before. He said 'Hello Mr Peter'. Peter said 'I wasn't speeding was I?' and he replied 'No that was yesterday' He asked for a piece of the orange I was peeling and of we went once more, luckily leaving Tanzania without paying any speeding fines.

We found the southern part of Tanzaniato be the most scenic of the whole country and we enjoyed our time there. The border crossing to Malawi was easy and once we had crossed we were welcomed profusely at the police checkpoint. The contrast from Tanzania was evident immediately as we werre now travelling along flat roads once again surrounded by what looked like paddi fields and the only form of transport we saw for the first 1 miles was Ox.

We arrived at Karonga at about 3 p.m. and although there was virtually nothing to see in the small town we decided to stop early rather than travel on a further 70k to Chitimba. However, we were once again back to very high temperatures and high humidity although later a nice breeze developed off Lake Malawi.

The following afternoon we reached Chitimba and found Sangilo Sanctuary Lodge at the bottom of a horrendous dirt track that dropped very, very steeply as it reached the lake. The setting was stunning on a small sandy beach with an open air decked restaurant and bar. Run by a British couple this small lodge featured in the documentary 'A Long Way Down' with Ewan MacGregor on a motorbike travelling the same route as us to Cape Town. This was the place where his wife joined the group for a short while. We spent the day relaxing by the beach, not on it, as the sun is unbearable and it is just too hot to sit out.

On the first night we were the only people in camp but on the second night a group of 5 guys rode into camp on BMW GS trials bikes just like the ones used by Ewan MacGregor. They were all Irish although 3 lived in Dubai. As they were all married with families and still working they could ondly do the trip in stages of about 3 weeks duration and and then leave their bikes for 6 months or so and return for the next leg. On the last stretch, on the bad road in Kenya from Moyale to Marsabit which took us two days, one of the guys came off his bike and broke his leg!!!! We watched the bikes leave camp up the very very steep hill and when it was our turn Peter said the hill was so steep he felt like the truck was going to tip over backwards.

As this area of Malawi is quite rural and we had only changed $25 dollars at the border we were running out of money and so had to visit a large town called Muzuzu with an ATM machine. As we also needed supplies and to use the internet we left camp at 10 a.m. to go to go to town and didn't get back until 5.15. We had chosen a new campsite in Livingstonia which is where David Livingstone had once set up a mission . The road up to Livingstonia is a steep ascent going from 480 meters to 1100 meters over 6 miles via a series of 20 hair pind bends. This is only to be attempted by 4WD if there has been no raid and the road varies between dirt, very rutted and difficult track to sharp stones with a sheer drop on one side. It was quite a hair raising going up and we only just arrived as it went dark at 6 p.m.

Again we were the only people at the campsite but we ordered food at 6.15 any by 8 p.m. we had the most delicious vegatable curry with rice, chips and freshly baked bread. John the chef made everthing fresh with the only light coming from hurricane lamp and candle as there was no electricity in this eco camp. It also had compost toilets and a fire burning boiler.