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Day forty one continued
It was a formality getting through but as Malawi was having a national holiday we couldn't get any money changed. It is preferable to have lots of $US in low denominations when you cant get travellers cheques, as the locals like the US dollar.
We stayed at a lodge at Mufwa which had toilets, showers, bars, and rowdy dogs. They served Carlsberg in the bar which wasn't that surprising considering Malawi is one of the few places outside Denmark that they actually brew the beer. Paul and Cathy (who were one of my favourite cooking teams on the trip) cooked up curry, rice and chipatis for tea plus banana fritters and custard for our dessert. Fantastic!
Day forty two
I was rudely awakened by barking dogs and the locals revving up their truck at 5 in the morning. We were able to change our money into Kwachas (local currency) today. There were a few of the boys who were feeling crook so they went to get Malaria tests. I had not been troubled by Malaria at any stage. I was on a Larium programme which only needs one tablet a week. The first couple of times that I had taken the pills I had experienced a couple of psychotic dreams, but had been fine since. The key to not getting Malaria when in Africa is to stay covered up at night ie. long sleeves and jeans in cooler climes and lots of repellent if it is too hot to wear a lot of clothes. I tried mosquito coils outside my tent at one stage but they stink like anything and smoke too much to make them viable.
I used to get an insect spray at villages and spray my tent before I retired and zipped it up while I did other things for a few minutes. By the time I got back our tent would be devoid of any insect activity. Keeping your tent zipped up at all times ( whether you are in it or not) is a good idea especially at night. Apart from that you cant do much else although a bit of luck is needed. For some reason mozzies seem to like a particular person's blood more than the person standing next to them and there is nothing you can to about it.
We were camped on Lake Malawi which is another huge lake which we hadn't seen last night due to it being dark.It is 100km wide and 500km long. We left Mufwa Lodge when the others returned. A couple of them had Malaria. We headed along the lake for a while then ducked inland to negotiate a big mountain. We got some fantastic views of the lake sitting on the beach and a good tan.
We spent the majority of the day driving stopping in a town to get some junk food and some beer. It got cold late in the day and we had to climb into our sleeping bags in the back of the truck while we drank our beer. We arrived at Kitoto Beach Hotel where we would camp for a couple of nights. This hotel was flash compared to what we had been used to in Uganda and Tanzania.The rooms all had fans, showers and toilets that worked. Dinner was held in the restaurant and consisted of beef, chips, and vegetables. There was a very hot chili sauce. We had a few drinks to cap the night off.
Day forty three
It was a cruisy day all round with breakfast at 10am, a spot of sunbathing, volleyball with the local kids, then in the afternoon a game of touch rugby on the beach. I cut my foot open but scored 4 tries.
In the late afternoon we had a barbeque before preparing for the main event of the day. We were going to try and join the 100 club. For those uninitated, the 100 club is a drinking game where you must drink from a film cannister or similar sized vessel once every minute for 100 minutes without leaving the circle to go to the toilet or for any other reason. Otherwise, disqualification will result. Each person must also toast to something when it is their turn.
I found it pretty easy as I was a bit parched from running around all day and had had a solid meal before hand. The guys were on beer which we had poured into big pots and which we scooped our film cannisters into. We had managed to find some sturdy wire to wrap around the cannister so that we could have a handle to hold the film cannister with.
The girls were on a vodka and lemonade mixture. After a few turns, Vanessa decided to have a spew on Jess's shirt. She was not too impressed. It turned into a very funny night. Rob kissed the back of the Whale as he had promised. There was dancing on the tables and a late night dip in Lake Malawi. I would have to get tested for Bilharzia when I returned to the UK but was none too concerned at the time.
Day forty four
In the morning we packed up and headed for Selima which was famous for its Malawi chairs and other carvings. I had a look around but decided not to get a Malawi Chair. I saw some ebony figuirines that I liked and I got some ebony necklaces. The locals offered to pack our carvings for us, so I got a guy called Godrey to pack my giraffe carving up properly.
After that we went on a hellish drive to Monkey Bay which is near the bottom of Lake Malawi. The truck ran out of diesel so we had to use spare diesel. Then when it got dark, the truck got stuck in a big pit in the road. It wasn't too difficult to get out of and we had some locals show up who directed us through the minefield of huge craters dotting the "road". We finally got to Nungchenga Lodge at Monkey Bay at around 10pm. We had some well earned drinks in the bar and dinner at 11.30pm. There was another truck safari there at the same time so we chatted to them for a bit. The lodge had good facilities with dorms, a video lounge, table tennis, a beach bar, volleyball net, and all sorts of water sport equipment. It would be our home for the next few days.
Day forty five
Today involved tiring activities like swinging in a hammock, sunbathing, having games of table tennis and of course venturing to the bar every now and then for a cold drink.
In the afternoon, I went out on the wake snake for a ride behind the jetboat which was good fun, but we kept capsizing which did become tiring after a while. Later on we had a game of beach volleyball before dinner and to finish the day we had a good singsong around the campfire.
Day forty six
I decided to explore the surrounding countryside a bit in the morning. No one else had the Livingstone instinct so had to go alone. I walked up a hill and found a spot that would be great to watch the sunset that evening.
After some serious sunbathing,swimming, barflying, and a bit of beach volleyball the day was all but over so got a few people to check out the sunset. It was a beauty.
A few of us watched Stripes in the video room after dinner. Ted and Heather were starting to get a bit restless. They are not used to sitting around relaxing for days on end and were keen to move on to newer surroundings.
Day forty seven
Today was much like the previous ones. I have to admit that I had maxed out in the relaxation department and was ready to move on as well. I am not really a water sports freak so things like canoeing, water skiing and yachting didn't really appeal to me that much. I went for a spin in the back of the jetboat when they were towing some skiers but that was about it.
The evening was interesting as a new truck tour had turned up and so everyone was in the bar to mingle. Justine got absolutely munted and had to be carried off to bed.
Day forty eight
Corey and me were on cooking so we had to be up earlier than normal to get breakfast ready. A few of us went in the Whale to a nearby town to mail some bulky carvings home that we didn't want to carry around everywhere once the tour ended. Unfortunately it turned out to be too expensive to mail from Malawi so we held onto the carvings.
While we were in town we got some provisions. Malaria Darren managed to lock the keys in the cab of the truck. Luckily there was a spare one underneath the floor of the truck in a secure hideaway.
We celebrated by going to an icecream parlour which did have more than two flavours (refer Uganda 2). I had a strawberry sundae.
After returning to camp I ran into Rob and Corey who had managed to get hold of some Malawi Gold. Later in the day I got dinner ready which was a spicy stew and cabbage. It was quite tasty if I do say so myself.
Day forty nine
It was an early start to the day as we packed up and waved bye-bye to Nangchengwa Lodge. We travelled on some really crappy roads for the rest of the day to the capital of Malawi, Lilongwe. We stopped here for 2 hours.
Rob went and saw a doctor and found out he had managed to get an enlarged spleen from Malaria. We then went through to Zambia. Click here for Zambia.
