8 PLACES VISITED: MOZAMBIQUE: 1) Nyamapanda, 2) Tete, 3) Zobue. MALAWI: 1) Lilongwe, 2) Kande Beach (Lake Malawi), 3) Mukwia, 4) Mzuzu, 5) Chitimbah (Lake Malawi).
6 OVERNIGHTS: MOZAMBIQUE: 1) Facility Camp at “Jesus E Bom Campsite” (Elev 85m). MALAWI: 1-2) Room & Dorm at “Mabuya Camp”, Lilongwe (Elev 1023m), 3) Dorm at “Kande Beach” Camp, Kande Beach (Elev 480m), 4-5) Dorm at “Chitimbah Camp”, Chitimbah (Elev 466m).
5 RUNS: MOZAMBIQUE: Tete. MALAWI: Lilongwe (2), Kande Beach, Chitimbah. 1 SWIM: Chitimbah (Lake Malawi).
10 UNIQUE WILDLIFE: MALAWI: 1) Owl, 2) Crocodile, 3) Common Vervet Monkey, 4) Common Baboon, 5) Blue Monkey, 6) Malawi Vervet Monkey, 7) Olive Baboon, 8) Duiker (small antelope), 9) Rock Python, 10) Yellow Baboon.
BLOG POST TRAILER:
Welcome to the post that officially completes Southern Africa with MOZAMBIQUE and MALAWI, my 21st and 22nd country in Africa and 81st and 82nd country in the world! In this post I also pass the 35,000km mark and 200 days on the truck! I still don’t believe it! This is also the post that farewell’s Riza. It is a post of highs and lows. Much like Africa itself, a tough but rewarding continent. The transit from ZIMBABWE to MOZAMBIQUE was fast at only 1.5hrs. MOZAMBIQUE was only a transit for us, to get from ZIMBABWE to MALAWI, a total of 238km across the narrow “Tete Corridor” or what is known as “the neck” by locals. We stayed overnight at a town appropriately called “Tete”, population 50,000 and through which the mighty Zambezi River passes. I managed to get my 76th country run in and we all enjoyed sleeping next to the Zambezi, something I had experienced in ZAMBIA and liked very much.
My run in Tete revealed to me a country more like Western than Southern Africa. Why? Back were the: wooden street stalls selling everything from petrol to potatoes, mountains of rubbish on the side of the road, pollution galore and traffic chaos galore. On the Southern side was better roads, more electricity, hot water, brick wall dwellings and good bridges. The Western African theme continued into MALAWI which is suffering financially and has one of the highest unemployment rates in Africa, causing 85% of the population to live in the rural areas where they can grow there own food and survive. MALAWI also has the worst performing currency in Africa causing mega-inflation and super cheap prices for visitors or anyone with US dollars to change. Our first sleep in MALAWI was in the capital of Lilongwe (Pop 1m, Elev 1023m). I decided to stay an extra day and night in the city whilst the truck continued to Kande Beach, half-way up Lake Malawi. I would catch the “chook bus” (public bus) the following day. My day in lilongwe revealed a messy city with no nice views, no defined centre and nothing for the tourist except a Wildlife Sanctuary.It has four “old towns” and a more modern city centre.
Only two of the four old towns are worth visiting but they are distinctly West African - messy, crowded, polluted with garbage everywhere. One town has the main market and bus station and the other a big shopping mall with post office and craft market. I spent some time in the main market walking through the narrow alley ways between covered stalls and watching rooms full of people, sewing, washing, cooking and even living where they worked. It was a picture of the sad state of affairs of a country that was clearly not generating enough export income or pocketing it to create jobs and foreign investment.
I learned from a government worker that I shared a touk-touk with that uranium mining is reasonably big in MALAWI alongside tobacco. These alone would be generating income but where is it? Like most other African nations, the Chinese have provided a lot of infrastructure including the Parliament Buildings that I passed but their mining revenues and workers are all Chinese. I visited the mausoleum of the the first President who ruled from independence in 1964 until 1994 until forced out by ill health. He died in 1997 aged 99. Can anyone rule at 96? Even though Lilongwe was the third worst city from a tourist perspective I learned a lot about MALAWI by visiting it and talking to its people. My time talking to my young guide Everson at the Wildlife Sanctuary was also enlightening even though the animals there were caged.
My 9hr bus journey from Lilongwe to lakeside Kande Beach was a fine example of why I like solo trips. I sat in bus that is really a bucket of bolts, 100yrs old with 50 people seated and another 20 standing jammed with bags and food including a live chicken in a basket at my feet! Most were women dragging children and goods from the city back to their rural homes. We made several stops but the highlight was Lake Malawi itself. Stretching almost 200km north-south and an average of 30km across it is huge with the opposite bank being MOZAMBIQUE. Unfortunately there were just too many stops on this bus and I arrived at 6:30pm after dark. According to the locals who has seen the truck arrive it was at a lakeside campsite 2-3km away on a sandy road. I out on my head torch and off I went into the darkness. This was a real moment for me.
There was a branch in the path and I was now lost. Out of the darkness cam a local who led me to camp. Phew. Next day I saw the paradise I was in. Postcard perfect. Dorms and chalets right on the sand. The water calm and blue. My run that morning was magic. We spent another two nights further north on Lake Malawi at a place called Chitimbah which was even better since it also had a huge mountain backdrop. We descended down from this mountain and got fabulous views of the lake. My stay here was filled with running, swimming, blogging, movies and booking my Solo 12 trip to the whole of TANZANIA which would begin tomorrow. It will be longest and most daring solo trip to date and I was ready for it… There was only one small hitch. I suffered a calf sprain on my run in Chitimbah, the day before I left the truck for Solo 12. Will it heal in time for Kilimanjaro? Read on in Post 26 to find out!
BLOG POST DETAIL:
DAY 201 of 273, Tue 31MAY16, 360km, Dorm in “It’s a Small World Backpackers Lodge”, Harare (Elev 1465m) ZIMBABWE to Facility Camp at “Jesus E Bom Campsite” (Elev 85m, Run1) MOZAMBIQUE. GOOGLE Australia were useless. Spoke to someone who confirmed that there were no techs in Oz to talk to. I would have to ring the USA to re-instate my password or the option to enter my mobile number as verification. My next chance of internet would come in Lilongwe, the capital of MALAWI, in 1-2 days since we were bush camping in MOZAMBIQUE tonight just for one night en-route to MALAWI. We set out at 7:30am for the border. It was a chilly morning and the border was 232km away through very lush farmland and fields of maize with hills in the background. The further north we travelled the more the landscape changed. Boulder hills in the back with yellow grass in the front, an area of large bare stone monoliths and hills covered in lush bush. 
hat a show! Eventually we got to the border at noon and the ZIMBABWE exit took all of 15min - one stamp and we were out! The MOZAMBIQUE entry was a relative surprise. We were out of there around 1:30pm where five years ago Andi/grant were still there at 4pm. We had lunch on the truck at the border while we were waiting for our very pricey VISAS - AUD130 for one sleep.! We are only transiting through MOZAMBIQUE to get to MALAWI across a narrow passage known as the the “Tete” of “head”. We started passing our first villages and noticed that conditions appeared poorer than ZIMBABWE. This may be so but at least MOZAMBIQUE has been holding multi-party democratic elections since 1994. Dwellings are mainly concrete wall and iron roof and there are more stalls than supermarkets. The road at the start of the Tete was very good.
We made excellent progress having left the border at 2pm. Then a great surprise. We arrived at Tete (Pop 50,000, Elev 85m), on the Zambezi River at 5pm. We camped right alongside the big river with views of the town opposite. It was a great location. Sunset was at 5:20pm. I set out for my run at 5:10pm, not worried about the dark, since I only had this night to run MOZAMBIQUE since tomorrow night we would be sleeping in Lilongwe, the capital of MALAWI. My run took me along the river to a small village where it stopped. I turned back, ran past our camp and on to the main road featuring the huge 536m span Suspension Bridge across the Zambezi. At least I had the light of the cars to see my way through my 76th sunning country! It was during this run that I noticed that MOZAMBIQUE was more like Western Africa than ZIMBABWE or ZAMBIA.
The wooden stalls were back. The rubbish on the side of the road was back. The share cars were back. Pollution was back. Traffic chaos was back. I was so glad to have a hot shower tonight. We were supposed to be bush camping BEFORE Tete but our early border departure meant that we got further and the police in Tete advised not to bush camp after Tete so we stayed at this place - glad about that.
Tonight we had a lot of fun as a group and played charades - strangely we were all in the mood for it. Stayed up a bit after dinner and slept in my pop-up tent with views of the river and the twinkling lights of Tete beyond.
DAY 202 of 273, Wed 1JUN16, 426km, (THE TWO HUNDREDTH DAY ON THE TRUCK TODAY!!!) Facility Camp at “Jesus E Bom Campsite” (Elev 85m) MOZAMBIQUE to Room at “Mabuya Camp”, Lilongwe (Elev 1023m, Run1) MALAWI. It was strange waking up in my see-through, pop-up tent. I figured that the last time I slept in this tent was Day 180, that’s 22 sleeps ago!!! Amazing!!! I am a “bed overlander”! Maybe I have discovered something new. The best of both worlds. This is why I love jumping off and on the truck. Today we set out to complete our 238km total crossing of the “Tete Corridor” of MOZAMBIQUE stretching from the ZIMBABWE border to the MALAWI border. Our target today was the capital Lilongwe. The countryside after Tete was much like the one before - fairly fast, tree covered hills in the background and lots of green bush and thicket in the foreground and next to the road. Villages had a mix of mud-thatched huts and brick-iron houses and the happy laughing and waiving kids were back!
For a moment there I thought I was back in the west. Then it came - a village with hundreds of people buying and selling in a sea of colourful wooden stall markets. I was back in the west! We had ascended over 1100m and the horizon filled with distant ridges and craggy mountains. The land was still green and lush with lots of maize and corn. The border crossing from MOZAMBIQUE into MALAWI took a little longer than doing in. Just on 2.5hrs. There was still a few hours of driving after the border. Just before reaching the capital the landscape flattened out with cone shaped mountains resembling volcanoes. Another fine show of scenery. We arrived at the back packers at 4:30pm and I popped off my shorts and ran. In these situations I always wear my complete running gear and just put on my usual khaki travel shorts with pockets containing all my essentials (money, swiss army, camera, spare battery / SD, lighter, wet face rag, elastic bands, safety pins, band-aides, note paper, pen & passport / yellow fever card when on solo).
My shorts are my best friend. I can be running seconds after we arrive and often this is necessary because we arrive close to sunset and I never run in the dark in places I have not run before. The run took me out of town on the ZAMBIA road. It had a wide shoulder and great views. Sunset was the usual African delight - big disk, orange glow. I got back to bad news. Riza had to leave the trip for personal reasons. She was very upset and had already booked her return flight to Delaware. She was leaving the Trans Africa trip permanently - tomorrow at 9:30am. It was an easy decision for her.
It was a sad moment for Roberto and I especially. We had experienced Africa together for the past 200 days!!! I was particularly upset since I would lose all my solo companions - Roberto was due to leave the truck in 3 weeks in Nairobi to start another overland trip. That’s it - I resigned myself to literally “solo” trips with me, myself and I. Roberto, Riza and I decided to upgrade to a single room and enjoy wine, cheese and olives together tonight for old times sake after Riza packed all her gear. It was a great evening, funny and sad at the same time.
We reminisced on all the fun times we had together, particularly during our “solo days”. We couldn’t believe all that we had done and seen. Travelling in the back of utes that broke down, vans that drove too fast, buses crammed with smelly locals, canned food, cold showers, dust, heat, sweat, headaches and of course laughter, dancing and some great local stall food. I was so thankful to share “the real Africa” with Riza and Roberto. I was convinced that we had become life-long friends. Africa had done this. Africa has fused us together. As I lay down to sleep I wondered when we would all see each other again...
DAY 203 of 273, Thu 2JUN16, 0km, Solo11, Dorm at “Mabuya Camp”, Lilongwe (Elev 1023m, Run2) MALAWI. Today was a day of mixed emotions. Riza was leaving at 9:30am and I was off on my Solo11 adventure at 8am. Riza’s journey home would take 32hrs: taxi to airport 3hrs before flight, a 2hr flight from Lilongwe to Johannesburg, 5hr layover, 10hr flight from Johannesburg to London, 4hr layover, 8hr flight from London to Philadelphia where Robert would drive them home. I was hitching a lift with the truck downtown at 8am. The truck would then leave Lilongwe for Kande Beach on Lake Malawi at 11am.
I planned to stay in Lilongwe all day today and sleep at the same backpackers tonight. I would then catch the morning bus the following day to rejoin the truck in Kande Beach. A very short Solo11 but important to me since I make a note of visiting as many capital cities that I can. Riza farewelled the group at breakfast. Roberto and I said our final goodbyes just before getting on the truck. It was a tough moment. I would deal with it by focusing on Lilongwe. My last glimpse of Riza waiving at us as the truck pulled out of the camp would remain with me for the rest of the trip and maybe beyond.
I now turned my attention to the city that lay ahead. I farewelled the group downtown and started on my tour of the capital. Not a great place. Worst is still Nouakchott (capital of MAURITANIA), next is this city and third worst is Lusaka (capital of ZAMBIA). Despite the fact that this city is not well planned or geared for the visitor, it does have a grit and pulse that was worth seeing. I talked to several people on the streets and learned much about the economic and political status of MALAWI. This is precisely why I like to spend time in the capitals or largest cities. You learn a lot about the country you are in. I started my expedition with “Old Town Area 1” that contains the main market and bus station.
There is also “Old Town Area 2, 3 and 4” and a separate commercial business district separated by approx 5km from each other. This is not a great set up. You cannot see one from the other and have to catch a shared van or touk-touk or taxi with heaps of traffic in between. Like Lusaka there is no clearly defined “centre of town”. There also no museums. Old Town Area 1 has a huge shabby market by the riverside. It is exactly like the markets we saw in Western Africa. Small wooden stalls, side by side, separated by narrow alleys. People not only sold stuff but repaired stuff like shoes, clothes, electronics etc. Most of the market was under cover. I passed by larger stalls full of young men and women at foot-driven sewing machines, washing clothes and preparing food for sale. Many families slept in the back of the stalls on mattresses, often with infants playing on them.
Men would stand on the alley ways holding up clothes or household items for sale and often thrusting them in front of you. It was a picture of the sad state of affairs in this country. Most of the people I talked to believe unemployment is close to 90%. As in ZAMBIA, most people have moved to the country to live off the land and those in the cities have relatives working in other African countries and sending them money. This is how they survive. Sadly many die of malnutrition and there are no pensions or unemployment benefits. The last election was in 2014 and most have lost confidence with the current President. The next election is in 2018. Most people site government corruption as the key factor. Money from foreign company royalties are making their way into select pockets instead of the government coffers.
I shared a touk-touk with a government worker when I travelled between Old Towns and he told me that the key exports were tobacco and uranium. The uranium alone should be generating enough revenues to help the people. I visited the bus station in Old Town Area 1 to figure out what time I need to be there the next day - 7am! I then touk-touked my way to the “Lilongwe Wildlife Sanctuary” occupying 80 hectares between Old Town Area 1 and the City Centre. This is the only offering to tourists in the entire city! I paid AUD5 for a guided one hour tour of the place. It was well organised and very well kept. It is run by a private trust which receives some government funding but most comes from the famous “Born Free” charity and foreign businesses and wealthy individuals. It was opened to the public in July 2007.
Its mission is to rehabilitate injured animals and release them, teach and assist locals on better fairing practices that protects the wildlife and environment and educate school children on wildlife protection. For example, the trust purchased some compressors and gave them to several large farming communities for free and taught them how to make briquettes for their fire out of recycled paper (also sent to them free by large companies) instead of chopping down trees critical to certain wildlife. My guide Everson, born in Lilongwe, finished high school and landed this plum job where he was taught on the job about wildlife and conservation techniques, especially by volunteers who are actually foreign students learning to be vets or ecologists or conservationists or agriculturalists.
They often stay anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months. A good set up. They work for free and the locals receive vital knowledge that they can pass on. Everyone teaches primary school children on the “dos” and "don’ts” of wildlife conservation. He is particularly interested in changing the habits of local people throwing garbage on the sides of the road - something that I have discussed with Riza on the truck. I told Everson what I had concluded with Riza. Eliminating garbage is like eliminating smoking in the western world. It is a generational transition and will take much time. The right people to target is NOT the people doing the throwing since they are older and will never change their ways - it is almost cultural to throw garbage. The people to target is the next generation - the young people and kids who have not started throwing garage yet.
The trick is not to tell them “don’t do this and don’t do that”. The trick is to formulate campaigns that “make it very uncool” to throw garbage. This is what the mobile phone generation will respond to and the greatest weapon we have is SOCIAL MEDIA. Everson understood everything I said and was very pleased with the suggestions. We walked around talking and watching the animals. There are almost 200 animals in this sanctuary including 200 of the 650 species of bird to be found in MALAWI. I saw the following 10 animals: Owl, Crocodile, Common Vervet Monkey, Common Baboon, Blue Monkey, Malawi Vervet Monkey, Olive Baboon, Duiker (small antelope), Rock Python, Yellow Baboon. The also have two lions and two servals (smaller wild cats) that I did not see. After the tour I interviewed Everson for the film. I then sat down in the cafe inside the park and enjoyed a very good cup of coffee from Malawian beans! The coffee was good enough to inspire me to walk to the City Centre.
I passed the very impressive and new looking “Parliament Building” which I later found out was a gift from China in 2007. I then met another government worker coming out of the Parliament in a suit and tie and he told me that the government was not asking for enough advice on how to run their finances from foreign governments. He said that the country was in desert need of investment and advice and invited me to stay and help even though I dressed like a back packer! Next to the Parliament Building was the “Kamuza Mausoleum” a nice four-pillar, glass dome structure dedicated to the first President of MALAWI, Dr Hastings Kamuza Banda who was President from 1966 to 1994 and died in 1997 aged 99. The city centre finally showed itself looking like a shopping mall immersed in trees. Nothing to impress.
A few wide, 10-15 storey buildings, most of them belonging to the government. There was one SPAR supermarket in the middle and that was it. Nondescript and boring. I walked around a bit, took some photos that got me into trouble again - I managed to talk my way out and then I cleared out. Got into a share van filled to brim with locals and made my way to “Old Town Area 3” where the truck had stopped. There was a big shopping mall here and a Shoprite but nothing to see except for the arts and crafts stand near the post office.
After walking around a bit I stopped by Shoprtite to stock up and buy my movie dinner. I caught a touk-touk back to camp and organised for him to pick me up at 6am the next morning for the bus station. My 2pm run was unreal. Blue sky, 22C and great views of the distant conical peaks. At 3:30pm I finally sat down to a cold drink and internet to solve my Blogger/Google access problem. Much to my surprise the option to enter my mobile number to verify myself suddenly reappeared and I was in!
Thank goodness. I made sure that my account settings asked for this option and still rang Google New York to make sure. Much to my surprise Google offers ZERO human help desk - it is against their philosophy and policy. I had to trust my account settings. I then proceeded to correct my blog as per Vit’s detailed review - he was doing this remotely and I was lucky to have him do it. He is thorough and quick! I was delighted that I could blog again and switched to wine to celebrate. I then called my aunty in Greece to see how my uncle was doing - thank goodness he was home and state for now. I then rang mum, my brother, Lucy and George, John Ioannou and even my Thea Yitsa (Aunt Georgina, mum’s sister)! She was especially surprised to hear from me. Finally it was time for dinner and a movie in my four person dorm - top bunk as usual so I could sit upright! What a day. Educational and sad. By now Riza would be flying to London whilst I looked ahead to the chook bus to Kande Beach...
DAY 204 of 273, Fri 3JUN16, 362km, Solo11, Dorm at “Mabuya Camp”, Lilongwe (Elev 1023m) to Room & Dorm at “Mabuya Camp”, Lilongwe (Elev 1023m) to Dorm at “Kande Beach” Camp, Kande Beach (Elev 480m) MALAWI. I couldn’t believe it. Two of the guys in my dorm room were the same ones that I shared a room of 4 in Lusaka! They were from Copenhagen DENMARK. They left earlier than me headed in the same direction but staying further north. My touk-touk driver was spot-on time. The ride to the bus station only took 10min in the cold misty morning. I found the bus easily and I was not surprised when the ticket seller told me it would be leaving “when full”. His estimate was 9am. It was now 6:45am. So off I went to exchange some money and sat on the bus blogging until we left close to 10am!!!
The bus was 100yrs old, falling apart and absolutely crammed with people STANDING UP!!! Most had children. There was even a live chicken in a basket next to me. As the bus steadily filled there were several preachers who came on board and inspired many passengers to sing in melodic African tunes. Not even Hollywood could orchestrate such an iconic scene of African travel! This so justifies my solo trips and I will keep doing them until Cairo - these experiences are priceless. They are also dangerous. I cannot imagine what would happen to us and especially the standing people if there was a sudden crash or heavy breaking.
I was at the front making sure the driver looked fresh and awake! As soon as the bus got moving I knew it would be a long day! This bucket of bolts moved like a snail uphill. It took ages to get out of the bus station and town. I was in need of a flowing breeze having sat in a stationary bus for almost 3hrs. TIA. I got it. As soon as we got to the open road everything cooled down. The bus built up speed on the downhills and use it to manage the uphills. We made way too many stops picking up people constantly until I was completely surrounded by people and chickens. One was in a plastic bag with its head sticking out of a whole in the side of the bag! It did not even make a sound - just sat there.
The landscape between Lilongwe and Lake Malawi comprised rolling hills with little villages nestled in their knees and fields of maize, tomato, potato and cabbage. People had food to eat here. No wonder 85% of Malawians now live in the bush - it is the only way to survive the joblessness of the cities and towns. The lady I sat next to was very nice - always offered me anything she ate. We made a stop for diesel just outside Lilongwe then another at a roadside farmers market some 2hrs into the trip. Most passengers bought up the huge healthy cabbages that featured as the main event. The stops continued. Too many. We seemed to be picking up every stray on the side of the road. No wonder this trip was taking far too long. At around 3pm I could see the lake - finally.
I would be lucky to get to the truck by sunset. At one stage the amount of stopping and number of people standing and poking me in the head with their bags boarded on the ridiculous! Not to mention the smell of BO, the crying of babies and the clucking of chickens. TIA. At 6:45pm I finally alighted at Kande, a total journey of 9hrs just to do 360km. Crazy but there were no other options. Then the fun started. It was dark and the campsite was 2-3km away from the main road. I was dropped off in the village of Kande where there were several people drinking and partying. The music filled the air. I found a local young guy who managed to find the driver of the only ute parked on the road. This guy wanted AUD13 to take me there. I had paid AUD9 to get here from Lilongwe! No deal! I then asked the young guy to show me the road that the truck had used. He set me off on it.
I put on my head torch since it was pitch black. This was no road - just sand. After a few minutes it narrowed and I realised that the truck couldn’t have used it - it was way too narrow. I was alone with my gear, it was dark, I was hungry and needed a shower badly. Would I make it tonight? I was not scared - just shitty because this place was hard to find. Just at that moment I came to a fork in the path and a man emerged from one branch.
Lucky for me he had seen the truck come in yesterday and pointed to the left fork. He wanted to come with me - no doubt to extract some money from me - I was OK with that - I had enough of taking risks and I could see that he was in a bad way. As we walked he told me the sad story of his 6 brothers and sisters now living with their grandmother since their parents divorced and both later died. It was not important to me whether the story was true or not - I just knew I had to help this guy. After 20min we saw lights! It was a small village near the beach. The main gate of the camp emerged soon after. I wished “Matthew” good luck and gave him some money. I secured a dorm room right on the beach, dumped my gear and found everyone finishing off pizzas at the truck. Everyone was surprised yet gad to see me. It was 7:30pm and they had given up on seeing me today.
I told them my story as gulped down some pizza and they could not believe that I had attempted to walk the sandy path on my own at night - they had seen it during the day and told me that it was long and treacherous! It was a good ending to the day. I was meant to be cooking that night so I would cook tomorrow - pizza again - that was the general consensus. Hannes and Dan had made the pizza base from flour, beer and bicarb. It was pre-cooked on one side in cast iron pots, flipped, toppings added and then cooked. It tasted great and like it came from an oven! I looked forward to making this tomorrow. At this point I was desperate for a shower and to relax with a movie so off I went. Unfortunately the water was cold since another overland truck was there. No matter. It was good to be clean and fresh again. Managed to get through the movie and settled down to sleep with the sound of gently lapping waves outside...
DAY 205 of 273, Sat 4JUN16, 216km, Dorm at “Kande Beach” Camp, Kande Beach (Elev 480m, Run3) to Dorm at “Chitimbah Camp”, Chitimbah (Elev 466m) MALAWI. What a fantastic beach, what a fantastic run. Started right on sunrise with the huge orange disk rising over the distant peninsula. The water was gentle and crystal clear. The sky mauve and clear. Cool not cold and no wind. I was actually glad to be up and gold to be out here. Ran past a few villages right on the sand. Locals were washing clothes and themselves and the younger adults even brushing their teeth! They had only the fresh water of the lake, the fish inside it and whatever they could grow beyond the sand to make a living. One young guy dressed in jeans and with dreadlocks yelled at me - "when will you buy my paintings?". People wanted to carry your bags or show you something to try and get a cash tip.
We left camp at 8am and snaked our way north towards Nkhata Bay stopping at Mukwia for 30min for souvenir shopping. Mzuzu (Pop 120,000, Elev 1222m) is MALAWI’s third largest city and a University Town with young students everywhere. Very friendly and equipped with a great Internet Cafe with excellent Malawian bean cappuccinos and a strong internet. Enjoyed my two hours there researching Solo 12 which would see me do the whole of TANZANIA on my own - I needed to leave the truck in order to climb Mt Kilimanjaro which will be the highlight of the visit. Solo 12 will feature in the next Post 26.
The drive from Mzuzu to the lakeside coast is spectacular. Much like the Wollongong descent in Australia you see the whole lake and the lush green banks below. The day was so clear we could see MOZAMBIQUE on the opposite bank some 30km away. We stopped to take photos and enjoyed the warm afternoon sun. At 4:30pm we arrived at our waterside campsite. Much like Kande yesterday, this campsite is idyllic being well shaded, wooded cabins on 4 beds each and warm freshwater lake with white sand for swimming. I settled into my 4-bed dorm room alone - so lucky. It is a wooden cabin and felt like I was in the mountains. There was a mountain in fact outside on one side and the lake on the other. Beautiful. I joined Andi/Grant and the others for a beer on a long table just metres from the water’s edge.
Andi/Grant confirmed my Solo 12 itinerary against there’s - it was viable and I would borrow time from Zanzibar and two bush camps in order to climb Kilimanjaro for 5 days. I would still do Zanzibar and Serengeti. Many said that I would need to sacrifice one of these to do Kili but I managed to make it fit. It is a tight schedule and involves three whole days of buses. If I fall behind then I will fly. I was cooking alone tonight since Riza was gone and Roberto was on his way here from Lilongwe and would probably not get here tonight. I got plenty of help and made pizzas. Rolled the dough and made bases with Hannes, cut up all the ingredients with Andi, Jacob and Fatima. They were delicious and a lot of fun to make. There were only 14 of us and we laughed and discussed our way through the making as well as the eating of the pizzas - it is that the of meal that lends itself to interaction. It was a good evening. I finished the day with a movie looking forward to running, swimming, booking Solo 12 and completing this post tomorrow.
DAY 206 of 273, Sun 5JUN16, 0km, Dorm at “Chitimbah Camp”, Chitimbah (Elev 466m, Run4) MALAWI. Woke at a civilised 7am to do brekkie. This would be my last cook group for a while since tomorrow I was getting off the truck just over the border in TANZANIA and travelling Solo all through the country and meeting the truck in Nairobi, the capital of KENYA, on 21JUN16, 16 nights from now! My longest solo ever. After brekkie I sat at the bar overlooking the lake and tried to use Skype to book key aspects of Solo 12 - no go - sadly this internet was not up to the job. I did not want to loose a whole rest day to book my trip so I transferred the internet money to buying air time on the bar man's phone. It was the only other viable option. While I waited for a helper to buy the air time in the village I completed this blog. It was getting very warm but a lake breeze was keeping me cool. The air tie turned up after 30min and I got exactly 5min use of it and very poor reception.
Both data and voice signals in this village are very poor. By chance the leader of the G-Adventure truck, Justice, offered me the use if his phone as a hot spot. It was still very slow but I managed to book my Solo 12 hotels by calling them, sending them SMS or email. The only thing I could not do is send emails to the adventure companies to get quotes for Kilimanjaro and Serengeti. They were all ready to go and I would try again in Mbeya. By now it was 2pm and I decided to go for a run and swim. It was hot but better to run now when I felt up to it. It started out as an amazing run along the main road next to the lake revealing small lush farms along the way north including lakeside cottages and camp sites.
The mountain behind our camp site looked like Table Mountain in Cape Town. Very scenic. Several locals colourfully dressed for church laugh and applauded as I ran past. On my back disaster! That niggling knot in my calf over the last two runs decided to show its ugly face and it stated to stretch. Before it could pop (stretch to the point of sharp pain), I stopped. It was at the 8km mark so I was happy to record the run and walk the rest - it would heal faster pre-pop than post-pop. Could not risk a more serious injury now with Kilimanjaro only a week away. This was my third incident to stop me running in 206 days so I was Ok with it statistically but the timing? Bugger bugger bugger - why now ahead of the greatest climb of my life.
I would now have to quit running to make sure it healed before “Kili” otherwise “Kili” would kill me! It hurt when I walked back and this was not good. It must have been very close to popping. I was determined to swim and knew I could even with this injury. The only issue was the wind had picked up and there was a lot of chop in the lake. No matter. I got in and coped well with the waves but it was slow an hard going. The only real benefit was that it was fresh water and 25C - very comfortable temperature-wise. It was 4:30pm when I left the water. I managed a 1km swim. Spent the rest of the afternoon before dinner packing my things for Solo 12 and preparing this post for the internet - hopefully the WIFI in my first hotel on Solo 12 would be strong enough to lift into cyberspace. Spent some with he group before and after dinner given the length of time I would be away then retired early to rest my calf and get up early to complete packing. I was so looking forward to entering TANZANIA, my first East African country.
PS: A LITTLE ABOUT MOZAMBIQUE:
MOZAMBIQUE (Pop 21m) is a huge country beset by internal political civil war for tow decades up until 1992. Its origins are very mixed - Bantu, Arabic and Goan to name a few - the first records of settlement reach back only to the 9th Century. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to get their claws on the country in the 15th Century and given the commercial location on the Indian Ocean, it did not take long till every other European country had their eye on the nation. England posed the biggest threat in the 19th Century but Portugal increased their munitions and managed to hold on but pissed off the locals which escalated into massacres in 1960. Having nothing to loose the locals mounted attack after attack eventually driving out the Portuguese and declaring independence in 1975. The Portuguese pulled out overnight and sabotaged the entire country, e.g.: poured concrete down all the water wells. The new President looked to Russia for help and set up a communist government. By 1983 the country was almost bankrupt and a civil war broke out to wrestle power from the incumbent communists. Once the USSR fell, the two sides were able to agree a peace according 1992 followed by free elections in 1994 given the death of the communist President. Things have beed stable until then and new discoveries of oil and coal have helped the economy to stay alive and even grow a bit.60% of the total population is Christian, 20% Muslim and the remainder traditional tribal beliefs. The country loves its “xima” or maize porridge and much seafood is eaten on the coast. There are 6 National Parks but they are not as well set up for tourism as most places in Eastern Africa.
PPS: A LITTLE ABOUT MALAWI:
MALAWI (Pop 16.3m), formerly NYASALAND, is small at approx 900km north-south and 80-150km east-west. Sadly it is one of the poorest countries in the world due to lack of resources and a corrupt government after independence - the first President ruled for 20yrs! It has the worst performing currency in Africa - the "Malawi Kwacha” which makes the country dirt cheap for tourists. It now has a female President who is focused heavily on tourism - so much so that she instituted several programs to restock all 6 National Parks with animals. 85% of the population is rural and 50% is badly malnourished. Average life expectancy for males is only 43yrs and 12% of the population has HIV/AIDS. Even Madonna has been investing in school rooms here to help. MALAWIANS are descendant from the Bantu, Tumbuka and Phoka who cam here in the 17th Century. Dr David Livingstone was the first European to see Lake Malawi in 1859 naming it “Lake Nyasa”. He was the catalyst for the big missionary waves in the late 1800’s with Cecil Rhodes taking administrative control in 1889 with the blessing of the Brits. In 1907 the Brits moved in and named the country Nyasaland. They took over a lot of land from the locals which eventually pushed them into revolt resulting in independence in 1964. Unfortunately the first President made himself a “life” president until ill-health led to his removal and the introduction of free elections in 1994. They say Malawians are one of the friendliest peoples in Africa and will do anything to avoid conflict. Like their neighbours they are big on maize porridge boatels eat a lot of fish thanks to the record 600 species of fish in Lake Malawi - the most of any lake in the world!
PPPS: INTERESTING FACT ON AFRICA:
Africa is 60% desert or arid land. The biggest desert in Africa and the world is the Sahara covering almost one third of Africa (size of Australia!). The Sahara covers 11 of Africa’s 55 countries but only 20% of it is actual sand - the rest is just arid land. The Sahara is also the youngest desert in the world having completely dried up only at 400BC. Around 6000BC it was all fertile! The Sahara also has blindingly fast winds that end up blowing 40 tons of sand over to the Amazon in South America every year!!!
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