Malawi

Due to a few problems happening in Mozambique, we were unable to host any functions in this country. So we just used the Tete corridor in Mozambique to drive from Harare to Monkey Bay in Malawi.  We spent a great night in Tete at an amazing restaurant on the river, it was one I had been to on a previous visit and wanted to take the guys as the food is amazing. Watching the sunset over the river is really beautiful.

Arriving at the Malawi border today I was ready for the usual onslaught of harassment that accompanies every border crossing.  It was there waiting for us, but there was also people waving today’s paper with a picture of the cars and an article about us, that was surreal…

I found us a backpackers, The Fat Monkey to stay while we were having a few days break in Monkey Bay on Lake Malawi.  Early morning walks to watch the sunrise, playing with the kids along the beach. Watching the hive of activity along the edge of the lake as the locals wake up and come down to the water to take advantage of the cool morning air to fish, wash pots, people, clothes.  The gorgeous morning light brings a beautiful serenity to the scene

Walking through the little village one morning, I met some kids who were delighted to see me in their village.

After a little while I started to walk back to the backpackers, the kids started to follow me, laughing and chatting.  At the gates, I told them to wait there. I ran back in to get some pens and bags to give to them.  When I came back to them I told them to be quiet but as soon as I started handing stuff to them, they started shouting and screaming!  Next thing I knew people from the village just started running at me – it was quite scary as I didn’t have enough things on me and everyone was just grabbing for things.  At that stage I thought the best thing to do was RUN, I just threw what I had left and hightailed it back through the gates.  That was lesson 2, be strategic and not alone when you give things out.

Later that day I got the team together and we went back to the village to hand out more bags and pens, it was a lot better in numbers.  Mohau, was very good at controlling the crowd.  We did get told off by a teacher, as his whole class heard the commotion and ran out of class to get their share…

From here we drove to Lilongwe for the function, clinics.

Along the way, we stopped to fill up the cars.  2 of the cars are diesel. Princess my car, is petrol.  I told the guy to fill up my car with petrol and went into the shop to buy drinks for everyone.  When I came out I jokingly said to the guy  “I hope that’s not diesel you are putting in my car” – he went white!!  Oh my god,”I told you petrol” he said I know but you had a green sticker inside the gas flap – a green sticker in most other countries means petrol and red means diesel.  In Malawi, it is the other way round!!!!

Now, we had a big problem, diesel in a petrol engine is not really advisable (bit of an understatment…), luckily I had realised the mistake before I turned the engine on and the diesel got into the engine.  We were new to the cars and at that stage not sure how to release the gears without turning the engine on (they retract flat when you turn the car off), a quick call to Landrover to solve that problem.  We were in luck that the garage we stopped at had a pit we could drive over, and I was even luckier that Jaco, one of the guys on the team knew all about cars (at this stage I had no idea how much he knew…).  He was able to drain the tank and saved the car!!  It was a tense hour of two I can tell you.  That was lesson 3 – double, triple check the right fuel is going into the tank, no one expects a petrol car to be overlanding…

 

Lilongwe is a small town with not a lot going on.  The hotel we stayed the Riverside Lodge was different not one I would rush back to that’s for sure.

 

After a very festive function, we drove for a few hours up Lake Malawi and stopped at the most beautiful place – Makuzi Beach. Driving down the sandy lane to the beach, you could have been forgiven for thinking that you were driving down to a Caribbean beach. It was so beautiful, white squeaky sand, gorgeous chalets on the beach. I will certainly be back to this little paradise. I have to be careful here, it sounds like I am on holiday… We are working honest!

The plan was to only stay one night, but that would have been a crime, a place this beautiful needs savouring. So we stayed 2 nights and prepared for longer days driving to Tanzania.

We spent our days swimming in the warm waters, jumping off rocks.  Dinners on the beach and just having an amazing, relaxing time a very special place.

The owner of the lodge had connections at the local school and arranged a visit for us to hand out giveaways and conduct a little tag rugby clinic.

The kids here had their books in old plastic sugar bags so were over the moon to receive bags from us.  It breaks your heart to see how little they have. When we drove past the school the next day on our way to Tanzania, the kids all came running out showing us their bags filled with their school books. I must say, I love it when I see our visits have made an improvement in someone’s life, no matter how small.

In between the highlights and “sometimes” staying in wonderful places, we are driving long days. During the last 60 hours, we have been driving for 29 of them. The roads on the whole,  have been pretty good, it’s the police stops that frustrate you and slow you down!