I'll Just Shoot Through Malawi...
Having spent a great and relaxing time with my cousins around Iringa, I decided to make my way to Mozambique. And, not wanting to go all the way back to Dar for a visa, I decided to to the 'easy way' - via Malawi. The fact that the Malawian one month visa is free may have just tipped the scale for me.
So I set off for the boarder and after two very long bus rides back to back, I arrived in Tukuyu - not far from the boarder. I stayed in yet another dingy guest house/brothel and carried on the next day to the boarder.
At the immigration desk I was greeted with three grinning faces - two of which I recognized. It was a group of Israelis two of which I'd met in Zanzibar a couple of times. After greetings were exchanged their smiles vanished as they told of how they'd been held at the boarder for three days! Turns out they'd bought a car in Dar and intended to sell it in S.A when the drive down there. There were however some issues...
Anyway it just so happens that I got there just an hour or two before all the red tape was hacked away and they were free to carry on. So I got a lift with them (contributing to the fuel of course!).
When all the formalities were sorted through we jumped in the ride, bound for a place called Mushroom Farm - a place they were convinced it was possible to obtain some of the more magical variety. Alas, they don't even stock, let alone grow any mushrooms at all!
To get there we had to climb up onto a plateu via what could well be the most dangerous road I've ever been on! It was extremley steep, dirt, blind hairpin turn after blind hairpin - no railings of course. One section was completely slick black mud. It was tough going and the twenty-something year old land cruiser was struggelling, even with 4WD engaged.
We arrived just as the sun was dissappearing over the top of the hill - I'd hate to have done that at night! We camped - my first test of the new tent besided opening it in Sweden... Verdict: It's shite! It's not big enough for me and my bag despite it being a 2-3 person tent (maybe they use Congolese forest pygmmies as the standard!?) The main problem with it however, is that it isn't waterproof, in fact, not even water resistant!
The heavens opened sometime during the night and my sleeping bag became a liferaft as the water poured in from every seam! It's a miracle that I wasn't washed over the cliff on which my tent was precariously pitched!
Unfortunately the food there was beyond our budgets and we were forced to make do with glucose buscuits and a shot of their strong coffee. This of course did little to improve my mood after my night sleeping in the puddle. We then hiked up to some waterfalls (stopping on the way to pick up more supplies - i.e. glucose bikkies) where we had a dangerous swim on the edge. We managed to to skip the entrance fee of 20 Malawian Kwacha as we were apparently conducting some sort of research on the falls... I've got nothing against Israelis, but it has to be said that these three drive a hard bargain. The woman a the gate did try and refuse our feeble excuse, but we managed to bribe her with some, yup, glucose biscuits!
Afterwards we jumped in the car and drove hard all the way to Mzuzu where we bought some supplies (noodles) and extended the transit permit for the car.
We got to Nkhata Bay and the Israelis immediately set about finding other Jews with which to celebrate the upcoming Passover. Within 20 mins they'd located another three israeli girls and more in the following days.
Anyway we spent two nights at a place called Butterfly (both of which I slept in the car at the camping rate). Just my luck that on the second night it poured down again and it was established that the vehicle was not waterproof either : ( So when we'd decided to shift to another place with a more lively atmosphere (though slightly more tacky) called Big Blue Star, I thought I'd splash out on a dorm room where I was relieved to find that the roof had no obvious leaks!
The night of Passover unfortunately coincided with the weekly ferry, the Ilala, as it made its way down south, stopping at Chizimulu and Likoma Islands before heading further south. So I said my goodbyes to the Jews, all dressed up and making nice things to eat. Then we (a young Dutch couple and myself) headed down to the ferry. This time my suvival food consisted mainly of Maheu and a loaf of bread. We reasoned that the journey was only a couple of hours long, and economy class would do just fine (1/5 the price of 1st). Besides, we were told that once the guards checked the tickets adn went to bed, we could shoot up to the 1st class deck and savour the luxuary.
The ensuing cat and mouse game that carried on for the entire of the journey between us and the fat ticket guy was nothing short of comic! Luckily we'd left our big bags up top with a British couple we'd met in Nkhata Bay so we were able to be fairly stealthy. After being kicked off the deck once or twice by the fat ticket man, we managed to bribe the security guard sent to escort us back to the sardine tin into smuggling us back on top. Fat Ticket Man: 1 - Us: 2
An eccentric, hippy-type British guy had been waiting up for the three of us (his only guests) at Wakwenda Retreat. We had a couple of beers with while chatting and watching the Ilala of load a couple of tonnes of fruits and sugar in the moonlight.
We then spent a great three days lougning on the beach, eating coconuts, hiking in the hills and snorkelling (chilling basically). Chizumulu for me was difinitely up there with Lamu in terms of island paradise! Wakwenda Retreat was really done up nicely and was cheap for what it was worth! The meals however, were not (though v. nice) and I quicly ran out of maheu and noodles; especially with my suspected tape-worm infestation (these things are a reality you have to deal with) - constant hunger being the clue.
Anyway the Dutch couple had to move on, and I decided I had to as well. We set off fairly early for the other side of the island, where the dhow to Likoma leaves from. We ended up having to wait a couple of hours (a lot longer than what the journey eventually took us) for the wind to change direction. It didn't, but we set off anyway with the tiny, noisy engine. Thankfully though, the timing turned out to be perfect - as we got to the centre of the lake we noticed that we were surrounded by three heavy storms (one in Mozambique and one on each of the islands). They moved around us and we squeezed through the gap between them, successfully (surprisingly given my track record) avoiding getting drenched.
So we spent two days on Likoma island - more chilling, playing volleyball and walking in the hills. This was also very nice, but somehow didn't quite have the same charm as Chizumulu. Still, I saved some money by camping (sounds like suicide, but for the camping price, they give you a tent which they assured me was waterproof!). After the two days there the Ilala was on its way back up the lake and most people jumped on it and took it back to Nkhata Bay. A Belgian guy and myself however hired a dhow to take us the 7km across to Mozambique... More about that later...
Ok so maybe I didn't just shoot through, but I had a good taste of Malawi and am looking forward to getting back there when I've suffered enough with the Portuguese!
More Pics on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=405685&id=731815045&l=b2dadb3db7
So I set off for the boarder and after two very long bus rides back to back, I arrived in Tukuyu - not far from the boarder. I stayed in yet another dingy guest house/brothel and carried on the next day to the boarder.
At the immigration desk I was greeted with three grinning faces - two of which I recognized. It was a group of Israelis two of which I'd met in Zanzibar a couple of times. After greetings were exchanged their smiles vanished as they told of how they'd been held at the boarder for three days! Turns out they'd bought a car in Dar and intended to sell it in S.A when the drive down there. There were however some issues...Anyway it just so happens that I got there just an hour or two before all the red tape was hacked away and they were free to carry on. So I got a lift with them (contributing to the fuel of course!).
When all the formalities were sorted through we jumped in the ride, bound for a place called Mushroom Farm - a place they were convinced it was possible to obtain some of the more magical variety. Alas, they don't even stock, let alone grow any mushrooms at all!
To get there we had to climb up onto a plateu via what could well be the most dangerous road I've ever been on! It was extremley steep, dirt, blind hairpin turn after blind hairpin - no railings of course. One section was completely slick black mud. It was tough going and the twenty-something year old land cruiser was struggelling, even with 4WD engaged.
We arrived just as the sun was dissappearing over the top of the hill - I'd hate to have done that at night! We camped - my first test of the new tent besided opening it in Sweden... Verdict: It's shite! It's not big enough for me and my bag despite it being a 2-3 person tent (maybe they use Congolese forest pygmmies as the standard!?) The main problem with it however, is that it isn't waterproof, in fact, not even water resistant!
The heavens opened sometime during the night and my sleeping bag became a liferaft as the water poured in from every seam! It's a miracle that I wasn't washed over the cliff on which my tent was precariously pitched!
Unfortunately the food there was beyond our budgets and we were forced to make do with glucose buscuits and a shot of their strong coffee. This of course did little to improve my mood after my night sleeping in the puddle. We then hiked up to some waterfalls (stopping on the way to pick up more supplies - i.e. glucose bikkies) where we had a dangerous swim on the edge. We managed to to skip the entrance fee of 20 Malawian Kwacha as we were apparently conducting some sort of research on the falls... I've got nothing against Israelis, but it has to be said that these three drive a hard bargain. The woman a the gate did try and refuse our feeble excuse, but we managed to bribe her with some, yup, glucose biscuits!
Afterwards we jumped in the car and drove hard all the way to Mzuzu where we bought some supplies (noodles) and extended the transit permit for the car.
We got to Nkhata Bay and the Israelis immediately set about finding other Jews with which to celebrate the upcoming Passover. Within 20 mins they'd located another three israeli girls and more in the following days.
Anyway we spent two nights at a place called Butterfly (both of which I slept in the car at the camping rate). Just my luck that on the second night it poured down again and it was established that the vehicle was not waterproof either : ( So when we'd decided to shift to another place with a more lively atmosphere (though slightly more tacky) called Big Blue Star, I thought I'd splash out on a dorm room where I was relieved to find that the roof had no obvious leaks!
The night of Passover unfortunately coincided with the weekly ferry, the Ilala, as it made its way down south, stopping at Chizimulu and Likoma Islands before heading further south. So I said my goodbyes to the Jews, all dressed up and making nice things to eat. Then we (a young Dutch couple and myself) headed down to the ferry. This time my suvival food consisted mainly of Maheu and a loaf of bread. We reasoned that the journey was only a couple of hours long, and economy class would do just fine (1/5 the price of 1st). Besides, we were told that once the guards checked the tickets adn went to bed, we could shoot up to the 1st class deck and savour the luxuary.
The ensuing cat and mouse game that carried on for the entire of the journey between us and the fat ticket guy was nothing short of comic! Luckily we'd left our big bags up top with a British couple we'd met in Nkhata Bay so we were able to be fairly stealthy. After being kicked off the deck once or twice by the fat ticket man, we managed to bribe the security guard sent to escort us back to the sardine tin into smuggling us back on top. Fat Ticket Man: 1 - Us: 2
An eccentric, hippy-type British guy had been waiting up for the three of us (his only guests) at Wakwenda Retreat. We had a couple of beers with while chatting and watching the Ilala of load a couple of tonnes of fruits and sugar in the moonlight.We then spent a great three days lougning on the beach, eating coconuts, hiking in the hills and snorkelling (chilling basically). Chizumulu for me was difinitely up there with Lamu in terms of island paradise! Wakwenda Retreat was really done up nicely and was cheap for what it was worth! The meals however, were not (though v. nice) and I quicly ran out of maheu and noodles; especially with my suspected tape-worm infestation (these things are a reality you have to deal with) - constant hunger being the clue.
Anyway the Dutch couple had to move on, and I decided I had to as well. We set off fairly early for the other side of the island, where the dhow to Likoma leaves from. We ended up having to wait a couple of hours (a lot longer than what the journey eventually took us) for the wind to change direction. It didn't, but we set off anyway with the tiny, noisy engine. Thankfully though, the timing turned out to be perfect - as we got to the centre of the lake we noticed that we were surrounded by three heavy storms (one in Mozambique and one on each of the islands). They moved around us and we squeezed through the gap between them, successfully (surprisingly given my track record) avoiding getting drenched.
So we spent two days on Likoma island - more chilling, playing volleyball and walking in the hills. This was also very nice, but somehow didn't quite have the same charm as Chizumulu. Still, I saved some money by camping (sounds like suicide, but for the camping price, they give you a tent which they assured me was waterproof!). After the two days there the Ilala was on its way back up the lake and most people jumped on it and took it back to Nkhata Bay. A Belgian guy and myself however hired a dhow to take us the 7km across to Mozambique... More about that later...
Ok so maybe I didn't just shoot through, but I had a good taste of Malawi and am looking forward to getting back there when I've suffered enough with the Portuguese!
More Pics on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=405685&id=731815045&l=b2dadb3db7
Hey Kane, good to see you in Arusha. Noodles and maheu sounds like the perfect diet to me! Have fun in Moz
ReplyDeleteadventurous stuff....will go take a look at your facebook piccies...glad you're safe and having fun! x j
ReplyDeleteHi Kane, nice to read your posts - yes that thing with a non- waterproof tent is a bummer hey??! Have fun and a good trip through Moz. Pam
ReplyDelete