Off the Map: Malawi!

It wasn’t a hard decision to leave Peponi Beach. The place sure had potential to be a haven, but now it was just a noisy nuisance… We packed up and decided to let Tanzania be and headed for Malawi. It was a three-days-drive from Peponi to the border and during that time we probably passed more speed bumps than during our 30+ days in Kenya. The speed bumps seemed to be rather inefficient though, since we were the only ones slowing down. Each town we hit the brakes a brand new Toyota flew by, passing the speed bumps at well over 100km/h. “NGOs” we couldn’t help thinking. Our slowing-down for speed bumps did however not help when I got caught speeding, doing 75 on a 50. Yes, I got caught speeding in a Land Rover. While I apologized and offered the officer my whole arsenal of poor excuses a Toyota sedan flew by, doing 83. The officer saw his chance to write an even bigger ticket and sent me off with the words “A good driver doesn’t go faster than the road allows”. This was the second time I got caught speeding and the second time I “talked” my way out of a ticket. The first time was in Azerbaijan… For some reason I have never gotten a ticket in Sweden. =)

The border crossing into Malawi proved to be the fastest and easiest on our trip so far, and also only the second where they wanted to see the passenger of the car. Normally (I believe I can use that word after 10 border crossings in 5 months) one of us stays in the car while the other sort out the paperwork. Now I had to go get Kina so she could say “Hi” to the customs officer, after which he happily handed her the passport. All-in-all getting across the border from Tanzania to Malawi took no more than half-an-hour… Compare that to the eight hours it took us to get in to Egypt… not to mention all the Baksheesh we had to pay then.

Our first stop in Malawi was Chitimba beach, a back-packer hangout on the northern shore of Lake Malawi. The place sure was nice and offered fast (but expensive) Internet as well as a wonderful view of Lake Malawi and the outskirts of the Nyika plateau. The main disappointment was the food, as it was more expensive than Kenya and Tanzania, while the servings were embarrassingly small.

We set camp on the beach, in order to get sun on our solar panels. We did however forget to take two things into consideration: 1. We were right outside the bar and the fourth overland truck had just pulled in AND 2. Being on the beach we were as exposed to wind as we possibly could be. We went to sleep at 8.30 East African Time, meaning 7.30 Central African Time. We didn’t know we had crossed into another time zone… Anyhow, two hours later the party started in the bar and as all speakers faced us, sleeping became rather hard. I, being a true trooper, managed to sleep, while Kina lay awake until midnight when the music stopped. Two o’ clock we woke up to flashes illuminating our tent. We looked out and saw an amazing spectacle: the most amazing thunderstorm we had seen, with a never-ending stream of lightning. On the beach stood about 10 to 20 people admiring the show, something Kina thought assembled something from a bad movie: when the oblivious cast gaze upon the phenomenon in the sky just before the evil aliens attack and eat them all alive. Thus she stayed in the tent while I joined the soon-to-be-eaten crowd of drunk overlanders. I managed to get a few shots of the lightning before the wind hit me, and I ran back to the car while cursing our stupidity. Five minutes later the tent was packed up and the full force of the storm hit. It was massive. Instead of “sleeping” in the car we now had the option of stretching out on the couches in the bar. Thus I was soon fast asleep while Kina lay awake until sunrise. Again. The next day we set camp behind the main building and had the best night’s sleep in a long time.

Our next stop was Mayoka Village in Nkhata Bay. We arrived at around 6.30 (CAT, we had reset our watches now) to a place that was more like a nightclub than a backpacker hangout. Apparently the owner had gone nuts and handed out free beer and rooms all day… chaos had ensued and people were now dancing on the bar and on the tables. We met two British overland couples that we had met in Chitimba earlier in the day. They had received two suites each for free… when we approached the owner to se “how much a room is” he was regretfully too drunk to talk why we decided to camp.

Från Off the Map - Africa

As Mayoka Village is situated in steep decline right on the Lake Malawi, we had to camp on the parking lot, which was not as nice and experience as lounging in the restaurant just on the shore. Furthermore it was rather windy, why we the day after decided to move into one of the beachfront chalets. At USD 15 per person per night it wasn’t cheap, but we would have several reasons to salute our decision to abandon the tent in favor of the chalet.

Från Off the Map - Africa

The first reason rolled in at night, as reasons like this always do, dressed as a thunderstorm cum Armageddon. The amount and strength of the lightning was of such magnitude that night almost turned into day. Our chalet shook from the lighting impact, the wind swept right through it (forcing us to tie the patio door shut with the curtains) and outside people were running around screaming, trying to gather their tents and belongings that were scattered in the wind.

That storm, and the one that followed, was a rather nice experience since we could just cuddle up in our bed and cover ourselves with our warm and nice blankets. The second reason we enjoyed our chalet was, however, not such a nice experience. It started one night with Kina feeling a bit under the weather. She went to bed early and woke up a few hours later with a high fever. Her condition worsened the day after, and we decided to go to the local hospital to do a malaria test.

Now, impressing enough healthcare is free in Malawi, so all we had to do was to go to the lab in the hospital disguised as a farm and ask for a test. First they said the test was negative, but as we were about to get in the car a guy came running saying that it was positive. So, off to the doctor we went to get a prescription and a few minutes later we could leave the hospital with 24 yellow pills and a promise she’d get better soon. People we spoke to who had varying degrees of experience of malaria said that 24 hours after you take the first 4 pills you feel at least 50% better, and that seems to be true. 12 hours after she took the first pills her condition was unchanged, but over the next 12 hours her fever broke and she started feeling somewhat better. Magic! =)

During Kina’s malaria episode I wasn’t exactly envious of her… she looked pretty sick… but now… She can say she’s had malaria, and that’s pretty cool. Crap… =(

Richard and Lina met up with us in Mayoka, spent a few nights there before going to Lilongwe to pick up Lina’s sister. We later caught up with them in Senga Bay and we decided to go to Liwonde National Park together. Kina and Richard found a nice campsite, but when Richard called them we were told that the roads to the campsite were impassable. Apparently a few cars had tried to get to the campsite exactly 12 months earlier, only to be stuck in the mud until APRIL! Instead we were offered to stay in a chalet for the same price as camping, USD 10 per person. We thus went the last bit to the campsite by boat, and could from afar see that this place was something extra. First off, the river it was located on offers Africa’s highest concentration of hippos and crocs.

Från Off the Map - Africa

Elephants, hippos, warthogs, monkeys and antelopes often rummage through the camp, and the chalets… wow… Kina and I got a two-room chalet just by the river.

Från Off the Map - Africa

We fell asleep to the sound of hippos grunting, woke up to a bushbuck knocking on a window, had warthogs on our patio at breakfast and were robbed by a baboon for lunch. Amazing! We also decided to try the boat safari and were lucky enough to see not only gazillions of hippos and crocs, but also a group of elephants swimming (and diving) in the river. In a boat you can also get a lot closer to the elephants than on land, so we got some rather nice pictures.

Från Off the Map - Africa

After Liwonde we went to Blantyre and to make the contrast total, we camped on the parking lot outside a backpacker hostel… offering Blantyre’s loudest bar.

We stayed in Blantyre for two nights before heading to Mozambique.