Malawi is where my heart belongs

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Trip Start Sep 02, 2007 Previous
Entry Trip End Jan 23, 2008 Next
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  Lusaka, Zambia
Friday, December 14, 2007

Hey, greetings from.........Zambia!  I love this overland business, arriving in a new country every few days, it's great!  Everythings good after we left Zanzibar we swapped to a new truck called Makako & new crew, Kevin the tour leader & Rob the driver, both locals & really nice.  Had 2 very long drive days getting up at the crack of dawn & driving for 12 hours solid, not even stopping for lunch.  But it's what you have to do when covering such large distances, it's fine though especially now there's less of us you can usually get comfy enough to get a bit of a sleep & theres plenty of scenery to look at to occupy some time aswell.  The first day we stayed at a place called The Farmhouse, it was in the middle of nowhere with no electricity.  Was good though got cooked a traditional Swahili meal of meatballs & Nsima.  Had a bit of a scary bug incident.  Me & Kim were brushing our teeth in the showers (it was her bright idea as it was lighter).  Midway through I saw something huge crawl out of the drain hole, my jaw dropped & Kim turned around to see what I was looking at.  We both ran out screaming still with toothpaste everywhere,  To make it worse I had my headtorch on & so all the other insects decided to fly at my head.  Anyway I dunno what it was but it was huge & had pincers & possibly a tail, maybe a scorpion! 

The next day we crossed the border into Malawi.  I only just made it though!  Because I had already used my 90 tourist visa they said it was illegal for me to enter the country again.  The immigration officer took me into his office & interegated me for a while, asking me my intentions & said he would be breaking the law if he let me into the country.  It worked out OK though, with a bit of fluttering of my eyelashes he eventually gave in & off we went!  We spent the first night in Chitimba, where we all had an early night.  The next day we stopped off at Nkata Bay market where we all bought some wood carvings (some slightly larger ones than I had already bought, which are now winging their way home).  Then headed to Chinteche Inn, which is where I had been for the Music Festival.  Was very strange being back when it was so quiet.  Plenty of good memories!  We had the next day just to chill out on the beach, which is exactly what I did.  Was great after a couple of days of being on the truck.  The next day we headed to Lilongwe & stayed at Mabuya camp (my 4th time, becoming a bit of a regular).  Had a look around the markets & chatted to the locals, was great using my Chichewa again, they were all very impressed & some confused why someone on an overland could speak the language.  & that was it we left Malawi the next morning heading for Zambia (they had no problem letting me leave phew).  Was great being back, felt like I was home.  I have seen some amazing things in the other countries I've visited but I'm just really getting a taster & not getting to know them like I did Malawi, which is a bit frustrating. 

Yesterday we crossed into Zambia.  It chucked it down for a few hours & us in the cheap seats at the back of the truck got a bit soggy.  Arrived at Mama Rulas campsite where I gave in & got my first upgrade, it was only a bed in a room (or more like a shed) but was nice having a break from putting the tent up & down.  I decided it was the best $6 I'd spent when we woke up in the morning to a huge thunder storm & everyone else was putting down their tents in it.  I'm now in Lusaka where we're stocking up on food, alcohol etc. before we go into Zimbabwe.

Better run but will try & write again when I can
Love you all xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Chinteche beach

Makako (new truck)

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