Day 69 – On Safari in Serengeti

Serengeti National Park – Seronera Wildlife Lodge

Serengeti is a huge place, it seems just pure chance what you find on your safari. Elephants, giraffes, buffalo etc abound, the cats are a little more difficult to find. Without an experienced guide with their unbelievable eyes it would be difficult to find the more obscure cats. Today we were lucky and came across a cheetah sitting on a rock, being the only car around we managed to drive right up next to it – amazingly it was totally unfazed by us, being much more interested in keeping its eye on the lion watching it in the distance. Later on we came across lions, part of the wildebeest/zebra migration and two large leopards (in different trees and hours apart)  – a successful day on safari!

Day 68 – You have to have a very hard head to be a giraffe.

Lake Manyara to Serengeti National Park – Seronera Wildlife Lodge

This morning we drove to Serengeti via the Ngorongoro Crater rim. On the way we stopped by two giraffes looking to our uneducated eyes almost as if they were dancing, but our driver explained they were getting ready to fight. When it kicked off we were taken by total surprise as they attack with their heads and necks, belting each other up with the most incredible force as they lay their heads into each other bodies. We captured it on video so will let you know when we have enough internet to upload it as it was the most amazing sight.

Serengeti did not disappoint. As we drove into the park we came across large numbers of gazelles along the road, they would stay on the road until the last possible moment, then run off just as the driver braked to avoid them. We then managed to see a group of lion cubs lounging in and around a tree, herds of elephants, giraffes, zebras, buffalo, hyenas, jackals, wildebeest, warthogs, vultures, ostriches, as well as some cheetahs in the distance.  We also saw a leopard in a tree, but it was getting dark and it was so far away that it took about 15 minutes of explaining where to look by our guide before we could make it out – and even now we’re not sure we haven’t fallen victim to the power of suggestion! Here’s hoping we get a better look at one tomorrow, though our guide says the chances are about 40%.  

We finished up at Seronera Wildlife Lodge, which is built into the side of one of the kopjes (rock formations) that are common in Serengeti – it’s quite an amazing building, as the rocks form part of the walls of the bar and restaurant

Day 67 – Young? But you’re not young, you’re old!

Arusha to Lake Manyara – Kirurumo Tented Lodge

We were picked up by our driver from Hoopoe Safaris, and drove off to Lake Manyara through many Masai villages. It was interesting to see how the tribes have kept their traditional clothing and herd tending way of life. Only 2% of Masai children go to school, they are out with their fathers tending their livestock. We passed one group of boys who jumped up with white painted faces, very similar to Halloween masks, our driver explained that they were painted that way because they had recently been circumcised.

We had only been in Lake Manyara Park for five minutes when our driver told us all that chattering was monkeys that were telling each other there was danger nearby. He stopped the car and in the bush were 3 young lions lying on a log. We were very lucky as we were the only ones to see lions that day.

 

After spending the afternoon on safari we headed to our accommodation for the night - a real step up from our normal hotels. A beautiful tented lodge with both the nicest bathroom and the biggest bed we have had on our entire trip. The view from the balcony took in all of Lake Manyara. Total luxury (though K wasn't that impressed with one tactless waiter)!

Day 66 – “Good guy, bad guy – that’s how we do it”

Arusha - Le Jacaranda Hotel

Today we learnt a number of things about booking safaris in Tanzania – whether we’ve learnt enough though is yet to be confirmed!

We walked into town this morning to start arranging a safari into Serengeti and Ngorongoro parks. First stop was the Tanzanian Tourist Board – they manage a list of registered operators, as well as a blacklist of bad operators. They were very helpful, and gave us a few pointers, and a useful map. Unfortunately though they don’t make recommendations – we still had to do the legwork ourselves.

Part of our "posse" waiting for us outside a tour office

After we left the TTB, it didn’t take long for us to attract the attentions of a number of touts trying to sell us their safari company – outside the TTB is an ideal place for them to hang out. We ended up with quite a posse as we walked around town searching for safari operators – it’s low season, and obviously the competition is pretty fierce here at the moment.

We visited a few operators, including the one that tried to sign us up last night. By the time we’d reached their office, we had about 5 people following us. In true rock star fashion we escaped out the back door and through a side gate, and thought we had given them the slip – but there was one tenacious guy that appeared 10 minutes later and just wouldn’t leave us alone! K lost her cool with him a couple of times but he wasn’t fazed – all he said was “that’s how we live here”. M found out he was a cook trying to get safari work – but as we weren’t in the market for a camping safari, he was probably wasting his time.

We worked pretty hard to get a good deal, revisiting a couple of operators to negotiate better prices, all of them pretty much offering the same itinerary. We had decided after our first visit that we wanted a 5 day / 4 night safari – we just needed to finalise the operator and price, and our good guy / bad guy approach to bargaining came in handy (we’ll leave you to guess which one of us played “bad guy” …..).

We thought we’d done enough research to identify our preferred operator (let’s call them XXXX for now), so headed back to the hotel to hit the internet for some final checking – only to find a post on the Lonely Planet website saying “avoid XXXX at all costs!”. We didn’t want to risk it – we’re talking about 5 days here, and the last thing we want is to be stuck on a crap safari for the sake of a few dollars. So what followed was some frantic googling and re-reading of our Lonely Planet to double check some of the other operators we’d visited – we had hoped to get away tomorrow, and it was getting late!

We finally settled on one of the more expensive, but better credentialed operators. We called them up around 3:30pm, then nervously waited for them to confirm we could go tomorrow – otherwise we’d have to spend another day in Arusha! The call came through – it was confirmed – pickup at 9am tomorrow.

So, after all this, here are some tips on arranging a safari in Arusha from a couple of people who didn't do enough research up front!

1. It’s perfectly feasible to wait until you get to Arusha to make your booking (in low season anyway – we can’t comment on high season) – but still do your research on safari operators before you get there (we didn’t!). Use your guidebook, TripAdvisor, Google, etc. to get a list together, and then visit your shortlist. Also check to see if there are any near your hotel (we didn’t, and found out too late that there was a well regarded operator about 200m from where we were staying!).

2. If the company has pushy touts, maybe it’s a sign you should avoid the company altogether. They are very hard to avoid, but if you know where you’re going they can be more easily ignored than if you’re just wandering around like we did.

3. When trying to negotiate a good deal, if there’s lots of calculator button pushing, speaking in Swahili, and general delaying tactics in coming back with a price or yes/no answer, maybe there’s something fishy going on. That happened to us a couple of times – whereas the more reputable ones were able to come back much quicker, or even just said that they weren’t able to reduce their price at all.

Arusha Clock Tower - at the halfway point between Cape Town and Cairo

4. These safaris are expensive – so the company should have credit card facilities, as it’s not that practical to carry large amounts of cash (especially Tanzanian shillings). Note however that credit card also has a 5% fee. The “budget” operators were cash only. In all cases though, payment is required up front. If you’re going to pay cash, plan ahead – we were caught out on this, so even after 8 ATM withdrawals today, we still need to make more ATM visits tomorrow before we leave!

5. If you want to go on safari at short notice (i.e. next day like us) then try to make your selection and finalise your booking as early in the day as possible. We’ve been told that lodge bookings and park fees need to be paid in advance, and if you don’t leave enough time for your tour company to do this you can lose a day (as we almost did).

6. If you're unsure of who you're going to go with, carry your internet (e.g. iphone) with you, so you can research a company quickly. We didn’t, so we lost time going back to the hotel afterward, if we had our phone we could have ruled out the questionable companies much earlier.

It remains to be seen whether we've made the right decision ….. we’ll let you know in about 5 days time (and if anyone is interested in knowing who we rejected and who we went with, send us a message via this blog!).

Day 65 - Long bus trip? Hakuna Matata!

Dar Es Salaam to Arusha - Le Jacaranda Hotel

We were at the bus station at 5am as were told when we bought the ticket, shame no one told the driver who turned up at 5.45. The Kilimanjaro luxury bus was a step up from the Malawi buses but we still didn’t believe that it would take only 9 hours, sure enough we made it to Arusha by 5.30pm - more like 12 hours, but after what we have experienced 3 hours delay is nothing!

As we are now very cautious with taxis, we eventually decided on a driver that had enough ID to satisfy us he was legitimate and headed to our hotel. Arusha is the “safari capital” of Tanzania – so of course our taxi driver tried to sign us up to a safari on the way to the hotel. However we’ve decided that we'll wait until we’ve checked out a few operators in town tomorrow before deciding who to go with.

Day 64 – Mr Credit has gone on safari you will have to deal with Mr Cash

Nungwi to Dar Es Salaam - Econolodge

We headed off for the hour or so taxi drive back to the ferry at Stone Town. A strange thing happens in Africa that whoever you make an arrangement with (such as taxi drivers), they are not the people you end up going with. One theory we have read is that everyone hands the job to someone else and takes a cut, so if you can manage it in Africa you always get someone else to do your job. This taxi was on its last legs, any speed would mean the wheels wobbled violently, the suspension felt you were on a rocking boat and interestingly the A/C had “broken on the way to picking us up”.

We arrived at the ferry line with an hour to spare to find we had been misled about our “open” return ticket. We were not eligible to get on the 12:30 ferry as our ticket said 3:30pm – a 3 hour wait for the next one – unless all tickets hadn’t been sold! After standing in the blazing sun watching everyone else board for an hour, they let us on as the last passengers. Another lesson learnt – never, ever believe what you are told by someone trying to sell you something!

Arriving at Dar armed with lots of stories of robberies and illegal taxis we had done our homework enough to ignore everyone until we found a white taxi with green stripe and white number plates to take us to our hotel - though the crowd of touts around the ferry terminal was one of the worst we've seen. 

When we arrived at our hotel it had some interesting signs, including today's blog heading. Our favourite was “Anybody with immoral turpitude are not allowed in the hotel premises” – but why did they still let us in? As it turns out we’re not the only ones intrigued by this sign – google for “immoral turpitude” and you’ll see what I mean!

Day 63 – No, we're not getting tired of lying on the beach

Nungwi - Flame Tree Cottages

Pretty much the same thing on Sunday as well, though today we walked up the beach in the other direction. Once we’d covered a bit of distance, we cut back through Nungwi village. The village was quite a contrast compared to the tourist resorts along the beach – dirt roads (with huge water filled potholes), goats and chickens everywhere, and lots of rubbish as well, amongst the pretty basic brick buildings. It’s easy to forget when you are staying at some nice resort that the staff live in these quite primitive villages (by comparison).

Day 62 - Too busy relaxing to write stuff for the blog

 Nungwi - Flame Tree Cottages

A great start to the day with a lovely breakfast served on our verandah. A nice walk up the beach, past all the resorts, an easy stop for lunch. Back to our place for a nice read on the sun lounges and then off to find a place for dinner. How easy can it be!

Day 61 – This is what we expected of Zanzibar!

Stone Town to Nungwi - Flame Tree Cottages

After a very easy taxi drive to Nungwi, we checked into the lovely Flame Tree Cottages. This is the kind of Zanzibar we expected. The water is so clear you can see everything to the bottom, the water temperature is also quite warm – almost too warm, at times it’s like swimming in a hot bath, you would not believe you are in the ocean. The sand is very white and the sea very blue (though as it's rainy season there are a few clouds about). Seems like a good place for a few lazy days in the sun!

Hard to believe it’s Good Friday – not a chocolate egg in sight!

Day 60 – Maybe a day too many in Stone Town?

Stone Town, Tembo House Hotel

The weather was terribly hot in the morning but by lunch time the clouds had gathered and the tropical downpour reduced the temperature nicely. We spent another morning wandering the narrow alleys and streets, but Stone Town isn’t that big, so we really feel it is time to move on. We do not seem to be very good at staying anywhere for more than two or three nights.

We arranged for a taxi to pick us up tomorrow morning to take us north to the beach resort of Nungwi, where we’ll use the time to get well rested (as if we’re not already rested!) before our next stint of planned bus travel to Arusha in Northern Tanzania, where we’ll arrange our safaris for Serengeti, after which we’ll head for either Kenya, Uganda or Rwanda (depends on what we learn about our traveling options along the way).

Day 59 – Jambo, Jambo!

Stone Town, Tembo House Hotel

We spent the day wandering the narrow streets of Stone Town, it is a very Muslim town so no sign of Easter here! However the touts know every trick in the book and tell you they will give you ‘a very special Easter price”. The only other sign of Easter is the amount of tourists with children, many countries have school holidays now so there are a lot of children here.

The old slave market was interesting. As a church was built on the site there’s little to see from the old slaving days, but it was still worth a visit.

Fiji has Bulla Bulla, Spain has Hola, Tanzania has Jambo, Jambo and of course hakuna matata, along with asante for thank you. It’s a shame other African countries don’t teach tourists some of their basic words rather than us always relying on English, then again we are moving out of the more “westernized” countries of southern Africa (with their English and German influences) into places that seem more “traditional”.

We know we're getting a bit slack on keeping the blog updated (we're about a week or so behind)  - put it down to a combination of patchy internet and holiday induced laziness!

Day 58 – Freddy Mercury was here

Stone Town (Zanzibar) - Tambo House Hotel

We had originally planned to spend a couple of nights in Dar Es Salaam, then catch the ferry to Zanzibar – however the train delays meant we had missed our bookings in Dar so it made sense to head straight to Zanzibar from the station.

After a restless night’s sleep (lots of noise and shouting from the compartment next door, with another police intervention overnight for drunkenness!) we were awoken around 4am by a porter telling us we were about to arrive in Dar.

We pulled in to the station around 4:30am, found a taxi and headed off to buy tickets for the 7am ferry, however because it was so early the taxi driver told us it was too dangerous and that we should wait in the car – but we suspect it also was so he could get a cut from the ticket sales (why are we so suspicious/cynical?).

But wait we did, it was great to have Sarah, one of the German girls, with us as she previously lived in Tanzania for a year so has passable Swahili, what a difference it makes when the locals realize you are with someone who can speak their language! We eventually made it to Stone Town on Zanzibar after a 2 hour trip on the fast ferry – to arrive into pouring rain!

We spent the rest of the day exploring the town, a couple of times having to take cover as another downpour threatened to soak us – it is the wet season here after all. Stone Town is very different to other towns we’ve seen in Africa on this trip, it has a very strong Arab influence, as can be seen from the buildings (narrow streets and Arabic architecture) and the people (many more Muslims, including a large number of fully covered women).

We also learnt today that Freddy Mercury was born on Zanzibar – which we found when we stopped at a place called “Mercury’s” for a drink!

As Zanzibar is also a prime tourist destination, we had to spend a lot of time fending off pushy street vendors. In most parts of Africa it hasn’t been too bad – the worst would be Vic Falls and here. It may be time to get a t-shirt printed, with something along the lines of “NO! I don’t want to buy anything so don’t even ask!”

Day 57 – Was it worth the wait?

Tazara Ordinary Train Mbeya to Dar Es Salaam - Carriage 1008 Compartment 5

We slept surprisingly well in our private compartment, considering the noise and motion of the carriages – shows how exhausted we were. We watched Tanzania roll past the window from our beds, only having to get up around 10am when a porter knocked at the door to give us some water and toilet paper, and take our breakfast order.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, looking out the window, walking through the train, napping, and just generally hanging around. It’s quite a nice way to travel – once you get on the train! We’d love to do it again, though I don’t think we can recommend this particular train unfortunately.

We did hear some stories from other travelers about why the train was so late – there was a goods train that derailed, then our train broke down and another one had to be sent back from Mbeya and finally something about people getting drunk while waiting around, getting angry and violent when there was no food (while the people in first class still got theirs), smashing the windows in an entire carriage, then attacking first class (where we were booked into) hitting a woman in the head! The train then went backwards up the line for two hours to the nearest police station so the troublemakers could be arrested.

The train was very slow – top speed seemed to be about 50kmh, and in the morning the terrain was mountainous so there were lots of climbs and tunnels. It was also quite cool, but as the train left the highlands it became very warm and the train picked up a little bit of speed. Because we were in the first class carriages at the back we missed a lot of the action at each station, but we still managed to see lots of people trying to sell their produce to passengers.

We estimated the arrival time of the train in Dar to be around 5am, so after a basic dinner of beef and rice (all they had left) we commenced our second night on the train. Which unfortunately was when we passed through the Selous National Park, so didn’t get to see any wildlife as we'd hoped.

Day 56 – TIA …. This Is Atrocious!

Tazara Ordinary Train Mbeya to Dar Es Salaam - Carriage 1008 Compartment 5

 After very little sleep (none for M!) the station started getting lighter as the sun rose, and the TV changed to a nice loud religious programme! At about 7am they changed the expected arrival time to 2.30pm - now even the easy going Africans were shouting, many of them have babies and many children, all sitting on the concrete floor. We thought they were going to lynch the messenger! It appears as if most of them live locally as they head back home after time changes leaving their luggage in long queues at the door. Like us they had sat up all night unnecessarily when we could have all been in bed.

Some Americans left to take the 12 hour bus trip leaving at 7am, we had our heart set on our private sleeping compartment and watching wildlife so we decided to wait for 2.30pm. At about midday the time was changed to 4pm – the group we were spending time with (2 German girls, 1 American/German guy  and a Swedish guy) were all shattered but decided we could cope with an extra hour and a half . We took it in shifts to look after the luggage and go for food and walks, and also took advantage of the sunny day by drying some clothes on the steps of the station! By 4pm we were packed and excited that the time hadn’t changed for hours, and we could see the drinks ready to be loaded onto the train. Our first inkling of trouble was shouting from the locals sitting inside the station, we then knew something was up, and a look at the board now read 10pm ! 

The poor people with children were so upset and the crowd was very angry! Why can’t they just tell us the truth, they know the train isn’t coming - why keep changing it at the very last minute? We have no idea of what the problem is or whether it’s even fixable.

We caught a taxi back to our hotel, paid $20 to have a shower and then had dinner, heading back to the station around 9:30pm. Our fellow travellers had been told that the train was definitely on its way, it would arrive around 10:20pm, and leave at 11pm. Sceptical as we were, we waited to see if it was true. 

Just after 10pm they opened to the doors to the platform .... a promising development! Everyone was happy as we walked to the edge of the platform - was the train about to arrive? 90 minutes later and still no train .... we were starting to lose hope again when the lights of the train appeared in the distance..... finally!

The train was so long our carriage was about 3 carriages from the end of the platform - we wheeled our cases through the grass, and loaded them on, found our compartment, and settled down to get some sleep. The train headed off around 12:30pm - 33 hours after it was scheduled!

Day 55 – Why did we think the train would be any different?

Mbeya - Mbeya Railway Station (lying/sitting on our cases)

We were told to be at the train for 2.00pm for a 3:30pm departure ….. to play it safe we arrived around 1:00pm, to be greeted by a notice saying that the train was delayed until 8.00pm!

We took a taxi back into town and had some lunch, staying at the restaurant until it closed around 4:45pm. Back at the train station the notice had been changed – it said something like “The train has been delayed until 02.30 (8am) – sorry for the inconvenience”! So what time was it? M checked at the counter – it was 2:30am – so another taxi back to town to our hotel for drinks and dinner followed by loitering in the foyer. There’s not much else to do in Mbeya ….. it’s not as if we could go to the cinema or something!

We ventured back to the station around 11pm worried about what we’d find ….. this time we told our taxi driver to wait while we checked. The result, still 2.30am. There were no seats available, but for some reason there was plenty of open space up one end of the station. We soon found out why ….. the urine smell coming from the toilets was so strong it created a sleep-proof barrier!

We sat on our cases near the benches and waited for 2.30am, but of course the train didn’t show, so we tried to snatch whatever sleep we could, while trying to block out the TV which was showing Tanzanian Parliament in very loud Swahili, and hoping that the train would turn up any minute to rescue us …….

Day 54 – That’s a landmark?

Mbeya – Mt Livingstone Hotel

A day to catch up on the internet and some shopping for our train trip tomorrow, and to arrange some ongoing travel. We also had a pleasant time walking around the centre of Mbeya, which is quite compact and close to our hotel.

Our guidebook had a landmark called “Rhino Statue”, so we decided to check it out. It was the smallest rhino we’ve ever seen – smaller than the giraffe and lion statues nearby!

We plan to spend a few lazy days on the beach in Zanzibar over Easter, so we’ve managed to book some accommodation in Stone Town on Zanzibar. We were a little worried we’d left it a bit late, in the end we’ve had to spread our stay across two places as our first pick was booked out from Good Friday onwards.

M was pretty happy that that Tanzanian sim card we picked up yesterday has unlimited internet usage for a month – originally he thought they’d be sorry they gave M access to unlimited internet …. however it is so slow they are pretty safe! We have managed though to upload a new album of photos for Malawi, as well as a couple more videos, so it’s serving us well for now.

Day 53 – The continuing bus and taxi adventures of K&M!

Karonga (Malawi) to Mbeya (Tanzania) - Mt. Livingstone Hotel

Our arranged taxi did not arrive at 9am, after phoning for another one it finally turned up at 9.30 with the tout lying that we’d said 9:30! We almost ditched him there, but decided to take it to the border anyway where we battled through the black market money changers, piles of luggage, and a sudden downpour.

After the rain stopped we headed to the Tanzanian side, the money changers are unbelievably pushy. The signs say it is illegal but no one seems to try and stop them, one obviously tried to cheat us but we were awake to his tricks! More taxi wrangling on the Tanzania side and we made it to the mini bus for Mbeya, insisting we had seats before handing over the money. We were given two seats at the very back of the bus, but there were containers on the ground, so K could only perch her feet on top. The seats were so narrow and the woman next to M rather large so he ended up standing anyway and occasionally perching on the edge to avoid the giant bunch of bananas on the floor.

It didn’t end there though …. K discovered that one of the containers had no lid and vegetable oil was pouring onto her legs, over the floor and under M’s case! It took a bit of effort to convince the bus attendant that we had a problem. They eventually stopped the bus, M got out and moved the case, so now he was covered in the oil as well, all over his shirt, shorts, legs and sandals, as we continued on our way!

We arrived into Mbeya about 3.30pm and caught a taxi to the train station – we’ve had enough of buses and taxis for a while! We booked a 1^st class sleeper compartment to Dar Es Salaam for Saturday afternoon, a 26+ hour overnight journey. We had to book four seats so we had the compartment to ourselves, otherwise we would have had to go in separate ones as they are segregated between men and women.

It has now been four days since we have had hot water (and we were covered in cooking oil!) so the biggest priority in a hotel is just that. The Mt Livingstone Hotel insisted they did have hot water, so we could finally have a shower and wash some clothes!

Day 52 – Resetting our expectations!

Nkhata Bay to Karonga – Safari Lodge Annex

The steps cut into the hillside at Mayoka Village are treacherous and as we were leaving one poor girl fell over with a glass in her hand and was badly cut. We gave her our taxi to head into town (the road is so appalling we really felt sorry for the rough trip she had to take to the hospital) – rather her than us being sewn up! We caught the next taxi to Mzuzu, passing an overturned bus on its side (could have done without that). Apart from suffering a flat tyre on the way it was uneventful and the taxi driver was really helpful in getting us and our luggage onto the bus – two seats together, yay!! Not too long ago we were interested in how comfy the bus seats are, now we are ecstatic if we just get a seat!

After arriving at Karonga around 5pm we did the usual hassle for a taxi and set off for the Lonely Planet’s recommendation of Safari Lodge Annex. Maybe we need to write to LP because if they considered this better than its sister place - we would have hated to have seen that! Definitely the worst place we have stayed on any trip. Food was also pretty average, and the options seem to be reducing as we travel north – now maybe the weight loss will begin!

Day 51 – Another lazy day by the lake

Nkhata Bay – Mayoka Village

After an amazingly good night’s sleep considering we were sharing with a family of ants, we decided that we would take it easy today. You quickly get into the African way, un-ironed clothes, no washing machines and no make-up for K (or for M ….). However it’s children on these trips that are astonishing, hours on buses etc. and you never hear a noise, they travel for hours without a seat. Sitting on their parents laps with no entertainment and not a squeak. Makes western children appear so demanding. 

The weather is so pleasant it’s hard to believe we are in the tropics – low 20’s each day, though with some rain from time to time.

Day 50 – T.I.A.

Cape Maclear to Nkhata Bay – Mayoka Village

Today was a test of our endurance – but a test that we think we passed! We were up early for the taxi to Monkey Bay, the start of our bus journey. The plan was to get the 7:15am bus from Monkey Bay to Salima, then change there for the bus to Nkhata Bay, also on Lake Malawi.

When we reached the bus at Monkey Bay at around 6:45am, it was already full! Having no other option we squeezed in sardine style. K scored a “seat” on the side of the driver’s compartment, while M stood further back in the aisle. As we should have known, the bus continued to take on passengers, to our amazement as we didn’t think it was possible to squeeze another body in. However after an hour or so enough people had disembarked for K to get a seat – but M had no such luck!

When the bus arrived at Salima three hours later, the Nkhata Bay bus was already there – and packed even more tightly than the bus we had been on! We decided to wait for the next bus, due to leave in an hour ….. two hours later the bus arrived – and it also was already full!! Once again we had no option but to continue. M had a tough time getting the cases on, while K tried to get a seat. Fortunately a nice Malawi gentleman took pity on K and convinced another man to give her his seat …. M hung out at the front of the bus for about three hours until a seat was available. Some of the passengers were quite interesting … there was one woman with a small child – and a chicken (there were about three chickens on this trip in fact).

The trip wouldn’t have been so bad, but it seemed to stop every few kilometers to take on/off more people. To top it all off, the bus was stopped at police roadblocks twice, where everyone had to get off – we still don’t quite know why!

12 hours after we left Cape Maclear we arrived at Nkhata Bay. We were met by a driver from Mayoka Village (our accommodation), who very slowly took us over the roads recently washed out by a couple of days of rain, bottoming out and sliding a few times.

Once we finally arrived, it was pitch black – there was a power outage. The place is also set on the side of a hill – so we had to lug our cases in the dark down lots of very steep and rough steps …. only to find we had to go back up the same set of steps to our room!

After a candlelit dinner (there was no other light available!) we went to bed. K woke up around midnight – because our bed had an ant’s nest, and K had been sleeping right on top of it! We threw the bedsheet (and a few hundred ants) outside, and we finally managed to get some well deserved sleep. Australia has flies - Africa has ants.

Today was one of our more difficult days, but being the intrepid adventurers that we are, we will carry on, because as a fellow traveller we met earlier in the day told us – "T.I.A" …..This Is Africa!!

Day 49 – I could get used to this!

Cape Maclear, Gecko Lounge

As the title says – more of the same today! Another walk through the village (where K added to her growing collection of African bracelets, by the time we leave Africa her arms will be completely hidden!) and then back along the beach in the morning, a bit of relaxing outside the chalet in the afternoon, dinner looking out over the lake towards the fishing boats …. sure beats working! However today is our last day here, tomorrow we brave the public buses again to head northwards up the western shore of Lake Malawi – so it’ll be another one of those dreaded early starts!

Day 48 - “Would you like to go the island? Maybe tomorrow?

Cape Maclear, Gecko Lounge.

A morning walk through the village turned up a few very small local shops and souvenirs but refreshingly no hard sell. This is reserved for the boat owners who want to charge you $25 each to take you on a 10 minute boat ride to an uninhabited island, leave you there for a few hours and then come and collect you – we decided to give it a skip and relax on our own little bit of beach outside our chalet instead.

The area still has some authentic African village atmosphere, I wonder how it will change in the next 10 years or so? As it’s Saturday, the place is now full of children - playing, yelling, screaming, singing - so you can’t really say we’re getting as much peace and quiet as we’d hoped!

Day 47 – To Lake Malawi

Liwonde to Cape Maclear, Gecko Lounge

After an easy drive to Cape Maclear we settled in to our lovely chalet on the beach and went for a walk along the Lake Malawi shore. It is an unusual spot with a few accommodation places on the beach but very much a local village still. The locals were washing, cleaning their teeth, washing their clothes and preparing their boats and nets for the nights fishing. Lots of very friendly children playing on the water edge while their parents worked. In the evening the bay was alight with the fishing boats and their kerosene lamps. For tourists a very quiet and peaceful place – at least while the many children aren’t yelling and screaming!

Day 46 – “I feel like the Queen of England!”

Liwonde, Hippo View Lodge

Today was the day of our trip to visit our World Vision sponsor child. The village was about a 2 hour drive from the WV office in Liwonde, via tarmac and lots of potholed dirt road.

We pulled up at the school at about 11am – and were mobbed by what seemed to be hundreds of children! They all lined up and yelled out “Welcome Michael and Kathryn” – I wonder how long they had been practicing?! We then met Rabecca, our sponsor child – looking just like her photo, and in fact in the same clothes!

We met with the teachers in their dark little office, we sat as school desks while they told us a little about the school. We were then taken on a tour of a few of the areas where World Vision had been helping to improve the life of the villagers. First the women’s sewing group – they sang and danced as we approached (something that happened a lot during the day), and we had a very warm greeting with them. K tried her hand at sewing using the treadle powered machines – to the amusement of the ladies!

We then met a farmer whose life had been improved by the digging of a bore hole – he was now able to grow bananas, sugar, yams and maize, and sell it locally to support his 7 children.

We dined on local village food at Rabecca’s family home, sitting on the floor with the family and World Vision staff, after which we were presented with some lovely gifts of a mat, brooms and bowls!

After lunch K held court at an impromptu Q&A session with the local ladies, while M recorded the event for posterity and even managed (with the help of Rabecca’s father) to keep the children still for long enough to get a group photo!

 

Then to the strains of the singing of the villagers we walked through to the village centre, to meet the village head men, and witness some singing and dancing! Needless to say we were completely overwhelmed by how we were being treated – two average Australians being treated like royalty – although we were quite embarrassed by it all the attention (especially M!) it was very enjoyable and something we will never forget!

We were then treated to the school choir singing songs about AIDS awareness (a strange topic perhaps for a bunch of 10 year olds – but it’s a huge problem in Malawi) – followed by some traditional women’s dances, after which it was speech time – which included us! We weren’t prepared for it, but hopefully we did OK, maybe the fact that almost no one understood us worked in our favour! We then headed off, followed by scores of kids trying to keep up with the car as we drove back through the village.

Overall it was an incredible experience (especially if you want to know how it feels to be a film star i.e. we haven’t done anything special to deserve this adulation) – quite overwhelming but very rewarding, and something we would recommend to anyone that has a sponsor child!

Day 45 – No hippos, but lots of elephants!

Liwonde, Hippo View Lodge

Ah, the comfort of  a quiet, air conditioned room! We had an excellent night’s sleep for a change, and we had no commitments for the day, so we had a nice sleep in as well!

 A quiet morning by the pool at Hippo View, then after lunch we had a short visit to the Liwonde National Park for a game drive. We saw the usual antelopes, warthogs and monkeys, and plenty of elephants on the flood plain, the highlights being a procession of about 20 or so with very young babies, and witnessing a fight between a couple of male elephants.

Day 44 – Beware of Hippos

Lilongwe to Liwonde, Hippo View Lodge

After a slight panic when our taxi didn’t show up on time, we arrived at the Lilongwe bus station for our trip to Liwonde around 6:45am – plenty of time we thought for the 7am bus. Of course, 7am didn’t really mean 7am - so after waiting for the bus to fill completely (that takes in all standing room as well), we finally hit the road around 8:30am!

The bus was one of those “stopping all stations” ones – which was pretty interesting, as it left the main road a few times to stop off in smaller towns, and also gave us a chance to examine the various wares people were trying to sell when the bus stopped. However why buses have to have the music turned up to full blast is something we will never get used to.

There was a mother with a very very young child (a couple of weeks old maybe?) sitting across the aisle from M. The baby had vomited as some stage, so there was bright yellow vomit on Mum’s skirt. However when she leaned over to buy a couple of lollipops through the window, her skirt rubbed up against M – leaving lovely yellow stains on his shirt and shorts. So mum took off the baby’s outer towel nappy, and wiped up as much of the vomit off M as she could - luckily the nappy was still clean!

We finally disembarked on the side of the road at the junction to Hippo View Lodge, a couple of kms out of Liwonde township. There were no taxis, but there was an old guy with a bike – so we piled our cases onto his bike rack, and he wheeled our cases to the lodge, while we walked alongside.

After settling in at the lodge (which had lots of "Beware of Hippos" signs), we tried to contact the local World Vision office to confirm the details of our visit to our sponsor child on Thursday but there was no answer, so we walked into town to try and find the office. After numerous wrong turns and 90 minutes of walking (caused mainly by wrong or misunderstood directions from the locals we asked), we finally found the office just as a vehicle was leaving. We flagged down the car, who very helpfully took our contact details and gave us a lift back to the lodge.

Later that evening we met up with the local WV manager, a very friendly fellow named Dan, and we had a very pleasant dinner with him at the lodge, where we discussed the plans for our visit on Thursday.

Day 43 – (Thin walls + loud Americans) x (No Fan + Mosquitos) = Disturbed Sleep

Lilongwe, Mufasa Lodge
  

The temperature in Lilongwe isn’t too bad at this time of year – hot during the day, but there’s patchy cloud cover in the afternoon to take the sting out of the heat, and the evenings are pleasant for sitting outside while having a nice meal. Unfortunately though, Mufasa Lodge takes up the second floor of a city office building, so the walls are very thin - and because of the potential mosquito problem, you can’t leave the windows open at night for ventilation. So a peaceful night’s sleep was pretty much out of the question – which we were fine with at first. But when two Americans girls on the other side of the wall decided to have a long heart to heart discussion about their boy troubles at 6am, any chance we may have had of a decent sleep went out the window!

 

Once we’d recovered from that rude awakening, we headed out for a walk around Lilongwe. A trek to the market was followed by a bit more wandering around.

We did need to stock up on cash, as our next destination didn’t take credit cards and there was no usable ATM in the local town. Back home this wouldn’t be a problem, but in Malawi the largest note available is 500 Kwacha, which is only worth about A$3.15! So after numerous withdrawals (we had up to 6 days of food and accommodation to cash up for) we ended up with the biggest wad of notes we’ve ever seen!

Day 42 – Not all buses are equal

Lusaka (Zambia) to Lilongwe (Malawi), Mufasa Backpackers

Our 4.30 am taxi was never going to arrive, no one would do a pickup at that time of the morning for only $5. Therefore, the nightwatchman at our Inn offered to carry our bags and escort us through the streets to the bus station, which was only about a kilometer away. The streets were pretty empty though so I wonder if the escort was really needed?

At the bus station we had to pay for our luggage to go on – no one told us that yesterday when we bought the tickets, fortunately we had just enough Zambian Kwachas to cover it.

The bus was cramped – five seats to a row instead of the four in our bus to Lusaka, and limited leg room and internal luggage space. We were also treated to twenty minutes of sermon and prayers before we left (that would have done K’s Auntie V proud), and during the trip we were subjected to endless videos of Malawi Christian songs played at full volume. M is now reciting choruses from Malawi videos in his sleep, too bad we have no idea what any of it means!

At Chipata (the Zambian side of the border) we were told to get off the bus as we had to change buses, and the change would take only 10 minutes. 40 minutes later the bus arrived, this one was only half full so at least we had some room to move. It’s worth mentioning that it only took about 8 hours to get to Chipata – so the overall journey ended up being about 12 hours, not the 18 we’d been originally told – K was very relieved!

The border crossing itself must have taken an hour and a half or more. First there was the usual paperwork – exit from Zambia and entry to Malawi. At the Malawi side we waited for the bus to come through – it didn’t come, so we walked back, and as soon as we got on it drove to where we had been waiting and everyone else got off!  We were then told to get off the bus, then on again, then off while some sort of inspection took place, then on again. At one point one of our bags was unloaded, left on the ground for 10 minutes, then loaded on again. We have no idea what it was all about, we finally got underway and then we were stopped at a police roadblock for a passport inspection. After all that we finally reached Mufasa Lodge in the heart of Old Town in Lilongwe around 6pm.

Also a quick update, you may have noticed that we've uploaded a few more sets of photos, including South Africa and Zimbabwe/Zambia. We have quite a few videos yet to upload, but our internet access has generally been limited and quite slow, so videos will take a bit more time - we'll let you know when there's more to see!

Day 41 – Pickpocketed for 26,200

 Lusaka, Marble Inn

Today’s plan was to spend the day in Lusaka. We headed off to the bus station to book our tickets to Lilongwe. We had originally planned to do it in two stages overnighting in Chipata, but because the bus from Livingtone was so cruisy we decided to do the 18 hours in one stretch. It remains to be seen whether this was a good idea or not!

Bus tickets in hand, we walked into town to check out the Central Market. It was very very busy (maybe because it was Saturday?) and the items for sale ranged from the usual fruit, fish and meat, to piles of used shoes (which you wouldn’t find back home!).

As we were heading up the main street, M’s was jostled, then his arm was grabbed by a smiling man. After he let go, it was a few steps later that M realized all of the money in his shirt pocket had disappeared. Later we worked out it would have been about 26200 Zambian Kwacha – about $5.40 back home. We hope they were disappointed with their haul – and we’re considering it to be a very valuable lesson as it could have been a lot worse!

 

The afternoon was pretty quiet, more walking, more getting lost (which is a common occurrence for some reason) and then an early night to prepare for the 5am bus in the morning.

Day 40 – Not much happened today so I’m not bothering with a title

Livingstone to Lusaka, Marble Inn

Not much to report – caught the bus to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. The trip was about seven hours, and quite easy as we had a decent bus. There isn’t much of note to do in Lusaka, so for us we’re treating it pretty much a stopping point on the way to Malawi, tomorrow we’ll book some bus tickets for Lilongwe and finish planning our next week or so of travel. We did have a nice dinner at a place called Chit Chat - best steaks since Johannesburg!