I guess from time to time when travelling for such a long period you get the odd moment or two that is just going to frustrate you. No matter which way you turn there is always something or someone doing there best to ruin your plans.
After our short but overall pleasant stay at Chintheche we set off for the capital Lilongwe bright and early on an indifferent Tuesday morning. It seemed like a good time to move on especially as the tranquil lake had turned into the North Sea in the middle of January overnight. The wind was blowing, the waves were crashing in, yep even on this placid lake, and it was more Scarborough than Mauritius!
So with the wind behind us we made the short hope south west to the capital to sort out my Mozambique visa and get some internet and shopping ticked off. We had heard and read that the Lilongwe Golf Club (S13 59.679 E33 46.137) had space for people to camp, and so they did. The golf club is not quite Wentworth but it was a good enough spot to stop over while we were in town. The visa was a mere formality, turn up at 08h00 and pay the money, then come back at 14h00 to collect the passport with shiny new visa. Internet access was plentiful and fairly cheap and quick, and there were a few nice shops to get stocked up with everything we needed. I have to admit to a moment of weakness. There was a nice new Nando's at one of the shopping centres and we just could not resist the urge for a quick bite of spicy chicken and chips! As you would expect it was OK but not top notch. As we had made such easy work of all our chores in town we decided that we need not stay another night at the Golf Club but instead head of in search of some more rest and relaxation back at the lake. One thing stood in our way, well there was another but we will come to that. We had paid for two nights at the club so we needed to get a refund for one night, easy you would think! As we had yet to go back and collect my visa we went to the club and asked for the said refund. They couldn't do it without their manager, and yep he was at lunch, well more of a siesta as it was only just 13h00 and he wouldn't be back until 15h00. Despite our best efforts the man at the desk wouldn't be sweet talked into helping us out, so we had to go and collect the visa and then return later to get the money.
Thankfully the drive east back to the lake at Senga Bay was not a long one but we knew that our next obstacle was waiting for us there. I had been informed by a chap I was chatting to at the Mozambique Consulate that over the coming weekend Senga Bay was playing host to the Lake of Stars music festival, great! Well not so great if you wanted to find a place to camp as from the Friday night thru the weekend the place was fully booked. We managed one night, Wednesday, at Cool Runnings (S13 43.847 E34 37.149) but decided to move on in search of another haven of rest the following morning even though they could accommodate us for one more night before all hell broke out. We might have been able to find somewhere else in amongst the throng over the weekend, but we are getting too old for mixing it with young party goers living it up until the early hours! As far as we know they usually have the festival somewhere else in Malawi and not in October, just our luck!
Our new plan, head for Cape McClear on the southern point of the lake. Great plan, another obstacle. One road in, one road out, small road, just big enough for two vehicles to pass, huge lorry strewn across the road, bags of grain everywhere! As you can imagine there was ant like activity to off load the cargo and then we presume try and move the truck. There was a path around on the side, but we were assured that we would have to pay the nice kind helpful locals k3000 to use the path around the side to get pass. Strangely enough I said 'no thanks old chap' or words to that effect and we turned around in search of another option for the night. We are getting to the point on this trip where we are just maxed out on greedy stupid people with no more in their minds than relieving you of your money for nowt in return. Can you believe they even wanted us to give them water as they were hot! So yet again a new plan had to be made. The lady at Cool Runnings had told us about a new place, Venice Beach Resort, at Monkey Bay not far from where we were so that is where we headed. It's a small world. As we were approaching the crappy Venice Beach, not finished and very expensive with no facilities, we bumped into a South African couple towing a caravan. Would you believe it that they too had come across the road block that morning and they were the ones who paid a fistful of dollars to the kind locals to dig a path around the lorry for them! Would we ever find somewhere to hole out?
Our next attempt was the Palm Beach Resort further south along the water from Monkey Bay, again a woeful place, looked like it was derelict, and was very expensive. A quick walk around, an 'are they kidding', and we were off yet again on the road. Our options of lake side relaxation had run out, our only option now was where we had planned to go after the lake, the Liwonde NP. Thankfully we had two very pleasant nights there. We stayed at the Chiguni Hills Lodge (S15 00.804 E35 15.721), and despite the best efforts of an overland truck full of Dutch we enjoyed it very much. Not quite relaxation by the lake swimming, and it was pretty hot during the day, but we saw some animals and plenty of birds and managed to chill out as best we could.
From Liwonde NP our plans were the Zomba Plateau and then Blantyre / Limbe before departing to Mozambique. Would we find peace and quiet anywhere for a few days until my visa start date? The Trout Farm (S15 21.194 E35 18.029) on the Zomba Plateau did the job but only for one night. Our timing as usual was rubbish and we arrived on Saturday afternoon, had a nice spot in amongst the trees just up from the not so exotic Trout Farm. The facilities were poor but the place was fairly cheap and the bird life excellent. The next day however it all changed, day trippers again! By lunch time the place was filling up and we could have stayed, but our tranquillity had been lost so we moved on yet again. We could only hit the border on Thursday due to my error in getting the visa to be valid from the 16th. I assumed that we had at least a week or so planned out at the lake and the NP, silly me!
Yet again we holed out at a golf club, this time the Limbe Country Club (S15 49.344 E35 03.769). Parked just next to the sports field and the clubhouse it was good for a single night but not longer. The next day we changed some more money, filled Mufasa's belly and set off for our last hope of peace and quite in Malawi. If this one did not work out we had no clue as to what to do. Whilst at the shops I chatted to another travelling couple in their SA plated Land Cruiser. Not good news. We had after much deliberation plotted our escape from Malawi into Mozambique west towards Tete in the northwest of the country. The helpful couple informed us that the road south from Tete was awful, badly potholed. So we decided that our only option was to head east to Mt Mulanje and then into Mozambique from there down towards Caia and another date with the dreaded ferry across the Zambezi!
Mt Mulanje is the highest peak in in Southern Africa north of the Drakensburg in SA, or sommit like that. You can hike on them, its a minimum of 7.5 hours each way to the main peak, one of three in the range. Needless to say we shall just sit and admire it from our resting place the Likhubula Forest Lodge (S15 56.257 E35 30.071) in the foothills of the mountain. Yes finally at the eleventh hour we have hopefully struck gold. We have set camp in the small but pretty gardens of the lodge and over the tops of the trees we can admire the rugged mountain. Will we manage three nights here before we can exit stage right? We might even stay longer if we can find enough food in the truck! The chef here is apparently excellent, after reading the guest book, so hopefully we might be able to have dinner on our last night, we shall see.
Then its Mozambique, probably a swift run thru the country, but if we find a nice spot then we shall rest a while. The only problem, yep another obstacle, the government has decided that no camping is allowed anywhere that is not owned by a Mozambique national! So all the places that you could have previously used that were say run by a SA can no longer offer camping, rooms yes, camping no! Don't you just love politicians!!
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