Kaspuur and Team America!

Since our last post we have covered a lot of ground – a whole country in fact – from Chipata in southeast Zambia to Liliongwe in Malawi.

I know I am not going to get away without mentioning this in the blog so I may as well face the music. Very unlike me, I almost lost our Carnet de Passage at the Zambian/Malawi border crossing. Losing our Carnet is worse than losing a passport because it is much much harder to replace. We are all human I guess! You can bet Campbell teased the pants off me all the way into Lilongwe.

Lilongwe is like most major cities in Africa, chaotic and haphazard although functional in its own way. Sticking with our theme for all cities of get-what-you-need-and-get-out, we made our way to the greatly anticipated Chembe Eagle’s Nest in Cape Maclear, Monkey’s Bay.

OMG, what a tough place to get to! Do not attempt when the light is fading and you are only in Dedza – it’s longer than it seems. As highly recommended as Cape Maclear comes we did not expect it to be so remote. It was late in the day and my shift to drive when we happened upon one of the most winding roads through the steepest mountain passes we have encountered on this trip. With the low-hanging mist and only the light from my headlights, it was a scene directly out of Silent Hill – freaky. In the interest of preserving our brakes I had to gear down the mountain from second to first all the way. So we did not reach speeds greater than 20mph for over an hour. No surprises that I handed the wheel over to my co-pilot at the base of the mountain.

This is with our spotlights on >>>
If you think that was destination found, think again. The time was fast approaching midnight and with nothing but pitch black on either side of the road and our headlights blinding the locals we drove on and on towards what we thought was Cape Maclear – our estimated 4hour drive ticking into 8 hours on the road that day. Eventually, after a scary situation with some villagers and some precarious causeways and drainage pipes that you would think could never ever hold a 3 ton Landy, we were directed to Chembe Eagle’s Nest.

If it hadn’t been for the torrential down pours for three days in a row we would probably still be staying in this idyllic location run by a Welshman named Kevin.

Our view from the campsite as we wake up >>>

Campbell has filled you in on our lesson learned on the way to Nhkata Bay. In summary: lots of mud, a night in Dwanga, a comfy bed, meeting Carston and Lucy, yummy dinner and breakfast, lots of reliving our narrow escape and many guardian angels :)

Next stop Mayoka Village, Nhkata Bay. An absolute must for anyone traveling to Malawi. Mayoka offer camping (although you need a small tent), chalets right on the water front and dorms all for reasonable prices. They have awesome friendly staff who great you every day as though you are their long lost relatives. You can also use (for free) snorkeling gear and attempt, if you dare, the dug-out canoe. Jill and I provided the whole village and all the fishermen with endless laughs at our attempts to get on the damn thing. It was great fun. Poor Danny swallowed a ton of water just trying to help us on. Campbell was clever; he stayed well clear of us.

Big tent, small campsite and Campbell teatering over the edge >>>

Nhkata Bay is also where we met what would be our travel buddies for the next few days. Danny and Jill have been backpacking around the world for a year and still have a year to go. Over the past few days these two Americans have provided us with lots of laughs, entertainment, rum, hakuna ma tatta renditions and valuable travel advice. We thought we would enjoy having our back seat to ourselves again, but we missed you guys (sob sob) moments after we dropped you off at the bus stop to Kilimanjaro. It is looking likely that we will meet up again though.

Our journey with Team America took us from Nhkata Bay to Chitimba (ahoy Irish Miles Nash with the short shorts and Steph) where we had yet another successful bartering session for African art. From there across to the very painful and annoying Tanzanian border crossing, where they would give us US$5 2003 printed notes but would not accept them (wa’eva T.I.A) to Mbeya. Again, nothing really worth doing or seeing in Mbeya but it’s a good get-what-you-need-and-get-out city. We stayed in a missionary run accommodation which I would recommend to anyone needing a clean bed for the night – yey yey no camping!

Yet again we tried and failed to make a certain distance. Mbeya to Dar es Salaam is further than you think with interchanging good and bad roads, speeding buses and debris of overturned trucks littering the roads. We were first in line to watch two trucks right an overturned truck with a cargo container. Awesome to watch but we got told off for taking photos. Opps – it’s not like anyone was injured!

Our route took us through a national park were we saw herds of elephant, buffalo and giraffe as well as the most beautiful and yet silent heat lighting dancing across the sky. Unable to make Dar we stayed in Morogoro for one night and sampled Kuku Chombe, which is essentially like KFC but with less oil, and the local beers Serengeti, Safari, Kilimanjaro and I can’t remember the name of the fourth (Danny?).

Dar Es Salaam…hmm. My mother always says "If you have nothing nice to say then don’t say anything at all".

We decided pampering was a definite need after the hard graft of the past few days, so Campbell and I checked in to the Golden Tulip.