Lilongwe, Malawi 17-19 July 08

I found Lilongwe to be a scary and rather strange place. Malawi people are said to be some of the friendliest but to be honest, my experiences didn’t back up what we’d heard. I acknowledge that at times it doesn’t help to be in a group, travelling in a big yellow truck (quite why yellow I’ll never know – we were taken over by a swarm of bees when we stopped for lunch the other day!) but in some of these towns, we are the only westerners around and even if you were travelling on your own, I’m sure that the locals would lump you in with any truck folk that were around regardless of whether you were with them or not. I was verbally assaulted by a chap outside a supermarket and it scared me enough to not want to go anywhere alone in our two days in Lilongwe. It came right out of the blue so took me by complete surprise and I was left absolutely speechless before turning and walking away. From what I can gather, it was an isolated incident but.....!

Lilongwe has no streetlights so at night you can be driving and not even realise that you’re in a city unless there is moonlight. Its quite unnerving to see a dim light off the road and realise that you’re actually driving through the main street and the light you’ve seen might be from a digital clock or drink fridge. The markets in Lilongwe are sprawling and we are definitely a minority in many of these sorts of places.

The markets spread on either sides of a stream that runs through Lilongwe town and there are makeshift bridges that can be crossed for a small toll.

The camp site we stayed at is owned by a young English couple who have been there 18 months and, by all accounts, have really improved the place. It was one of the nicer camp sites we’d stayed in albeit not in the most desirable locations. I think most of the overland trucks come through Lilongwe and there were quite a few individual 4WDs and one truck that were there the same time as us. We met an English couple who were based in Dar es Salam and were travelling back from Cape Town with their house substitute – a truck that had been converted into an overland vehicle.



This truck would be their home for the next 10 years as they travelled the world. They were hugely inspiring to talk to and had a great attitude – they had two toddlers and it can’t be easy travelling like that with wee kids. It was a cold cold day and the pool (this was one of the improvements made to the camp and no doubt well used in the summer) was freezing. The guys jumped in and lasted only a few minutes but this couples two year old daughter insisted on bobbing round in there for ages and refused to come out. Every time they asked if she was cold there was a resounding “NO” and it wasn’t until her lips went blue that they pulled her out. When they did pull her from the water (she was still protesting vigorously), her knees were knocking together but still she wanted to go back in. A tough nut. They were moving to Ethiopia for a year in the next few months. The truck slept six, had a 600 litre water tank, a 500 litre petrol tank, had hydraulic lift on the back for a dirt bike, pushbikes, charcoal and spares – they reckoned they could go for two weeks without refuelling or refilling with water. Very admirable and it got me thinking….

I wasn’t sorry to leave Lilongwe the next day and we crossed the border into Zambia. The Brits got stung on the visas (US$150 each!) but us Antipodeans (there are five of us – two more kiwi girls and two Aussie guys) got let off lightly with US$50 much to the disgust of the English on the truck (there are a fair few!). We’d picked up three more people in Lilongwe and one of them was welcomed to life on the truck when we went over a few huge bumps and someone from the other side of the truck bounced up high once, came down to hit the seat then was bounced again as the truck went sideways into a hole and this chap was thrown forward so violently that he head butted the new guy on the other side of the truck and broke his sunnies. The problem was the guys who went flying had his legs wrapped in a blanket so he couldn’t get them apart to steady himself. It was pure quality to watch and I was in tears with laughter a few seats down.


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Dar es Salam, Tanzinia to Khande Beach, Lake Malawi 9-17 July 08

We had two and a half days of non-stop driving that took us across Tanzania, through the border into Malawi and along Lake Malawi itself. Long drive days are quite hard work as we often leave at 0500 which means that whomever is on cooking has to be up at about 0400 to prepare breakfast. Then its on the truck and sometimes no stopping, depending on how far we’re driving that day. The driving days are hard work (for the driver and us) and most are 12-15 hours of driving incl a lunch and pee stops. One great thing is that with no glass in the truck, you get to see so much and the beach is a great viewing post. Cooking after these long drive days is hard work and its luck of the draw what your cook days holds. We’ve sorted out different groups to cook and every night, three people are responsible for cooking for 23 over an open fire with whatever there is available on the truck, plus whatever they’ve bought with the money allocated (at the moment its US$1 per person). This also has to cover breakfast and lunch the next day and it is impressive what is rustled up.

The African markets en route are amazing and they just appear out of nowhere. We’ll be bombing along with noone for miles and miles and the next minute you’re driving through this bustling market that is just so in your face its not funny.



There are very few cars on the road and we mostly pass only trucks. I’m not sure if the lack of traffic is a curse or a blessing but we’ve had a few very close calls with the worst a near head on with a tanker that was overtaking another truck on the brow of a hill. We can’t see whats coming but we could tell something was us as we were all slammed up against the front of the truck then thrown from side to side as it fishtailed around. Our driver did damn well to keep the truck on the road and was quite shaken so stopped to compose himself (and check that we were all OK in the back!).

The borders are fairly low-key affairs (compared to the Middle East at any rate) and haven’t been half as slow to go through thus far. Lake Malawi was our destination and we’re due to spend a total of six nights at campsites dotted along its edge. An altercation with the Malawian Police for supposed speeding held us up for a long time. The charge was challenged, too much so for the Polices liking although they did seem a bit corrupt and their selection of speeding vehicles rather random we thought.

It wasn’t far from the border when we hit Lake Malawi. It is huge (356x52 miles) and is more than a 5th of Malawis land area. It seemed to go on forever and behaves more like a sea at times and some of its shores could be a coastline in some places.



Sometimes it looks like the lake is smoking – its too grey to be cloud and also too close to the lake surface. Its actually swarms of small flies that hatch in the lake then head upwards.

Its getting dark here at around 1800 and we were pitching tents in the dark that night at a somewhat random campsite run by a permanently drunk man who was from Hammersmith! I stupidly pitched the tent on an ants nest (which, in my defence, was covered with fallen leaves) and we ended up with a tent teeming with angry ants. Idiot.

We were up early the next morning and the kids were already up and about. There was a little blond chap dancing up a storm while his African mates clapped – it was just gorgeous to watch and I didn’t want to get too close and interrupt. He really was shaking it – hips, arms, legs – they were all going and his sister kind of just stood by nonchalantly, not getting into it at all.



It took us a long long time to reach Kande Beach but we did stop off to look at some of the amazing wood carvings that were for sale on the roadside. The wood is ebony or teak and the carvings were stunning. I wasn’t tempted by one of the Malawi chairs (you’d know them if you saw them – as it turned out, I did know what they were, I just didn’t know that they were called Malawi chairs) but was quite taken by a teak globe that was hollow in the middle. It made its way into my backpack and will soon be winging its way back to England.

We spent four nights at Kande Beach and it was lovely to be in one place, get some washing done, relax a bit and not have to pitch and dismantle a tent every day. We spoilt ourselves and upgraded (yes, we felt like cheats) to a beach front chalet and it was just wonderful to hear the sound of the waves crashing on the beach. From that waves you’d think I was standing on a beachfront, not a lake, and this was one of the calmer days!



Almost every night the wind whipped up a storm and the sand piled up against anything in its way – tents, boats, steps, you name it. The waves off the beach were huge for a lake and were quite capable of dumping you and sending you tumbling and turning under the water before being spat out the other side. We even saw a horse be sent for a six by a wave.

A few of us spent a few hours riding before taking the horses into the lake and the waves even buffeted the horses around to a point where we had to be either end on or facing the waves. I got a bit carried away and went a bit too deep and got some filthy looks from the stable owner who was standing on the beach. Horses are a precious commodity in Zambia as the breeding stock from Zimbabwe has gone to SA or Kenya and there aren’t many good horses around so these were looked after very well. It turned out that the horse I was on was the one that had been dumped by a wave the day before but he didn’t seem that bothered while we were in there. Looking at the photo now, I didn’t realise that we were almost underwater but I know horses can swim well if need be!



I spent so many days as a teenager riding my horses on the beach, swimming them in the sea etc and it brought back so many memories. I was in my absolute element – horse, beach, water.



From Kande we went to Senga Beach, also on Lake Malawi but this time for only one night. The campsite had a bit more character than some of the others and we had to be careful swimming as there had been crocs and hippos around. The pier/bar is just out of view behind a tree in the below picture. The whole thing was on a lean and it was only a matter of time before it sunk but it made a slightly different drinking experience as you’re on an angle to begin with and have to walk funny to get anywhere!



All the campsites have had character of some sort and almost all have guard dogs that roam freely. This site had a wee fox terrier called Snoopy who, when excited, latched onto the top of your foot just below the ankle. OK if you’re wearing sandals or shoes but a few guys got done with jandals on and they couldn’t get the damn dog off. As someone who hates those who tease animals, I took great delight in watching him latch firmly onto the unsuspecting teasers. There were other dogs there that all looked the same. No joke. There were three at first count, by the evening there were four, by the next morning we’d counted five and before we left, there were eight. Seriously. They all looked identical except one was a male. I should have taken a line up photo.

There was some good swimming to be had but I chose to lax out on the rocks. Below is Euan and I with others off the truck. Murray is standing, he’s from Australia and may as well be a fish. Manuel is Mexican and has the loudest, most infectious laugh I have ever heard (are all Mexicans like this I wonder?!) and Kate in green is from England.



We were only in Senga Bay for one night before heading to Malawis capital, Lilongwe.


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