posted 17th April 2007

Monday 16th April 2007 Nyika Plateau
Last night we camped on the Nyika Plateau which is the largest reserve in Malawe. The topography is very similar to Giants Castle area and the veld being similar to Crompton. The first wattle tree plantation, the first since leaving SA, is also spreading loke the curse it is at home. Someone 50 years go decided it was a good idea to plant gum and pine plantations about 20000Ha) but they forgot that the market is 100s of Km away and the road is only just accesable by light 4x4 vehicles. So here you have beautiful mature pine trees that are not being used and are starting to die off. A lot of the blocks had never been trimmed - what a waste!! The veld is unspoiled and underutilized but they are trying to build it up. The camp and lodges need maintenance.
On the Plateau there are zebra, eland, roan antelope, reedbuck and bushbuck all of which around the camp site are very tame. Something took our rubbish in the night and we couldn’t find any evidence of it anywhere the next morning.
On the return journey we saw a sign saying cultural village and basket bridge. It was a bridge across the river made of reeds and sticks intertwined, first bult in 1905 for the locals to cross the river. It gets regularly rebuilt and is in constant use. The cultural village was the smallest museum we had ever seen, but was enthusiastically demonstrated by an indigenous man who got dressed in tribal gear to illustrate some of the local customs. Very similar to Zulus.

Sunday 15th April 2007 Nyika Plateau
We decided to leave the lovely camp and go to the Nyika Plateau. The road there was realy terrible to start with, but as we climbed the 2000m up the road got steadily better because of less traffic. We managed to average 30Km/hr. We passed through a town called Rumphi where there is a Taiwanese Agricultural Assistant Programme in place and the increase in the qulity of the crops was amazing. It was obvious they were using fertilizer because some crops were terrible. They also plant lot of tobacco, sugar cane, bananas (10c each) tomatoes, cassava, sweet potatoes and rice. There are thousands of bicycles on the roads used for transport and as taxis, and in one case this apparition approached us.It was a tobacco bush speeding along. We couldn’t see the driver of the bicycle it was loaded so high with sheaves of dried tobacco leaves on its way to be dried and then baled. All this was subsistence farmng.

Saturday 14th April 2007 Sangilo Sanctury again.
Stayed here again today and went for many dips in the absolutely private beach on the lake. Dave, Beryl and we played cards for much of the day while the others checked vehicles for odd problems. We also caught up with a lot of laundry.
When the lodge wants to order fish fr dinner they stand on the deck and yell at a passing mocorro, putting their hands together indicating that they wold like something. Later the mocorro returns with dinner.
Dave’s car alarm kept going off by mistake, so at one of the camps Nev sneaked our alrm into the bck of his vehicle and while we were sitting 30m way Nev kept setting it off. Just as Dave got to his vehicle Nev would switch it off. Eventually in desperation he haled all his groceries, pots and pans out of the side of his vehicle looking for it, but still couldn’t find it. Nev had hidden it inside behind a ledge. He still doesn’t know it was Nev, but hasn’t mensioned it at all!!


Friday 13th April 2007 Sangilo Sanctury, Lake Malawe Malawe.
We headed for Karonga through, not the Valley of A Thousand Hills, but the Plateau of a Million Hills, stocked up with diesel R9/l and nice fresh hot bread and we devoured the whole loaf. We went to the cultural museum there which boasts the history around Karonga of archaeological digs showing the development from prehistoric times through the age of the dinosaurs and prehistoric man to the political history of Hastings Banda and finally to the democracy it is now. Interesting, it is the only museum in Malawe, and was sponsored by the Germans. It is of first world standard, but very small. We found a campsite down a very steep incline on the edge of Lake Malawe called Sangilo Sanctury. It overlooks the Lake with the blue Livingstone Mountains of Tanzania 30Km to the east across the lake. The dining and lounging area abuts a private sandy beach. These people live in paradise!! Dinner made for us for R75 was a value for money two course delicious meal. The incessant swish, swish of the waves on the shore lulled us to sleep.

Thursday 12th April 2007 Bush Camp No1, Malawe
We left Mbala and drove towards Nkonde on the Tanzanian border to emigration. In this area the subsistence farmers are using a mechanical means to plant the maize, and many are using fertilizer, so the crops are looking good. We passed two chaps with bicycles carrying a medium-sized hammer mill in two pieces on their bikes. They grow sunflowers, groundnuts, bananas and mealies and rice in the bogs (dambos) (with the ubiquitous bags of charcoal indicating further deforestation).The road wound its potholed way along the crest of the hills at nearly 1700m at about sea level with gently sloping, tree-ed terrain disappearing into the distant horizons. The people are not friendly here like rural Zambians and we battled to get smiles and waves as we went past.
.Nev has never seen anything as chaotic as the border post at Nakonde. There are hundreds of articulated 30 tonne trucks waiting to be cleared on the Zambian side coming from Tanzania, or waiting for their papers to get cleared to go into Tanzania. They almost totally block the roads and the few cars that are passing through have to squeeze past these lorries. There was a Gauteng Landy trying to get through to Zambia from Tanzania, and the poor guy looked a nervous wreck as he was trying to do 30-point turns to get around the lorries. Brian and Nev walked down to the customs to find out how to cross the border and they were flanked by 6 money changers/whatever all the way to the customs, and it felt like they were being led away by the mafia. At no stage did they feel threatened, and the men were actually helpful, but when they walked down the alleys between the lorries, touching shoulders with you it is quite intimidating. We left the border with a sigh of relief. Nothing could be so chaotic.
At the Nakonde border while waiting for Nev, the rest of us were harassed by touts selling everything from water and perfume, to socks and jeans, to money changers and eventually managed to get the passports and carnets stamped to get out of Zambia. We did this in shifts so there were always two couples guarding the vehicles while two couples went through the emigration. But we then had to drive a further 80Km in Zambia to Chitipa to the Malawian border to the immigration point into Malawe. There, apart from getting Passports and carnet stamped, we had our vaccination certificates checked too for the first time. We were all vaccinated fro nearly everything, so the border was a piece of cake. Except that Willy’s carnet was not stamped, but luckily he checked before we left. We are now almost paranoid about checking after the Zambian problems. Willy’s Landy’s brake pads were finished, even though they were new when he left, so a quick replacement was done at the side of the road. R1= about 20 Malawian Kwacha.
We thought we would shoot through to Karonga 80Km away on Lake Malawe. Ha ha ha. Suddenly the road became the usual potholed mud road and we had to find a bush camp in a hurry as it was an hour past our cut-off time of 4pm. Nev and I were the leaders and had to find the impossible spot. No-one believed we would find a spot because Malawe is one of the most heavily populated countries in Africa. We decided to head for the mountains and found a lovely spot just off the main road on a side road in the trees. Although it was windy, we had a nice camp fire and did not see one local.

Wednesday 11th April 2007
There didn’t seem to be any reason to stay longer, and we were all getting a bit agitated at the enforced inactivity caused by Brian and Willy’s desire to go fishing. The weather has not been good for fishing so we decided to leave this morning and tackle THE ROAD. The importance of load distribution is starting to show. Brian’s Landy has too much weight at the back – his shock absorber mounting sheared off and had to be fixed. They have everything to fix anything in their Landys!! Otherwise the vehicles are going very well – a few electrical problems in Brian’s Landy were fixed. Diesel is R15/l in Mpumulungu and Kasama. Well going up THE ROAD was not nearly as bad as what we had anticipated. Even though it was now wet and slippery in places, there was only one spot where we had to do some road building to get through. It took us 2 hours to do the 26Km and then we went to see the Kalambo Falls. The Kalambo River the boundary between Tanzania and Zambia and plunges 221m from the top of the plateau in one unbroken fall into the valley below. It is the second highest waterfall in Africa, and the 12th highest in the world. The falls were quite spectacular at this time of the year when there was a lot of water after good rains.
We went to find lodging while the others went to the Moto Moto Cultural Museum in Mbala, an excellent scource of information on Bemba artifacts and history started by a missionary, Farther Corbell who had amassed many tools , exhibits and craft instruments in his time.
We stayed in our tents at the Grasshopper Hotel, and used their rooms for ablutions. Unfortunately the power station had been struck by lightning and there was not enough electricity to warm the water for the shower, but lots of piping hot water was brought to us the next morning in buckets. Four of us went to eat the chicken dinner at the hotel, and the rest of us made our own fare at the camp. It is the first time we have stayed in a point-five star lodge in Zambia. It belongs to the government and in its heyday it must have been quite luxurious. But as maintenance is low to non-existent for most buildings in Zambia, it has been neglected in the past. However it has recently been revamped and they are trying to get it going to be a viable concern again. Nearby is a beautiful colonial Cape-dutch style building, built to house the administrative block for the locust control staff in 1949. It is also in a state of neglect, as is the oldest church in Zambia which we saw in Mpumulungu, although reconstruction of the stone walls there has also been attempted.

Tuesday 10th April 2007 Isanga Bay Lodge
We bought a fish today from the local fishermen. A nile-perch about 3Kg which Nev gutted and de-scaled and I filleted. It is the best tasting fish any of us has ever eaten. Soft, tender, tasty and succulent. It is really hot here, and the temps stay between 30 and 34 for most of the day and get down to about 26 at night. No-wonder they call it the rift valley and we had to descend 700 m to this pseudo-paradise. White sandy beach with raffia palms on the beach and little thatched umbrellas, essential for the shade. The warm, clear water overlies the gently sloping sandy shore of the bay. We paddle several times a day to alleviate the heat. We went snorkeling again early and it was so calming floating around watching the activities of the little cyclids. Their activity is interesting to watch as some are in breeding colours and chasing other fish away from their brood of tiny fry. It is just like swimming in Brandon’s tropical fish tank. We identified some twenty or more different kinds of colourful cyclids. Our batteries are running down so the men have connected the generator and the solar panels to recharge all the batteries. There has been a lot of thunder around for the last three days, but none has hit us yet. Tanzania has two rainy seasons and the “big” rainy season is just starting now. We are 5Km from the border with Tanzania and can see the rain falling there from the lodge.
We met a dairy farmer, Simon Murry, from Alexandria in the Eastern Cape who is spending a few days here with his Zambian farmer friend. They are staying in the actual lodge at $90 pppd (R650) full board, which is really cheap as the neighbouring one charges $350 pppd. (R2300 per person per day). We are dreading the drive out tomorrow.
Late in the evening we were playing a game of cards when the rain started to fall. We finished the game in double quick time and rushed to get everything covered and jumped into our tents. The rain fell all night and the wind flapped our tents.

Monday 9th April 2007 Isanga Bay Lodge
The Lake was so much calmer than yesterday, so we went on a lovely long, lazy snorkel around the rocky part of the shore, which left me with sunburned legs. It is so relaxing here and we all feel so lazy. We play games of cards to while away the time in the long evenings. We go to bed about 9.30 to 10pm and wake up around 6am. We cannot read in the tent here in this camp as it has tiny miggies which can get through the mozzy net and they manage to irritatingly get into our eyes nose and ears and tickling our skin while trying to read. So, bad idea and lights off!
Brian and Will got their inflatable boat and outboard engine out and went to fish for Tiger fish and Nile perch. These are reputably the best game fish, and reach 1,6m long. No bites, lots of casting practice.

Sunday 8th April 2007 Isanga Bay Lodge
The Bradt book on Zambia (my much-relied on reference book) described a lovely lodge on the eastern shore of the Lake so we packed up and drove through Mbala on the Kalambo Falls road to the turn-off, having confirmed at the Calex Garage that we had the correct road.The road started reasonably good and got progressively worse. There was only a 10Km part which was totally washed away and we had to negotiate over boulders at 0.5Km/hr. We kept thinking it must be the wrong road, but persisted. Two fallen trees were blocking the road and our intrepid men attacked one with saws, axes and pangas. After many sweaty minutes of hacking away, a local man who could not speak a word of English, sauntered up with his home-made axe, gave the tree a couple of whacks, and efficiently cut through the offending trunk. The men then hoisted and heaved the trunk out the way and we proceeded with extreme caution. 2.5 hours later we emerged into the fishing villages near the Lake shore where the residents were astounded that we had made it down the road – it had been closed for months. The resort manager, Renee, was even more astonished and kept apologizing because she had done everything she could to leave messages for travelers that the road was impassible!! Anyway, we made it down, and now have to make it back up when we leave. This is a 9.5 on a difficulty scale of 10 (10 being impassible). Willy’s sump got suspended on some rocks and Brian knocked into the roof of one of the local’s houses in the village. This gives you an indication of how close the houses are built to the roads.


Saturday 7th April 2007 Nkupi Lodge, Mpulungu
We left early in the morning, with George and Ann-Rose leaving us to make their own way back to South Africa. Now there are the 8 of us left. We traveled North to Kasama where we found a first world Shoprite and stocked up on Fanta and milk, and two much needed fly-swatters and delicious hot bread. Some of us devoured the whole loaf without even buttering it (not us this time, although we have done that in the past!). The road to Mpulungu was tarred in most places, with huge potholes every 50m which we had to dodge windy–windy again on and off the road. It took us 4 hours to travel 150Km - averaging less than 40Km/hour on one of Zambia’s main roads. Not bad hey?? We camped at Nkupi Lodge in the middle of Mpulungu. It was a nice campsite, but a bit noisy with night-time Easter church services going on, dogs yapping and roosters crowing, and lots and lots of people in the town. But we slept like logs! We met Andy Cory (Swaziland) who was traveling with Fenula Bennet (Morangu Hotel, Tanzania) and they gave us tips on where to go for really interesting roads through Tanzania. She said that when people tell you it is a good road, it means it is passable using 4x4, if the road is bad, then it is not usable at all.


Friday 6th April 2007 Kapishya Hot Springs
The rest of the group went on a guided tour of the mansion at Shiwa, which has been considerably renovated, the gardens improved and is now a lodge, taking in paying guests. Charlie Harvey runs the mansion and the farm with cattle and sheep while his brother Mark runs the Kapishya Springs and a lodge in North Luangwa game reserve. While everyone was away Nev greased the Landy and I skoffled around getting things a little more organized. They all came back at about lunch time with black clouds and thunder threatening rain. As the downpour broke we decided the best place would be in the pool and we sprinted there as the chilly rain pelted us. It was so amusing, sitting up to our necks in the hot water, nearly being drowned by the pouring rain splashing up into our faces. Beryl devised hats made of leaves which didn’t work too well, then four of us sat beneath the umbrella while the rain gradually cooled the pool. We had about 45ml and one of my shoes floated away unobserved and joined the rushing swollen river, and was lost forever. I had to hop around on one leg like Mr Bean.


Thursday 5th April 2007 Kapishya Hot Springs
We proceeded to Mpika without incident. Mpika is a typical African town about the size of Mooi River with lots of timy shops selling the same sort of non-perisahbles like coking oil, flour, sugar, fabric, very much like the Transkei trading stores of old.Behind the shops is a large open-air market with mainly women selling their home-grown vegetables like tomatoes, onions, cabbages, fish, colourful dried beans and lentels, cassava meal, garlic and other strange yellow things like tree tomatoes, but with no taste, bananas are small but delicious, and eggs. All very inexpensive. The expensive goods are the first-world things. I had great fun being guided around the market by a local man who found the right friends selling the veges which I was looking for. I bought tomatoes from one, onions from another and garlic from another, and said “Now everyone is happy” to which the whole audience (as I was followed by an entourage of inquisitive locals) all laughed and clapped in agreement.
Prior to this we had to get our passports sorted out. Nev and I arrived at the immigration office with our passports and Beryl and Dave’s (as they were fixing a puncture at the time). We explained that the immigration officer at Kazangulu had not given us a form to fill in, and had asked us where we were going from there. Never had he asked us how many days we required in Zambia. We didn’t check our passports, but he hadn’t stamped Nev’s at all, and the three of us were only given 7 days. She kept us in the office for two hours playing a game of cat and mouse and terrorizing us. We were liable to an admission of guilt fine of K1,800,000 (R3500) each, except Nev because they admitted that they had neglected to stamp his passport. To us this was a lot of money for not having done anything wrong. Eventually I started to act like a sad 8-year-old who was being punished for not having done anything wrong and put on a sniveling, whiney its-unfair voice and tried to cry. Immediately the officer softened, gave us the forms to fill in, and let us off!!!!! It was two hours of trauma. They were very friendly to Nev and when they found out he was a farmer, offered him a farm as they said there was plently of free land in Zambia, and were giving away farms to white farmers. They also offered him a farm and two wives if he would come and farm there. He nearly took them on, but I pulled him demonstrably out of the office in case they thought he was serious. We certainly will make sure to have everything right at all the borders next time. However, I am sure something will go wrong again!
We traveled on to Shiwa Nganu and Kapisha Hot Springs where we spent the night after soaking in the lovely hot water. The spring comes from 1400m below the surface and bubbles up through the rocks and white sand on the surface. The gas is Carbon dioxide, so there is no unpleasant sulphurous smell.
Nev has stopped shaving, so kissing him is like kissing a scrubbing brush!