Dr Livingstone I presume

We bunked off school on Friday and got the bus to Livingstone. It's only 350k but it took us 6.5 hrs, which apparantly was quicker than normal. On arrival we made our way to Jane's flat, another VSO volunteer who lives in Livingstone and after a quick refresh, off to the falls.

I'm not sure of the value in trying to describe them as I'm not sure I have the words, but I guess to borrow from our American cousins "Awesome" gets you part of the way there. I'll content myself with a few geeky facts: The drop is over 100m, it's 1.8 km long and this is the 8th iteration of the falls. It's starting to get full as it gathers water from the rainy season, hence the enourmas amount of spray, by Easter the spray's so great you can't see the falls.

Jane ever the perfect hostess did us dinner in the evening and then off to "Jolly Boys" Backpackers (I know, what a name!!) for a few cheeky beers before the main event.

Saturday we do the Livingstone Island tour. A speedboat takes you to Livingstone Island, in the middle of the falls and right on the edge (as the picture shows) where you have a swanky lunch and live it up. The highlight is a trip to Devil's pool. This consists of swimming & walking through the Zambezi approximately 30m from the precipice against pretty significant currents until you get to said Pool. The pool is right ont he edge of the falls and has a torrent of water running over it, which on the face of looks like you will simply be swpt over if you jump in, nonetheless that's what we did. Fortunately you don't get swept over the edge and you don't die but suffice to say the adrenaline was pumping as you sit in a pool less than 3ft from the dge of Victoria Falls with the mighty Zambezi gushing over you.

Then it's back to the Royal Livingstone for Tea & Cake, sundowners etc.

A big night followed in Livingstone culminating in a 5am finish in Chez nTembe a dodgy dance club. Up at 7am because of next door singing Gospel?!?! and then 7hrs back to Lusaka, what a weekend. Gotta go I'm late for my first ever yoga class.

Senga Bay and beyond

The 28th sees us on the speedboat heading towards Senga bay. John and I have an in depth discussion about what appears to be small black tornados emanating from the lack on the horizon, swapping more and more fantastical stories about their origin. As we get closer the driver tells us to cover our faces, we soon find out why. They are in fact columns of millions of flies, not a pleasant experience flying through them.

Senga bay is much less touristy than Cape Maclear and has the feel of faded grandeur about it. The beachfront is lined with large old colonial houses in various states of disrepair. You can imagine double barrelled names drinking G&T on the lawn at 6pm and all sorts of “Out of Africa” fun. I like it. Cool Running’s captures this feel and throws in a bit of hippy chic for flavour. Add to that a garnish of perfect sunsets & sunrises and you have a pretty heady combination

We meet a couple of likely lads on the beach the beach, one is called Mr Fantastic (Ne Simon), it could of been worse he could ave got mr boombastic!!

He's a Rasta cockney and rather took us aback by slowly drawling “I’ll get him on the dog & bone” when we asked them to organise us a cab. They sorted us out with a Barbie on the beach

and then took us to Salima (30 mins away) in the back of a pick up to see Lucius Banda, the biggest pop star in Malawi. A great night out capped off by beers in the back of the pick up home accompanied by Mr Fantastic & John (A former choirboy) trying to outdo each over singing bob Marley songs.

The gang of four are staying in Cape Maclear for New Year so we have a quiet night and head to Lilongwe on New Year ’s Eve. Once there 3 of us head off to organise buses home while the rest go to Mabuya camp where we’re staying. The salesman entertains us when we negotiate on price by boldly telling us that they are the only service in town that goes to Lusaka, despite his next door neighbour boldly displaying bus services to Lusaka, so we go next door and get 25% cheaper. Mabuya is owned and run by a couple who are friends of one of our group, the wife is heavily pregnant so we stay there to see the new year in and then head for Serenity the “Rockingst” nightclub in town. The whole event is enhanced by the arrival of gorgeous Dutch girl along with her almost as gorgeous mate. They agree to hang out with us and join us at Serenity. It’s entertaining watching them fend off the advances of the locals who appear to have no shame. I ask GDG how she deals with it and in typical Dutch style she replies “I ask them politely to stop, if that doesn’t work I tell them to fuck off, that usually does the trick”. I have a long drunken conversation with Miller, sorry about the phone Bill but it was great to catch up. We get back late, watch the sunrise and go to bed. The next day is a quiet affair punctuated by a trip to the craft market, not advised with a hangover, the pestering is incessant. We’re up at 4am to get the bus home sadly the early to bed plan is scuppered by playing pool until midnight. As we arrive at the bus station “The crew” from our operator burst into song and dance because we’re going with them rather than next door. Despite this the competition leave before us (Buses in Africa only go when they are full, they don’t work to a time table, funny that). We catch them and pass them but then 10hrs in we break down for 2 hrs and are caught and passed by the enemy. One of our passengers, a Chinese guy, jumps ship and joins “Them”. He lives to regret this as we catch and pass them again an hour outside Lusaka, and home. It only took 16 hrs.

Cape Maclear

We’ve done a deal with Austin (People Carrier guy) to take us directly to Cape Maclear it’s almost twice as expensive as public transport but much quicker and more comfortable, what hardened travellers we are. We managed to sort accommodation for our first night whilst in Dedza and this will allow us time to organise the rest of our stay once we get there. We spend a pleasant 3hrs in air conditioned luxury driving through the windy mountain rds enjoying the spectacular scenery and arrive before midday. Anna & I are in the dorm at Gecko Lounge whilst the rest are camping at Gaia Lodge, as it turns out we manage to stay like this until we leave on the 28th when we’ve organised a speedboat to take us to Cool Running’s, an Hostel in Senga bay further north on Lake Malawi.
Cape Maclear is on the southern tip of Lake Malawi and a pain to get to, as a result it’s still relatively unspoilt. There’s a long arcing sandy beach, protected on the southern corner by an Island with another just north of centre. The water is still & clear and because it’s a lake not Salty which is a big bonus. The downside is that this is a Bilharzia area, I won’t bore you with the details but suffice to say you don’t want to get it. We’re told you just take a tablet 6wks later and you’ll be fine, this turns out to be something of an over simplification. The lake contains over 1,000 species of fish of which over 400 can only be found here, do if you’re into diving or snorkelling there’s plenty to be seen. The Gecko Lounge is pretty central on the beach, its run by a English guy, Simon, and is probably the most modern & professionally run lodge on the beach. The main building is “U” shaped facing out sea. The left prong is the bar area with great views out from and along the beach. The base of the “U” houses the bar and restaurant with right side being the dive & activity shop. Built in and around this base are chalets, a dorm and hammocked lawns. Gaia Lodge is similar but has a less corporate feel, is a little older and more hippy. Once in situ we pretty quickly managed to arrange ongoing accommodation at Gaia & Gecko and the ever helpful Simon has organised for accommodation at Cool running’s and for its speedboat to pick us up and take us to Senga bay where we plan to meet 4 other volunteers who could only make it for a week. The control freak in me is beginning to relax, maybe the “It’ll be alright on the night” philosophy isn’t so bad after all. Everyone’s making all sorts of plans to Kayak, snorkel, walk and so on I have only one plan, to weigh down an hammock. The next couple of days are spent in a relaxed haze of sun & sand. The big night on Christmas Eve is curtailed by the mother of all storms, the night sky is lit up a milky white by the lightning refracting through the clouds and rain the size of pear drops beats down on us. Despite everyone decamping early I sat up for a couple of hours with a beer watching the show. The only other event to speak of is the arrival in the dorm of a stunning Dutch girl, I kinda hope Becky’s prediction is gonna come true, sadly she’s young enough to be my daughter so no-one needs to go out hat shopping just yet. Christmas day is spent with a couple of cold beers on the beach in the company of an ex pat who’s set up and running a campsite on the beach. We had Christmas dinner in the evening at Gaia, they did their best to deliver a traditional dinner but truthfully it was as traditional as the setting and the weather.
Having heard of our speedboat trip the VSOs we’re meeting are eager to have a go, so they get the boat from Senga bay to Cape Maclear and we take it back it. This has the advantage of dramatically reducing the cost and the disadvantage of us not getting together, oh well, they’re gonna come back to Senga bay in couple of days so we can catch up then.

first stop Dedza

Beth, Dave & I have been picked up and we’re off. Vinny has long way to go today (Best part of 1000k) and is not hanging back in the early morning gloom, taking advantage of the empty morning roads, it’s a touch hairy but we’re making good progress. We arrive in Chipata just before mid day say goodbye to VInny and hello to Anna & Amanda. They have an amazing house in the town centre which used to be an hostel, it has spacious grounds surrounded by an high protective wall. Inside has benefited from the female touch, in particular Amanda’s who’s been here some time, and is very much a home. John & Betty arrive later in the afternoon after an hellish trip from Lundazi a combination of rubbish roads, broken down buses and collapsed bridges, so we’re all together. Amanda, who’s even more anal than me has given John & I a briefing on house rules (apparently we look the most sensible) along with a neatly typed checklist of all the things we need to do before leaving e.g. which lights to leave on, doors to leave ajar etc to make it look like someone’s home and we’re off to the local curry house, which doesn’t do curry, or beer?! We end up in Hills cafe later and bump into some American Peace Corps who are “Letting their hair down” in a very American way. After waiting for the rain to stop, we hadn’t planned for this and are not well prepared, we head for the border. Getting across was incident free but there was a bit of a fight between minibus crews on the other side over who was going to take us to Lillongwe, eventually resolved, we’re on our way. We’ve got to the bus station sorted Malawian SIMs and sorted a bus to Dedza, it’s all going too smoothly. It was, Anna’s just had her bag snatched (Credit Cards, phone & money)what a bummer. It doesn’t help that the bus has decided to sit around for nearly two hours before leaving which means we don’t get to Dedza until after Dark, in the rain and by the way there’s nothing too colourful about the rainbow rest house. Next morning the sun’s out and the spirits are up.

We decide to sort out accommodation at the internet Cafe (Grandly titled the AY Business Centre) but sadly internet access is not available at the internet cafe, so it’s off to the mountain(?). As expected we’ve lost the trail and our now battling our way through the undergrowth on a steep incline for a couple of hours. We don’t get quite as far as the top but we do reach a magnificent plateau with stunning views. A quick spot of lunch and the descent begins, we’ve heard that the Dedza Pottery Coffee shop serves improbably good cheesecake and we want to get there before it shuts. Once we get to the road we have approximately 2km to go, having not kept up the pace John & Betty have fallen someway behind, as Betty in particular feels the pace, or so we thought, they suddenly go roaring passed us sat in the back of a “Matola”(Pick up truck)which drops them off at the right turn for “Dedza Pottery”. We catch and pass them, we’re on a mission, the coffee shop shuts at 5pm it’s 4.40pm and we still have the best part of 2k to walk. It happens again, this time Betty & John going flying by in a big people carrier waving and cheering, amidst incessant horn blowing. We arrive at 4.57pm dash into the coffee shop ready to plead with the staff to find that it shuts at 9pm, so feeling in deserving mood we plunge into a combination of Ice cold beer, proper filter coffee, real tea, cheese and various cake as well as main course somewhere along the line. This place is a real oasis with standards that outstrip anywhere we’ve seen so far in Malawi, in fact it wouldn’t be out of place in the Lake District, with beautiful tiered and manicured lawns overlooking dark and moody mountain ranges.

That night we pop in to the rest house bar for a couple of cheeky beers and spend some time with Wellington & Oscar a couple of Malawian old boys who entertain us with stories of their youthful adventures. Wellington was particularly entertaining; setting new standards in political incorrectness having shared with us his criteria for choosing a wife, “Beauty & Productivity”.

I'm going to Malawi

So, it’s all organised Christmas & new yr in Malawi, There’s 6 of us going pre Christmas & another 6 joining between Christmas & New Year. The game plan is: we travel to Chipata which is on the border of Zambia & Malawi, early on the 20th (it’s an 8hr bus ride) and stay with Anna (Who’s coming with us & Amanda (going to South Africa with other VSOs). From there to Dedza for some walking, on to Cape Maclear & then Senga bay for some lounging and finally Lillongwe for New Year. When I say organised what I mean is; we know what we’re doing but haven’t sorted transport or accommodation yet so the control freak in me is feeling a little anxious, I’ve been told to get with the culture and stop being so anal. I finally crack and email some hostels in Cape Maclear(The most remote spot we’re going to) the news is not good particularly for 6 people but it appears camping is generally possible, so we start to round up tents. Good news Beth has managed to get us in the Rainbow rest house in Dedza for two nights, sounds like a retirement home but its accommodation booked and I feel better for it. More good news, Vinny, a friend of a friend who works at the ministry of finance is heading to Mozambique for Xmas and has offered to give us a lift to Chipata, he’ll pick us at 5am. The night before we go is “Nilesh’s last stand” back to London Friday, so out for a few quiet beers to say goodbye. Nilesh is a consultant working in the Health Service sector, he’s been on a short term placement with the Eastern province mission hospitals, he’s a shrewd guy and good company. Unfortunately the quiet drink finishes at 5.30am in Alpha bar, this seems to be happening all too frequently. Friday’s gonna be a tough day I’ve got loads to sort out before we leave tomorrow as well as preparing for the arrival of Taco, Lysette & a friend of theirs from Holland who are staying on their way to Namibia. They’re a Dutch couple based in the Copperbelt on a 1 yr placement. Taco is an Accenture consultant, who run a programme where they place and fund employees with VSO, Lysette is a nurse. Ok it’s midnight I’ve got myself sorted, been out for a meal & a couple of beers with the Dutch and ready for bed up at four for hols, I really need them.