The Epic East Africa Walkabout 2014: Day 59 - 60 En-route to Lake Malawi

Lake Malawi, after the grueling drive!

So it was back to Dar for all of us. I must admit I had been dreading the flight back as our flight to the lodge was decidedly unpleasant. Since we got our own plane I have become quite used to flying and am not a terribly nervous flyer but I don't particularly like flying around in bumpy clouds which is what had happened. As it turned out our flight was not at all that bad. Even though it was much cloudier and probably bumpy, it was not at all upsetting. We all put it down to the pilot; he constantly communicated and was so obviously in control of the plane that before we knew it we were back in Dar, in the rain and on our way back to the hotel.

Our same taxi driver was there waiting for us and today, because it was Sunday, had decided that there was no need to short”ie cut’’ie and took us back to the hotel choppie choppie. Still took over an hour mind you.

It had been raining in Dar while we were away and I was not looking forward to confronting the damp and moldy Queen but after our long rest it wasn't such an overwhelming job.

We decided that we wanted to head out of Dar as early as possible the next morning so as to avoid the majority of the traffic.

So we were all up at 5.30, even Steve and Andrea managed to get their watches right this time and we left the hotel at 6 am on the dot. Thank goodness as even then the traffic was like Joburg on a Friday afternoon.... Horror of horrors.

It took us two hours to do the first 60 Ks out of that hell hole of a city. We all decided that would be the last time we ever visited that place; it is not worth the aggravation and frustration. Anyway we were out. Hurrah for the open road.

What we didn't know is that we had chosen the best day to travel out of Dar on the road for Zambia. The ports only open at 8 on a Monday morning so there are no trucks on the road on a Monday. They have to first get their goods out of the harbor, load and then hit the road and that takes most of the day.

It was a long hard day of driving, without too many trucks but there were the usual mad kamikaze bus drivers who pass on a blind corner or blind rise going like mad with no regard for human life what so ever. You could not pay me enough money to go in one of those things. Ernest was very restrained and drove really well, I think he thought if he went too fast I might just jump out the door... So all was good. He did however win the award for the day with a record of being caught 4 times for speeding. Oh my gosh those cops jump out behind every bloody tree and they fine you for as little as three kilometers over the speed limit. It was actually very annoying as they would be waiting at the point where the sign said 50 and unless you put your foot hard on the brakes it was impossible to drop your speed quickly enough not to get caught.

The one guy caught us and said we were doing 95 in a 70 k area, but on the GPS the speed was actually 77. Ks. I know I was sitting right in front of the GPS and looking at it when he jumped in front of the car waving his hair dryer at us (the radar that they use look like hair dryers) He would hear none of it and wanted to see Ernest's driver’s license. I opened the cubby and grabbed both yellow docs out the draw (his and mine) and handed them to the cop.

He very officially wrote out the ticket to Mr. Gaye Evangeline Corbett. He took the money, gave us back our "licenses" and we drove off. Only after we left did I realize that I had given him our yellow fever certificates and not our international driver’s licenses. That kept us entertained for the rest of the day... Oh my gosh he didn't even know it wasn't a driver’s license, we had a few very rude names for him I can tell you.

We made it to our destination of “The old farm house " - Kisalanza by about four in the afternoon a long hard day of driving but it was well worth getting all those miles behind us, and as far away from Dar and the trucks as possible. This campsite is well known to campers who travel in Tanzania; we have been here 4 times before and have experienced the hospitality of the very charming owner. She was born in Tanzania to a father who had several farms in the area but they were taken away from the family when Tanzania went socialist, all accept this one farm where she returned to from England when her father had died. I can't imagine being a woman alone on a farm in the middle of nowhere in Tanzania but she seems to love it there.

We were running way ahead of schedule so we decided instead of pushing on the next day we would just stay an extra day, clean out the mold in the Queen after Dar and explore the farm. A good day walking to stretch out legs would be great plus the extra bonus is that she had a small spa and hairdresser operating on the farm so the girls could get some pampering and Steve could get a hair and beard cut. I must say he was looking decidedly “bushy".

So we stayed put and extra day and set off for Lake Malawi the next day having fully recovered from the journey the day before. We have now covered over 10,000 kilometers and sometimes all you want to do is just walk and not see the inside of the cars.

It was now Wednesday and the trucks had all caught up with us so we knew the first 150 Ks was going to be a nightmare trying to pass them on that narrow and windy road but after that we would be turning off the great north road and going down to Lake Malawi. There was also the added aggravation of the Tanzanian traffic cops in every village with their hair dryers. This time Ernest insisted that Ken went first as he could slam on breaks and stop far faster than us plus he could then warn us of any cops hiding behind the bushes. That seemed to work well except for one time when we thought we were out the speed zone and Ernest was catching Ken up on a hill so he shouted over the radio to speed up and as he was obeying his lordship out jumped the dam cop again.

I think the Tanzanian Government decided that they are going to stop all speeding on their roads which is quite honestly not a bad thing, except that between the towns there is no speed limit so the trucks just go like mad and that is where the majority of the accidents happen, plus they don't seem to trap the busses and they just carry on at the same speed. Anyway it is a costly exercise and cost us plenty!

Once we were off the main road there were no more cops which was a huge relief but we still couldn't go very fast in any event as the road is very windy and narrow. The road is lined with so many people especially kids walking up and down on the very narrow verge. These small unsupervised kids frighten the hell out of me and are sometimes as young as three years old. They grow up real tough in Africa, it is the land of survival of the fittest.

Entering Malawi was just such a pleasure, gosh the people are so polite and helpful ... Someone said it is like a good mannered South Africa. They were efficient, had smiles on their faces and one for one said “welcome to Malawi, we love having you here" not like the arrogant Tanzanians. We were tested at the border for any sign of fever and had to produce all our immunization certificates. That is the first time we have ever been asked for them. I think this Ebola outbreak has everyone jumping.

We spent the night at a little campsite on the edge of Lake Malawi. It was right at the top of the lake but our eventual destination of Makuzi was still 250 Ks away and we didn't want to push it after dark. We found a great place called Akuna Matata at Chitemba Beach. It certainly wasn’t the best campsite we have found but at least the ablutions were clean and there was a nice big wall around the back so security was good. We did try and camp on the beach sand but sank straight down and spent the next hour digging ourselves out... So much for our nice quiet restful afternoon.

Shooooo signing out, few pictures to share!