January 2015

Routes, cheese shops, and rains

As we head into Malawi again, we are still disappointed that the washed-away bridges in Moz have prevented us from seeing that part of Africa (see “To Moz or not to Moz?” ). But Wallace our sat-nav encourages us with his wisdom: “… keep-on keeping-on, unless you see a cheese shop!”.  Sage words Wallace! We’ll keep our eyes open for cheese shops!

Due to Malawi’s long, narrow shape running down the western side of its eponymous Lake, there are limited options for routes between the north and the south. For the first 270 km from the border, past Karonga as far south as Msuzu, there is only one road and we had to re-trace the route that we had used to travel north a few months ago. But for the 350 km from Msuzu south to Lilongwe we had a choice: either the lake-shore road via Nkhata Bay, Nkhotakota and Senga Bay (which we had taken before); or the ‘in-land’ central road via… errr… not a lot on the map!

The central road is supposed to be better surfaced, more direct and pass through less-populated zones than the lake-shore road. But these could mean that it would be more frequented by commercial traffic, and we had really seen enough overturned lorries on the trans-african highway in Tanzania!  Nevertheless, we did want to see a part of Malawi that we had not seen before, so the central road was the lucky winner of Cuthbert’s ‘Route of the day’!   And, for those curious to know… yes, we did find a shop in Msuzu selling cheese!

In addition to choosing the route, we had another consideration… the very reason that we were heading on a return to Malawi at all…  this is the season of ‘The Rains’.  How enjoyable would it be, driving through this?

Well, once we hit the roads of Malawi again we were, in fact, very pleasantly surprised! First, we had forgotten how quiet the roads are in this country – at least when compared to the ‘hell-highways’ of Tanzania. Cruising down the smooth-tarmac, central Malawi super-highway, Cuthbert was often the only motor-vehicle around! Not a lorry (over-turned or otherwise) in sight!  Bliss!

Secondly, the scenery on the central route was more spectacular than we expected and we very much enjoyed the drive seeing another side of Malawi.

And finally, ‘The Rains’ were not a show-stopper or a major hindrance on this route.   Yes, there is obviously a daily heavy rain shower. But as the pictures show, between the rains there are bright blue skies. The sun comes out to light-up the fresh green mountains and there are great views to a distance that we could only dream of when we were here in the ‘dry season’ with the ‘Malawi murk’.  Scouring the guide books, we found a lovely camp at Luwawa Lodge, run by an English chap in the Viphiya Forest about half-way between Msuzu and Lilongwe. We stayed here for a few nights and enjoyed some of the many walks around the scenic countryside.  Nice!

It would have been great if we could have seen the allegedly spectacular beaches of northern Moz, but seeing another side of Malawi has been great too. And as a Mr. M. Python once famously advised:  “Always look on the bright side of life” 🙂 .

Lilongwe and the ‘Moz Plan’

It is not often on our travels that we drive into a city that is familiar, but having been to Lilongwe twice before on our first journey through Malawi, arriving back in the city was almost like coming home 🙂 .  Unlike some other capital cities that we have encountered in Africa (from a list of which Kampala probably holds Cuthbert’s awarded accolade of ‘Worst Nightmare Drive’ – see  Kampala-palava) Lilongwe is a relaxed and relatively easy city.  We found a nicer camp than we had used previously and ended up staying for almost a week doing routine stuff like shopping and laundry. Thinking about it… it is rather baffling how we now manage to make so few tasks take-up so much of our time! When we had busy career-jobs, we would have taken half a day to achieve what it now takes us a week to achieve at a ‘leisurely traveller’s pace’!  Chores are interspersed with walks, swims and long chats with fellow travellers. We are trying to find someone who has travelled up through central Mozambique and can report first hand on the state of the roads and bridges for our onward route.

The Lilongwe Mabuya Camp is currently ‘home’ to a group of young American missionaries who, rather commendably, are travelling the world on their gap-year doing good deeds for disadvantaged communities. Mozambique was one of the countries on their agenda and 43 of them, like us, had persevered with the extraordinary bureaucracy of the Mozambican immigration authorities to obtain a visa to enter the country (see Dar de dah dah dah – the visa story).  Notwithstanding their admirable perseverance with the visa system (and not forgetting their objective to bring free of charge, their energy to pre-arranged assignments with established teams, out on the ground in poor communities now very much in need of help with the floods) on arrival at the border, only 20 of them were allowed into the country!   The authorities had apparently changed their minds; it was now considered that 20 volunteers would be sufficient.  Naturally those who didn’t make the ‘20 Chosen Few’ were a bit miffed after coming all this way!  It somehow seems difficult to believe that a country like Mozambique could be so overwhelmed with resources to cope with its unfortunate state of affairs, that it can turn away pre-arranged programmes of volunteer workers!  The remaining 23 students were therefore stuck in Lilongwe, doing what they could to bide their time productively in the local community until their flights to their next assignments in south-east Asia in February. Mozambique’s loss is Malawi’s gain!!

Anyway… the good news for us is that the youngsters remaining in Lilongwe are in touch with their colleagues who had successfully taken up their places in rural Mozambique and can report to us the ‘state of play’ on the ground.  Based on what we have learned, we have decided to head south to the Calomue border post near Dedza, to enter Mozambique in the north of Tete province.

Here is a quick overview map of our final route in Malawi.

Finally we are on the road to Moz!!!!   Tune in to the new, and surprisingly named Mozambique page for the continuing story…