Malawi

We met up with a few friends in Zanzibar and arranged to travel through Malawi together. They were the two Canadians (before mentioned) and a lone Aussie who goes by the name of Simon. we got a train from Dar across the middle of Tanzania. It was a good trip made easier by beer, 500 and temazepam. A much better way to travel than the sinking buses.

When we got off at the station near the Malawian border we were greeted by another smooth talking tout selling us transport across the border. It sounded good at the start but took a turn for the worse when we went to a petrol station instead of his office. I started to think it might be too good to be true. Luckily we only paid a small deposit as the connecting bus did not meet us at the border (I think we all knew it wasn't going to happen). I few travelers i met also got stung at that border however they were not as lucky as us and handed over the full sum of cash at the start. We managed to hitch a ride from the border which was quite handy!!

We stayed at a pretty cool place in Livingstonia called the mushroom farm. It is one of the best hostels I have stayed at. It is only a tiny place perched on top a cliff of the plateau overlooking the lake. The only trouble was the 15km hike up the hill which we stupidly did in the middle of the day with a small bottle of water. We helped celebrate Simon's birthday up there with the help of Malawi gin (which i am thinking about importing, it is great stuff).

There was a great waterfall up there, I forget the name, but we walked down to the base and played around under the main falls. They were about 50m high so the force is quite powerful at the bottom. We got some pretty funny photos looking like cavemen coming out from their den.

We travelled down the lake and ended up at a place called Nkarta Bay. There was an overland bus staying next door which provided some entertainment if for nothing more than admiring the way the majority wear head torches around their necks, even indoors. It seems the love of wearing a head torch as a necklace is a common occurrence with the overland truck brigade. The ones at Nkarta were actually OK compared to other ones we have come across!!

We got over our hangovers by playing classic catches with the local kids down at the beach. They loved it! I got a few cool photos which they were equally amused with.

The lake itself is beautiful and the Malawians are one of the friendliest people in Africa. I just wish we could have spent more time there!! Again too much to do and too little time, and only a 16hr bus ride to look forward to on the way to vic falls.

Photo link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30795&l=afa93&id=722635930