Blog 7 & 8

Blog 7

Limba Country Club to Zomba Plateau Trout Farm Camp site; to Dedza Golf Club Lodge with no golf course!, only Hippo Necks; (Hippo Necks? They are the men who viewed from behind  have rolls of fat where their necks should be, they normally drive large white or silver Turbo Cooled Somethingorothers, with chromed covers protecting the spare wheel. More often or not they have a sort of circular star logo that looks very similar to the UN Logo); to Senga Bay via Lilongwe.

LCC has been described. The trip to Zomba is really scenic. Zomba was the capital of Malawi until 1976 and has the beautiful backdrop of the Zomba Plateau. The steep twisting road winds up the side of the plateau for about eight kilometres to about 1500m. If you are lucky enough not to be shrouded in mist, the views down over the rift valley to Lake Chilwa in the distance are spectacular, and the cool of the forests are a welcome relief form the floor of the valley. We were the only campers at the Trout Farm Camp site. The black ants took us by surprise, but Livingstone, the camp janitor took care of them with a similar remedy to Zimbabwean Steve! Loverly walks, cool air really refreshed the soul.

There is an element of calm in Malawi, decent well educated peaceful people. Everywhere there is an effort at cultivation. The school girls all wear calf length dresses (hangover from Banda days). Most villages have a Post Office and it is not uncommon to see book-shop signs. Bricks, brick kilns and more bricks, everywhere bricks. Apparently it is said that in past days the rural people would demolish their parent’s house when they died, so stock piled bricks in preparation for the day when they would be required! Whatever the reason, there are bricks everywhere……and walls. Brick walls surround every establishment!

The drive to Dedza skirts through the mountains along the border of Mozambique. It is littered with a patchwork of agricultural endeavour. Tomatoes, onions and potatoes all along the way, then all of a sudden massive mushrooms are vendored six at a time on a stick. We stop to look and are surrounded. Six or nothing, “We only want one” we say. Blank, part sales do not appear to be an option. We drive on. I suggest to Ewa that she tenders a 200 Kwatcha (R8, a great deal) note and see what happens. Blank stares until one smart Alec does the maths! The look of surprise on faces of the assembled crowd was amazing; maybe we have started a trend! We managed half a mushroom between us, absolutely delicious. Will buy again should the opportunity arise.

The weather has been very kind, a bit of drizzle and coolish air, not the 50 degrees expected. Dusk brings us to Dedza and on the advice of Lonely Planet; Dedza Golf Course Lodge is the place to camp. We find the sign and turn right, a fork road and no sign takes us rightish, better worn track. LP said DGCL backs onto the forested mountain. The narrowing track is just so. It stars to drizzle and the road and dusk light are running out. “I think we are on the wrong road” says the Dentist. “How do we turn around on a mountain side?” replies the Inventor.

Problem. We reverse. Very silent in the Kombi. Very tense. A track to the side presents itself. The Inventor is not happy, nor is the Dentist cum Car Pusher looking that confident. We make the hairpin reverse manoeuvre and manage to go backwards. The problem is we need to go forwards. No can do, back down the slippery hill, fine. Forwards up said slippery hill in the dark, a problem. Deflate the tyres. Tell the Dentist to take up pushing stance. Much mud flying, we make it to the road, or rather 2m short of the road.  Dentist not looking her best bespattered with mud, very grumpy, back left very low in mud. Rainy season in Malawi. Yours truly seeks help from lone light source. Four young twenty-year-old plus resident Car Pusher get us back on the road facing the exit. DGCL is up the left fork 200m from main road. Dentist very glum.

There is no golf course nor is there camping. The LP is out of date. The receptionist is delightful and offers us the car park and a bathroom in one of their spectacular suites. Ewa is looking a sight to behold spattered head to toe in mud! We have a wonderful bath and are squeaky clean in our new attire but the dress code does not include bare feet! Our shoes look like mud clogs! We have no other option but to scrub our shoes clean in the bath. Never in all my life have I seen a bath that colour!

With new attire, wet shoes and a cleaned bathroom, nobody is the wiser. We enter the bar / restaurant. Hippo Necks, everywhere Hippo Necks. Tribalism and Hippo Necks must go!

Once again I have to interrupt this monologue….please note photo of me and the spade!..it is not a joke……I really am expected to use it and perform miracles….photo is taken of me clean and relaxed by the lake a few days later!..this time no sand but mud much harder to dig!

Will insist ONLY MOTORWAY travel from now on.

We sleep like a log, routine Kombi maintenance in the morning puts me side by side with the Turbo-Cooled Somethingorother being polished. The difference. The West worries about how it is working, Africa worries about how it looks. The Turbocooled Somethingorother drives away in a cloud of smoke.

Lilongwe to Senga Bay. We are the only occupants of the Steps Sunbird Camp site on Livingstonia Beach, right on the lake. Everything excellent, electricity, clean toilets, absolutely beautiful. The peace remains for a couple of hour until the arrival of Ant Hill, a taxi from Lilongwe. 20 odd people spill out, and the party begins! Its fun, everybody cavorting and dancing, the bass of the music enough to alter any pacemaker. As dusk approaches Ant Hill leaves. Peace again.

It is the beginning of the rainy season. There has been rain most days, but the cloud cover has made travelling pleasant. The afternoons see the build-up of thunder showers which come and go, but nothing like prepared us or the locals for this particular afternoon. The normal size dustbin at our campsite filled up the halfway in two hours! A deluge would be down playing it. The beach was reshaped, two houses in the village were washed away, the lake turned from crystal clear to a mud bath. We battened down the Kombi and bided our time buffeted by huge winds. Then it was gone.

I love the Kombi. It seems to just accept life; it shelters you, protects you and just keeps on going, an amazing vehicle.

Post the deluge, the day cleared to become a perfect day. We inflated the canoe which was brought back as hand luggage from the Cologne Fair some years ago. It lives under the seat in the kombi and has been used many times at sea in an effort to catch a crayfish or two. It can more than handle the 1.5km paddle to the island that beckons a visit. Paddling the Kombi Pusher tells me is good for the Pecs.and boobs! Anything that helps at 60 is welcomed.

We snorkel around the island waters. The fish are beautiful, bright blues and greens, and the water is lukewarm. The gathering afternoon shower sees to the further development of the pectoral muscles!

We move on in the morning to Venice Bay Lodge in Monkey Bay, a 2 hour drive along the lake shore. I like this place, it is not on the tourist route, it is on the lake in the middle of a village; the log boats of the fisherman are lined up on the beach waiting for the morning sun. The lake looks like a sea so it really surprises you seeing people come down to fetch drinking water, wash and bathe in what the subconscious tells you is salty! Life could be easy with a salt less sea!

Blog 8

Some of you have asked me to post some more of my paintings. Well let me say these paintings are tiny. I have a little A5 black book that I use. They are records and I hope to improve as time goes by. Sadly and scarily I filled the book up the other day, so now I have to go bigger and that scares me a little I am also going to try some other mediums, so who knows what the results may be, but either way I love doing them good or bad! The “Little Black Book” contains about 80 sketches and watercolours of trips done over the last year and a half, so I am posting the paintings done so far on this trip, from today onwards they will change!