“Welcome to Malawi, we speak English here!” the Malawian Immigration officer greeted us. Neither Jen nor I realized what a relief it would be to again be in an English speaking country. The people of Mozambique were as accommodating as anyone, and my Spanish helped bridge the gap, but we had not appreciated the simple comfort speaking English to someone and knowing they would understand us. Southern Mozambique gets enough South African tourists that they speak decent English. Decent enough that on our earlier trip through Mozambique, the language gap had been narrow enough that bridging it with Spanish was kind of fun. This time around, we had spent over 2 weeks in the north of the country, and bridging the language gap was more of a necessity. Malawi was going to be different, we could tell that already.
Our first few days were spent in Mulanje, at the foot of the Mulanje mountains. These mountains are more of a big mesa, but covered in green. They were also covered in clouds this time if year, so we skipped hiking them on the recommendation of the locals, the trails would be too muddy. Mulanje is a tea town, surrounded by massive tea plantations. Tractors drove through town, right by our camp at the golf club, pulling trailers full of tea leaves baled in burlap, or headed back out to the fields to reload. In the morning and afternoons, pickers would ride the trailers to work or home, singing songs in beautiful harmony. As we got the lay of the land, we made plans for our next couple of stops. The next stop was Zomba, the former colonial capital of Malawi. Here, we found a campsite at a restaurant run by a couple of Italian expats (Casa Rossa). They make pasta fresh every day, and the quality showed! They serve such delicious Italian food we stayed for an extra day, just to eat more pasta. While here, we zipped up the Zomba plateau, yet another massif covered in greenery. The heights gave us stunning views of the flat valley floor all the way to the Mulanje mountains.
We had been Emailing with Jim and Ann, fellow Americans in Africa, whom we had met in Windhoek, Namibia. They were in Malawi and headed south, so our paths should cross. Tearing ourselves away from the delightful Italian meals, we set our sights on Cape McClear, a peninsula jutting into Lake Malawi. In our preparation for this trip, we had met a South African family that was touring the world in their Land Rover. (Check out their journey here). Graeme, the patriarch, had written a book about their travels through Africa and some of South America. In it, he had referenced Fat Monkey’s Camp (Fat Monkeys), on Cape McClear with such adoration that we had to stop in and check it out. It lived up to Graeme’s description, a cool place frequented by fellow travelers. We pulled in and immediately met a German couple and their infant, and a lone Englishman in his Land Rover. The next day, Jim and Ann pulled in to camp and we all bought fish off a local fisherman and had a big group dinner of grilled fish. Over the next few days, we learned to play bao, a version of Mancala played all over East Africa, from Jim and Ann, with further instruction from Able, the bartender. This seemed like a good place to do some snorkeling, so we took a boat out to an island where we got to swim with hundreds of small brightly colored fish native to Lake Malawi. Their colors are so bright it is easy to forget that you are in freshwater, not some tropical ocean paradise! We also learned the importance of cleaning your gutters, even when you live in a trailer. One stormy night, we had water cascading into the trailer because of a leaf in one of the gutters. The next two days were spent drying out beds, bedding, and the battery compartment. After a week at Fat Monkey’s, it was time for us to go to the capital, Lilongwe, and pick up our new ATM card (FedExed from the US). Jim and Ann were headed that way eventually, so we may get to see them again.
Lilongwe is a typical African city. It seems all chaos and strangeness at first, but as you spend a little time in it, the rhythms become familiar and you start to see those places hidden by the chaos. We found the FedEx office and collected our ATM card, immediately ordering the other one (suffice it to say that managing these things when you don’t live at your American address and don’t have another address can get tricky). Since it would take a week to arrive, we found another camp on the lake and headed back for more beach camping. This time, we headed to Nkhotakhota Pottery Lodge, where they not only have a small campground and lodge, but make all kinds of fantastic pottery. From our discussions with Ann and Jim, we knew that the short route along the lake was closed due to a bridge washing out. The more inland route drove us through a national park that wasn’t yet open to the public, where we saw elephants along the road! They looked just as surprised to see us as we were to see them. At the Pottery Lodge, we camped in the sand and got to see local ladies making baobab jam. The fruit of the baobab is like a long, fat, fuzzy kiwi on the outside, is full of soft pith that looks a bit like yellowish Circus Peanuts candy. The ladies boil the pith and seeds in water, then strain out the seeds and boil the remaining liquid and sugar for hours, throwing in lime juice and some apple near the end to give it pectin for thickness. The end result is a bright red delicious jam that makes a wonderful peanut butter and jam sandwich. They then sell the jam in some local stores and markets.
Back to Lilongwe, we picked up the second ATM card and a replacement keyboard for Jared’s iPad (the first one quit working, and the manufacturer sent me a warranty replacement). By this point, our visa was running out, so we extended it for another month. Jim and Ann were in town to get their Carnet (passport for their car), which was sent to them from South Africa. Somehow, it got sent to Zambia, so we all headed back to the lake, them to wait for their Carnet and us to start working our way north. A few days later, we said our final good byes and parted ways. We worked our way north along the lake, stopping here and there for a couple of nights, just soaking up what delights of camping on the beach, without the salty humidity of being on the ocean. Lake Malawi is so big that we would hear the sound of the waves all night, expecting to see the tide had changed every morning, only to be reminded it is a lake, not an ocean, when the water level remained right where it was the night before. Locals call Lake Malawi “The Calendar Lake” because it is 365 miles long, 52 miles wide, and has 12 major rivers flowing into it. It also only has one river flowing out of it, the Shire river in the south. Nice as this was, we knew that Malawi is more than the lake and we wanted to see Nyika National Park, a park in the mountains known for it’s dramatic alpine landscape set off by typical African animals. We stopped in Mzuzu, at another camp/restaurant run by Italians (Macondo Camp), to stock up on groceries. We had been told that Mzuzu was the last proper grocery store we would see until maybe Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, or Nairobi in Kenya.
Loaded with supplies, we headed towards the mountains. The pavement soon ended and not long after that, the road got bumpy. We took it slowly, as we do, and trusted our GPS. We took a right and the road, though getting no worse, got bumpier and steeper. We could see that the bridges over the little streams were new, only a few weeks old, so we knew someone had driven through not too long ago. We just put the Jeep in low range and kept on. Jen studied the digital map a little more and said that the park gate was just ahead, and that she thought the road we turned off of joined back up right by the gate. Looking down the road at the intersection, we both thought that was the better road and decided to take it when we left the park. Once in the park, the road got a bit better, and Jen got excited about the protea flowers. As we climbed, the trees and flowers changed, and eventually we left the trees behind. It was a lot like being in the high mountains at home, above the tree line. Then, we rounded a corner and found a clearing full of eland, roan antelope, and zebra! Camp was rustic, but the water was drinkable and it had clean bathrooms and hot showers. Best of all though, is that it looked out over a small stream where we saw most of the animals. At night, eland and zebra would come into the campground, waking us up as they munched on grass right outside the trailer. In the morning, they would leave and the bush buck and reed buck would come into camp for the day. The scenic beauty of the area was the best part of our drive the next day, as we saw more animals in camp than on our “game drive!”
When we plugged in our solar panels to charge our batteries while we left camp, the charge controller didn’t “see” the panels. That afternoon, when we returned to camp, I did a bit more digging, and then sent an Email off to the electrical engineer in South Africa who designed the system. He promptly got back to me and had me do some checking, which turned up significant damage to the connections between where we plug in the car or solar panels and the charge controller. We thought that we got it running again, but the next day, it still wouldn’t charge. While we would loved to have spent one more night in the park, but without the ability to charge our batteries, we decided to head back to Mzuzu, the big town in the area. The engineer would be better able to help us help ourselves if we could find parts and services. His first recommendation was to find new, beefier connectors, which were unavailable in Mzuzu. After combing the town’s parts stores, he sent us what we needed to Macondo Camp, that same Italian restaurant/campsite we had stayed at before Nyika. Since that would take a week, and it was Easter weekend, we headed back to the lake to chill out until our package arrived.
You might not believe it if you saw it, but we stayed at a castle in Malawi. (Take a peek at Kachere Kastle) Russ and Kate, a lovely English couple built it and run the lodge and restaurant. Kate is an amazing cook, offering up delicious dishes from around the world. The campsite was in a grove of bamboo, right on the beach. It was a great place to spend Easter weekend, getting to know them better and enjoying more lakeside camping. With the tracking number for our package, we could see when it arrived in Malawi, so we headed back to Macondo Camp to be available should it require customs duties. That process and getting it from Lilongwe to Mzuzu took another 5 days, but we finally got our parts. Unfortunately, they did not solve the problem. More probing and diagnostics with the engineer, and it was decided that he would ship us a whole new charge controller, and that I would install it. We had him send it to DHL in Lilongwe, to simplify matters that slowed down the last shipment. This would also give us a chance to hit the good grocery stores while we were in the big city. Before we could do any of this though, we had to extend our visas again, yet another quick and painless visit to the local immigration office and we had another 30 days to stay in Malawi.
The trip to Lilongwe went without any problems, the parts sailing though customs easily. I installed the new charge controller and it worked! We were back in business and no longer reliant on finding campsites with AC power. Another trip back to Macondo, the owners were offering to help us get residency now, where we stayed a few days to knock out some chores before heading to the remote outpost of Livingstonia. We had two choices on how to get to Livingstonia, the inland road and the steep, switchbacks leading up from the main highway along the lake. Before leaving Mzuzu, we checked around and made sure that the inland road was dry and good, as it gets quite muddy in the rain. We had been warned off of the switchbacks since we pull a trailer. The inland road was good, so we drove up the valley, enjoying the beautiful patchwork of corn, tobacco, and manioc fields. While we were in Livingstonia, we drove down the switchback road, without the trailer, to see if we could head out that way. It turned out not so bad as everyone proclaimed, though I think that is because the Jeep is such a capable vehicle. After two days perched on the cliff, it was time for us to hit the road, and head for Tanzania. A Swiss couple needed a ride down to the highway, so they got to enjoy the switchbacks with us before catching a taxi bus to Mzuzu. The drive to the border was uneventful, and after successfully checking off all the boxes for border crossing, we made tracks for a coffee estate in Tanzania. They offer camping on their helipad!
Along our way through Southern Africa, a lot of people had told us about the wonders of Malawi. Everyone had said that the people are super friendly and the culture so laid back. This did not prepare us for just how easy it was to let time get away from us in Malawi. Spending days at a time camped along the lake was just natural. Meeting people and making friendships is how things work in Malawi. The country is incredibly overpopulated and poor, we couldn’t drive half a mile without seeing someone walking and someone else bicycling along almost any road. A lot of people live on less than $1 a day. That did not stop them from asking how we enjoyed Malawi, how Africa was treating us, and wishing us a good journey. We saw a lot of people trying to sell us things, produce, bootleg CDs, phone chargers, windshield wiper blades, and handicrafts, but very little outright begging. Malawi is the first country where we extended our visas, one month was not enough to take in all it has to offer.
Malawi by the Numbers Miles Driven: 2,483 Days in Malawi : 72 Visits to One Camp: 4 (Macondo Camp in Mzuzu) Packages Shipped to Us: 6 Visa Extensions: 2
Like many countries in Africa, 24/7 electricity is not a given. Here in Malawi, at least the government acknowledges that it’s a goal to work towards!
