WheretheMalawiarewe...?

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23/5/10

After yet another long day driving we arrived in the capital city of Malawi late last night. As with every time we end up driving round in the dark things went wrong. A truck of that size is not easy to manoeuvre, and getting lost and the resulting 3 point turns are no fun. We arrived too tired to deal with our own tents and gratefully accepted the offer of an upgrade to ready made cozy bedded tents for the pricely sum of $1.

Up again at 5.30 today. These early dark mornings are loosing their novelty. 30 minutes into the journey and we're climbing up slight hills at 15km an hour, before pulling over and trying to solve the never ending power problem. We waste thirty minutes at the side of the road and set off no faster. The truck is definitely on it's last legs. People are starting to get irritated. We leave an hour before any other truck and arrive hours after them. Activities and exploration time is cut short due to never ending drives. We are experiencing Africa only through a truck window. Getting up at 5.30 so we can make 400 km in a day is silly. There is now talk of hiring minibuses. It is really hard for Gareth and John, our guide and driver, it's their first trip with this company and they are having to deal with a dying bus.

Malawi, country number 5 on our tour. It has been called Africa for beginners, with it's wide range of activities, beautiful scenery and apparently the most helpful and friendly people on the whole continent. Not sure the first Western explorers to arrive here would have agreed, missionaries who came here to do their stuff. Hundreds died for every Malawian that they managed to convert to Christianity. Malaria is pretty rife here.
 

Malawi is a relatively small country, 900km long and between 70 and 150 km wide. A lot of this area is taken up by Lake Nyassa which separates the country from Mozambique. With a population of about 14 million in such a small area, it has one of the highest population densities in Africa. The towns we have been through have had vibrantly hectic streets; people milling everywhere, markets bustling and music and singing. As with Zambia, kids appear every time we stop to watch us, and can be seen sitting in the dirt barefooted and in rags. They shout 'Mazungu', meaning white person when we pass. You can't help but be affected by this sight when you see it so often. It hurts me that they have so little and we have nothing to really give them that would make a difference. In the past we have been told not to give kids pencils are pens as gang leaders often make kids go out and practice begging then take whatever they get. We've been told that doesn't happen here and that they are just grateful for anything that they can take to school. With an average GDP of $170 school equipment doesn't come high up on the list of priorities.

Contrary to all appearances, John says that as far as African countries go, Malawi is now doing ok. In 2005 there were drouts and famines that crippled the country but it has recovered for now. Life expectancy is about 40.

One interesting fact I've learnt about Malawi...the first president here, President Banda who had control of Malawi from 1966-1994, had some rather curious habits. As with many African presidents he leaned towards the dictatorship style of leadership, but his eccentric behaviour went as far as wearing ganster clothes and hats, waving a flywhip around and having dancing girls follow him around whenever in public, all dressed in clothes made from cloth with his face printed on it. They were there to chant praises at him.

The longest day...

22/5/10

Just got back from South Luangwa. Got back isn't really the right term really, as we never left the bus and we're on our way to somewhere completely different, but we are back to some kind of civilization, and more importantly back to tarmac.

Our journey to South Luangwa started slowly. As I have mentioned before, the roads in Zambia are crap, even those lucky enough to be covered with tarmac. We started at 7.00 and had only done 150 km by lunch and then broke down soon after. Repairs took a long time and we still had 130 km off 'really bad' dirt roads to go. At first bouncing and bumping along the red dirt roads that were under construction was almost amusing, everything got rattled off shelves and across the floor. You drive past small thatch huts that kids run out waving and shouting from, makes you feel famous. The people here have really dark skin and when they smile it literally lights up their face. The kids we pass are all happy with nothing more than a wave and you are rewarded with this huge great grin. This along with yet another amazing African sunset and we were almost distracted from the bumping for a while. With the onset of darkness however, there came a lack of waves and smiles and the journey began to get irritating. Three hours later and even the most mild mannered on the bus were becoming highly strung. Huge potholes that whip lashed us from side to side and constant rattling that shake the bones and gets inside your head.. no stopping, no breaks, 6 hours in all on that dirt road. It was like Chinese Torture. To make matters worse we were driving in the dark, and in remote places things always go wrong when it's dark. When we eventually reached the entrance lane to where we were staying, confusing signs and us not really being able to see much after having our brains shook loose for a day resulted in us going the wrong way. After wasting another hour battling through gulleys and a track built for narrow 4 wheel drive vehicles, 3 wrong turns, 2 fallen tree blocked routes, an incident requiring sand tracks, and we were lost in the middle of a forest in a game park. Our guide Gareth was not amused when we insisted enough was enough and we really now needed a toilet stop. It took us 7 hours to go 130 km. 

The reason we went through this huge ordeal was to visit a game park with a big reputation. Not only is it reportedly one of the best places in the world to spot the elusive leopard, but is also one of the least visited parks you can find. Wonder why that would be then...

One game drive can be much like any other, and I'm not going to bore with too many more details. That is apart from to say that South Luangwa is the Jurassic Park of game parks. It is not the flat open planes from the TV, but it is huge and it is beautiful. With a river, small planes, forests, ponds, lagoons and coursed with winding waterways, it's the perfect image of a game park. We didn't see anything new there, no leopards or lions, but the concentration of animals was incredible. It was the game viewing I've always imagined, giraffes blocking the road, piles of hippos snoozing in green stuff, baby elephants next to the car. We even had hippos nudging tents at the stunning riverside Wildlife Camp. The only bad thing about being there was the fact that we were 6 hours away from the nearest tarmac and had to go back the way we came. 

 

As you travel through Zambia you are constantly reminded of how poor the country is. Dan was followed a kilometre back to camp by a kid who had asked for a pen and was willing to do a 2 km round trip just for a pen. At our most recent grocery stop lots of left over stale bread was given to the guys hanging around our bus. It's quite humbling to see men get so excited over slightly mouldy bread. You quickly realize how privileged we are. Apples with a few bruises that get looked at and then put back by everyone on our bus are seen as a real treat by kids with no shoes. Life expectency here is 33. 

Zambia... the beginning of the decline of Benji.

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20/5/10

Zambia…seem to have developed narcolepsy since we have left Livingston. Struggle to stay awake for more than twenty minutes at a time on the bus. Not sure how it is possible to sleep so much, in the words of the Lonely Planet ‘Zambia’s roads are crap’. We have just suffered a breakdown. Our truck 'Benji' is starting to crack under the pressure. With the amount of shaking and rattling we’ve done today it could be any number of things that have shaken loose.

With all the sleeping it’s been hard to see the country. Bit annoying really as it is quite a different landscape to what we have been trough so far. The rolling hills are thick with trees and the roads winding up through them remind me more of Central America or Indonesia. From the few lucid moments I’ve managed, the other difference that’s quickly apparent is the increased population. Zambia has about 11 million people, a great deal more than the last two empty countries we’ve been through. There are small thatched rondhavel compounds everywhere. Kids, cows and coats wander along the side of the road. It’s hard to find a private bush stop toilet, within minutes some curious sole has popped out through the bushes, wandered over to take a look or ground to a halt on a bicycle by the side of the road. Over 50% of Zambians are subsistence farmers, people spread out all over the place living off the land and leading a very basic life. Zambia has had its share of problems, and in recent years has been one of the poorest countries in the world. People earn about $60 a month. Driving through the small towns you can see religion and experiences reflected in shop names. The “Good Struggle Grocery”, “Faith is my food” restaurant, “Jesus is my way” grocery, and my personal favourite; “The Hangover Clinic”.

We have been driving for 3 days to get to South Luangwa Game Park. We have been told that the drive is well worth it when you get there. Whoever said that hasn’t been along this road recently. Due to its remote location it is one of the least visited game parks in the world. It has been a long drive. 1200 km in all. In the trip itinerary we were supposed to make the journey in two days, but as we had not others joining for the next leg we left a day early. Broke the marathon journey up and had the bonus of a campsite with zebra wandering through it.

Zambia

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18/5/10

Zambia… been in Zambia for 5 days. One trip has ended and the other has begun. Seven people have left us and now we are nine. Usually more would have joined us, but luckily they didn’t. strangers would probably struggled to fit into the group. We know each other’s quirks and habits, irritations can mostly be avoided as we are comfortable enough with each other to get things off our chests. We also now have more space to spread out. Nick and I are still sitting together, as are our favoured neighbours Gordon and Carol. We thought about moving as our position in the bus means that we are baking in the sun for most of the day as we head east, but sitting next to the humerous an mellow Canadian couple helps us keep calm and laugh off frustrations. Besides, Dan decided he wanted to spread himself over both sides of the isle, and is now occupying the last four remaining seats. Dan is our only American. He is an ex airforce and commercial pilot. He has been trying to learn English slang to help him ‘blend’ and not stick out as the American guy.

The cross over time between the two trips was spent in Livingston, south Zambia. We had 5 days to relax, get organized, do washing and get our fill of adrenaline rushes with a whole heap of activities on offer. We decided to skip the activities. Mainly because they were really expensive, we can do it cheaper elsewhere, but also because the only unique thing I wanted to do was fly over the falls, and this is no longer possible. It is possible to go in a helicopter, but at $150 for 15 minutes without guaranteed window seat it seemed a bit pricey. A microlight flight was cheaper, but you’re not allowed to take a camera. If I’m going to put myself through that much terror then I at least want the shots of the view. As for all the other activities, a disproportionate amount of them involved doing stupid stuff while swinging around on the end of a rope, and that’s never really been my thing.

We did of course pay a visit to the mighty Victoria Falls. The horseshoe shaped trench that makes up Vic Falls and stretches between Zambia and Zimbabwe has to be one of the top 3 most iconic waterfalls in the world. You can hear it thundering from about 5km away, and can see the cloud of spray above from even further. It is awesomely powerful and is locally known as ‘The smoke that thunders’. It is also known for being misty, but at this time of year the Zambeezi River is at its highest and 500 million litres of water flow over it a minute. Frustratingly for us the spray is so great that little of the waterfall can be seen. You know you are standing in front of one of the most impressive sights on earth, and you’ll likely never be there again, and it’s like someone has draped a big white cloth over it.

What we did see of the falls was incredible. We took the underwater housing and walked deep into the spray along the ‘Knife’s Edge’ trail. The spray was so heavy it was like walking in monsoon rains at their worst. We got drenched, our shoes and socks full of mud and sand. Sadly, and illustrating the poverty of the country, a craft seller later tried to swap a 10 inch wooden carving for those same dirty wet socks. The market traders are desperate and pushy, all chanting ‘it’s free to look, touch, touch, it’s free to touch’.

 
Livingston itself is the first place we’ve been in Africa where I’ve felt intimidated and uncomfortable. There are so many people trying to get you to buy things, exchange cash or give you something. I am ashamed to say I avoided it totally. We were staying at a beautiful riverside camp called Zambeezi Waterfront. It looked posh but it was mainly used by overland trucks. We had the misfortune of our one night of dining at the bar being the night of the England Australia 20-20 World Cup final. There was a group of teenage/early twenties Brits and Ausies who were waving flags, had painted flags on their cheeks, sand yobbish sporting songs and then vomited all over the toilets. Nice. Another annoyance in the camp was the herds of blue balled monkeys that caused chaos. One sat in the tree over our food prep table, looked at me, looked at the food, looked at me again then poohed just as I worked out what was happening and snatched the food away. They’ve learnt that by doing this they get the food when people throw it away.

Botswana to Zambia....

Getting on the internet is a nightmare, my apologies that this is so slow to update.

14/5/10

Botswana...done 3 days in the Okovango Delta, then a 600 km drive up to Chobe Game Park. Botswana is how I always imagined Africa to be. There are no fences around the game parks, the animals just wander wherever they want. You drive through towns with herds of elephants grazing on the outskirts, warthogs hang out outside supermarkets and on the hotel lawn, and mongooses scutter around the campsites. Our campsite was on the banks of the Chobe River, and after spending 15 minutes standing at the water’s edge taking photos of the hippos there, we got warned that there was an aggressive mother and calf, and a croc hanging out, all 10m from our tent.

For our sunrise game drive in Chobe we split into 2 groups and went in the tub like viewing vehicles. We all had high hopes for lions, hippos and elephants. If there’s wildlife wandering on the main roads then the game park should be heaving. In the first few minutes of entering the park we saw fish eagles, maribu stalks (one of the ugly five, huge great carnivorous birds), a ‘thunder’ of hippos (probably the coolest name for a group of animals ever come up with), and lots of impalas. Then we had a rush of trucks and cars coming towards us. Lions had been spotted in another area. We followed back the way we came towards the gate. It was easy to see the area where the lions were hiding, the 15-20 cars bunched together were a slight give away. We were at the back of the group that had clustered so tightly they had blocked the road and we couldn’t see anything. Our guide started to maneuver out of the way when a lioness and her 5 cubs walked out behind our truck. We went from being in the worst spot to being in one of the best, much to the dismay of all the trucks parked in front of us. There was a lot of shouting and telling us to move, but in their haste to see before they’d wedged in so tightly that there was nowhere for us to go. We got to watch the cubs as they tentatively wobbled across the road. The other half of our tour group didn’t get to see and they were pretty disappointed with the whole drive. No cats, no elephants, no giraffes. Apparently their guide kept stopping for 15 minutes a time to show them the same kind of bird which we’ve all seen many times before.

The evening river cruise was much better for all. There are 60,000 elephants in Chobe and that morning we’d not seen any of them. From the boat, with cold beers and another great African sunset, we got to see huge herds of elephants drink, swim and play at the river edge. As well as big bulls, teenagers and mums, there were also some really small babies. Baby elephants and baby lions in one day, a successful safari day.

Have now just made the border crossing from Botswana to Zambia. The two countries meet for a stretch of about 100 metres, and then only on 2 sides of the huge and fast flowing Zambeezi River which is full of hippos and crocs. To cross the river you get on a ferry that is big enough to hold only two trucks. It takes about 20 minutes for the ferry to make it to the other side and about 20 minutes to unload and then load before returning. With 2 ferries running and crossing midriver they must only make about 24 crossings a day. There were about 100 cargo trucks parked in a queue waiting to get on the ferry. Thankfully for some reason we went straight to the front but we still had to fight to get on. Not sure how much must have been paid to jump the queue, and I did feel guilty about it, but some of the trucks had been waiting two weeks. That definitely wasn’t part of the plan.
Botswana is supposedly the least corrupt of all African countries. It was a British protectorate until 1966. In 1967 the second largest diamond strain in the world was found. The GDP went from $200 a year to fifth in the world within two years. The government then invested a lot of this wealth into the country. Not sure it went to the schools though, as we saw a group of school kids waiting for the ferry to take them on a daily journey to a better school in Zambia.