Nampula – Cuamba – Blantyre – Cape Maclear.

We knew that we had a long and difficult drive ahead of us, so left Nampula early. We arrived in Cuamba at 4.00pm to discover that our tow-hitch wiring that connects to the batteries and rear lights on the trailer had, at some point during the day, come adrift and was totally destroyed!!! While Lionel was chasing around the village to see if we could buy the part that we needed, I established that the best place to stay (US$75) was not an option, everything about it was dodgy……………so, where to lay our head for the night with no other place to make for? Lionel was stressed and, dare I say it, grumpy, after a hellish drive and with no electrical parts to be found. It was Friday night and the music? that goes on all night long, had already started thumping,(this is to rouse the locals into party fervour,) We decided, in the gathering dusk, to get onto the road to the Malawi border and to find a local in one of the many huts along the way, and ask if we could park our rig and bed down for the night. ……..we felt that they could use the money more than those sharks in town!

This we did, and in no time at all we had a crowd of fascinated villagers gathered around us (5 feet away). We had planned to warm up a curry that we had frozen, but realised that in the dark, and with the bystanders, the best we could do would be to have tea and go to bed with a pkt of biscuits. That was not to be……..We were given two chairs, which we obligingly sat in, and then brought some monkey nuts to have with our tea. The next thing we knew we had two plates of food, one with putu, and another with a lentil & spinach-like mush! Lionel whispered that there was no way he could stomach the mush, so I manfully chewed my way into their good books. We then retired with lots of ‘bon nuits’ and ‘goodnights’, and the crowd took the hint and melted into the night!!!!
We were up before sunrise ,……….. and so were our hosts ! We handed out books and pencils to the youngsters, and a wind-up lantern to our hostess, along with some financial reward, and took our leave.

Our border crossing went without incident, except that Lionel refused to buy insurance for the trailer, and the minute we were in Malawi, the roads improved, there were English signboards, and we were able to travel a little faster. We made for ‘Doogles’, in Blantyre, as it is the only place that one can camp. ‘Doogles’ has seen better days, but it served its purpose and enabled us to buy the necessary spares, get them fitted, buy some provisions, (there is a Game and a Shoprite) and to move on, but not before going to Joyce, who informed me that she is the only one in the salon who does ‘caucasian’ hair!

We drove to the Zombo Plateau, which is an amazing road to a trout farm, lodges and cottages, up on a high and beautiful mountain where the Malawians sell any type of berry that one desires, even gooseberries.



We had a run-in with the law………..about 4 times in about 2 hours!!!! We were stopped for speeding through a village, Lionel argued, and got off………..We were stopped for not having insurance for the trailer, twice, Lionel argued, and got off …… ……..We were stopped for not having a Temp Import Permit, Lionel argued,……………and got fined! It was almost a relief, but I have convinced him to buy some insurance for the trailer when we can (R125)………. It will save so much time!!!!!!

We then drove through to Chembe Eagles Nest, at Cape Maclear, and even in the dark and with the wind howling, we knew that we had struck gold! Our campsite is on the grass, about ten metres from Lake Malawi itself. We are the only guests, and so we have this completely up-market, lodge and its staff, to ourselves. We decided that this is the place for us to stop and really relax for a week. (At US$10pp per night, it won’t break the bank!) We have been here 3 days now and I am typing this while watching DSTV. We sailed out on the lodge catamaran, to a nearby island for a spot of amazing snorkelling this morning.
In our camp we have a family of monitor lizards that reside on the rocks next to our caravan. I think that they are as inquisitive about us, as we are about them, and I must admit to giving our campsite a jolly good look–over, before doing anything there. Just in case!!

Yes, Christine, Lionel, with a moustache and beard, is on the road to becoming a Kingsley Holgate look-a-like………. I don’t know what it is about men, but they seem to thrive on roughing it a bit, and he has lost weight and is looking good, whereas I, I feel as if I could do with a jolly good scrub and am probably looking a bit ‘faded’ and have not lost weight!!!

Chris and Sue, we bumped into friends of yours at the Mlembe Golf club yesterday, Bev and Peter Bekker, They say how about an e mail with your news!!!! Their e mail address is infotropex@africa-online.net and cel +265888723195. We had gone into Mangochi town to buy trailer insurance (at last) and decided to check out the golf club and maybe have a drink there. It looked so interesting we wanted to walk the par 3 course, got onto the 1st tee and then decided to play. We bumped into Bev and Peter as we were finishing!