Happy 19th Birthday Gabi – we are celebrating your birthday with a Malawian G & T.
We are getting into a routine with packing up the extra tent and baggage and got to breakfast in record time this morning – either that or we just have hungry kids. Again, the kids begged to spend an extra day here. We did, however, delay our departure by having our hair cut. Before becoming a lodge manager in Africa, Sharon worked as a hairdresser in the U.K. and we kind of hinted that our hair was getting a bit long. Sharon arrived with razor and scissors this morning and generously offered to cut it for us. In a week Gray has gone from looking like Father Christmas to a mercenary (the kids, more unkindly, are calling him pimple) – beard gone and now he is sporting a shaved head. I just had a trim – no major transformation.
Only 2 big truck accidents from Mbeya to the border post at Songwe. The climb back up the rift valley was beautiful, we missed out on the scenery on the way day down as the area was shrouded in mist. We filled up with diesel at the last garage in Tanzania, before the border, in preparation for the fuel shortages in Malawi. The border crossing at Songwe was absolutely painless and soon we were on Malawian soil. You can immediately feel that life slows down a couple of notches here, the trucks seem to disperse and slow down, the children run to the side of the road and wave and you just generally get the feeling that life is more relaxed. Gray also finds the driving so much less stressful here.
We are back on S.A. time zone, having lost an hour – so all watches, GPS’s, lap tops (the working ones), cell phones etc. have to be changed (some do it automatically and some don’t). We stopped in the first town after crossing the border, Koronga, to draw Malawian kwatcha – it’s amazing the admin involved in travelling a few metres from one country into another.
We again headed to one of our previously tried and tested camp sites – Sangilo Sanctuary Lodge. The lodge with the camp site at the back of the main house, the non-midget friendly ablutions, the stunning beach cove with the best beach bar on lake Malawi and not to forget the gay turkey.
Robs and I went for a long swim in the lake and then it was back to the bar the bar for our old favourite – Malawian G & T’s. We didn’t have a great night’s sleep, it’s funny how just an hour’s time change messes with you and we landed up getting up ‘an hour earlier’.
Robs is out there
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