More of Malawi: Nkhata Bay, Glorious Nyika, Lonely Livingstonia and Catching up in Chitimba...

Where did we end off? Nkahata Bay- so after much deliberation, we decided to give the islands a skip and stayed two nights at the wonderful Mayoka Village Backpackers in Nkhata Bay. We explored the nearby village, bought some curios and went on a free boat trip with cliff diving, snorkelling and soccer. We met some great fellow travellers; two Dutch doctors (Tessa and Joost) who had just finished their 7-week internship at a nearby hospital, and Jason, a lone backpacker from Boston. We had a great day with them and finished it off with "Amazing Giant Burger's" at Mayoka's restuarant.

The next day we left, with Jason squished into the back-seat, and made our way to Nyika National Park, stocking up in Mzuzu along the way and dropping Jason off en-route. The shopping in Mzuzu was such fun- we went to the Metro Cash and Carry and found some great bargains- Boxes of biscuits for KW75 (R3), Mzuzu honey, and Malawian tea and coffee. So far, the grocery shops we have been to have had loads of imported South African products, and they have been outrageously expensive and also made us feel that we are just travelling through an extension of SA... but we are very excited to say that we are now North enough to be far away from South African products and grocery shopping has become one of my favourite 'outings'. After the Metro Cash and Carry we went to the busy market and bought 8 potatoes, 5 tomatoes, three big handfuls of fresh peas, 4 red onions, 7 eggs, 5 bananas and 10 oranges, all for KW640 (R30!)(Grant: I particularly liked the "plize" that one is rewarded with when buying at the market. For instance we bought 10 oranges and our "plize" was the eleventh one free.)  And we most likely paid the Mzungu price! Anyway, enough of my small pleasures :-)

The road from Mzuzu to Nyika National Park was probably the worst road we've driven on so far. It's rainy season and  there were huge potholes and muddy sections all along the 100km road. It started pouring for the last 60km's, but Michael just keeps redeeming and proving himself over and over. We had no problems whatsoever and i actually had a lot of fun driving the last 60km's (don't think Grant had such a good time though :))(Grant: I must add that Ang really does drive the Land Cruiser the way it should be driven, however, there were times that it felt like I was doing the Camel Trophy with Michael Schumacher behind the wheel). We arrived at the Chelinda Camp in Nyika and fell-in-love. What an amazing place... for the Loteni club and all those who have visited Loteni, picture camping on the top of the plateau, but you are surrounded by endless rolling green hills dotted with Eland, Bushbuck, Zebra, Roan Antelope and Mountain Reedbuck. Every night a huge bonfire was lit for us by Samuel and Patterson and the ablutions were spotlessly clean with endless hot water from the permanently-lit donkey.

We had planned to stay there for two nights and ended up staying for five! We had such a great time. We spent the days chain-drinking tea and coffee, reading, journalling, researching on upcoming countries, and reflecting on the trip so far and the upcoming weeks and months. After a great deal of relaxation, we went for a few short walks and then on the last day hired bicycles and explored the rolling hills. At one point i was waiting for Grant to catch-up to me (ha ha) and i spotted the distinctly round head and ears of a hyeana peering at me over the waist-high shrubs next to the road. He/she quickly ducked his/her head and we didn't see it again! Cool, but also a bit eerie :) We met a Dutch family while we were in Nyika: Chalmer, Kathljin, Paul, Anton and Chris (http://www.pacci.nl/). They decided to follow their dream of driving from The Netherlands to Cape Town with their kids, so they bought a truck, kitted it out and took their children out of school for a year and off they went. They home-school the children in the mornings and drive in the afternoons. We loved their company and were so inspired by them! On one day, they decided to go for a drive and their truck got stuck when the bridge they were crossing gave way beneath them. After 15 men and a tractor came to the rescue, the truck was free!

We eventually said our sad goodbyes to Nyika, determining to come back one day and made our way back to Mzuzu to visit the Toyota dealership.(Grant: I had noticed that the front left wheel bearing was loose. I have now officially had it with wheel bearings. It was a quick job and the lock nut was tightened and the wheel bearing re-packed and greased.)

We then headed north to tackle the treacherous 15km climb to Livingstonia. Engaging low-range for the first time, the 20 tight hair-pin bends were gobbled up by Mikey and we made it to Lukwe Camp at the top of the hill feeling very chuffed with our Buble. Livingstonia itself was a bit of a let-down. We had heard great things about the hill-top town, but after visiting the museum at Stone House, the church and Bell-tower, we were left with a lonely feeling and spent the day deep in thought about the missionaries who founded the town and what happens to an African town when Europeans invade and then leave...(Grant: To add to our last blog and the Malawian habit of replacing "R's" with "L's" and vice versa, we saw a classic example of it at the museum at Livingstonia. In one of the displays there was a photograph of the house in which Sir David Livingstone was born. The text below it read "The house where David Livingstone was born in Blantyre, ScotRand". I had a good chuckle and wondered whether David Livingstone knew that his coutry of birth was Scotrand. Oddly Livingstone, is not pronounced Rivingstone. Perhaps he made a point of it when he was here, Old Sil David Rivingstone of Scotrand (Just Reft of Engrand).

Having seen enough, we drove down the hill and decided to camp at Chitimba Camp on the lake and catch-up on blogging, e-mails, laundry and last minute planning before we hit Western Tanzania! We are so excited for this next stretch- it's apparently 'off the beaten-track' and really deep dark Africa. We have received lots of tips on the area and apparently we may get our first taste of bush-camping. But we'll keep you posted :-)

Things Ange has learnt:

1. God must have been really angry when He sent the plague of boils to the Israelites... i'll say no more.
2. The first word learnt by Malawian babies is 'Mzungu'- we have seen babies mid-breast-feed turn their head at us and utter in sweet baby voices 'Mzungu!'

3. Shopping in busy, bustling, smelly and colourful African Markets trumps Woolworths anyday.

Things Grant has learnt:

1. I am lacking on the fitness side of things. The short mountain bike ride of 22km left me totally and utterly knackered. (Steve when we get back we have some serious training to do, so get the silver bullet warmed up.)

2. Wheel bearings are unreliable,relatively small, ridiculous things that, unfortunately, make the wheels go round and, therefore, are crucial.Catch 22?

3. Surgery. Army style, in a tent, with crude instruments. Mostly curing the plague mentioned above... again, the less said the better.

Musings: While we were at Nyika, we met another great couple; Reuben (a Dutch doctor) and Jaimie (a Canadian Nutritionist). Both have a great love for Africa and Jaimie has been living and doing research in Malawi for the past 15 months. We had a great chat with them around a roaring fire one evening. Reuben was born in South Africa, but raised in the Netherlands and asked us "How much of Africa is in your daily lives?" A thought-provoking question! We have thought about that question quite a bit subsequently and realised that we would like to have more of Africa in our lives back in JHB. Sure, we are Africans, we live in Africa, but somehow, when you live and work in the Northern suburbs in Johannesburg, Africa tends to get pushed out a bit. So we have been thinking of ways to increase our daily dose of Africa... learning to speak Zulu, buying our tomatoes from the Spaza shops on the corner of every street instead of Fruit and Veg City... and we have realised that if we look for more of Africa, we will always find it.