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| 25 September 2003 - Time to slow down and eat raspberries |
After 4 long days of driving, we were quite keen to just sit back and relax at Mama-Rula's (all the overlanders were leaving and we would have had the place to ourselves) but we were on our last day of the Customs Import Permit so had to get out of Zambia. There is a Shoprite in Chipata so we stopped to buy bread and then off to the border. Our very short stay in Zambia was as pleasant as our previous 2 trips. Apart from the roads which range from excellent to potholed potholes, all checkpoints were friendly and hassle free. Leaving Zambia was no problem, and entering Malawi at the border post 12km away we had the same hassle as most other travellers: you need to pay 600 kwacha for the vehicle's Temporary Import Permit but there is no exchange facility, changing on the black market is illegal and they do not accept other currencies. Luckily I had a few hundred kwacha left over from our previous trip to Malawi but not enough, but it was enough to convince the guy in charge to take that and a couple of US dollars for the balance.
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Why use steel scaffolding when you can use wood instead? |
The roads in Malawi, generally, are excellent. The hassle are all the traffic and police roadblocks, and what is strange is that for a hundred kilometres they all ask for your insurance papers, then for the next hundred kilometres they all ask for your import permit and so it goes on. But on the other hand, these guys are out on the roads doing what they are supposed to, Monday to Sunday, midday heat or not. Very much unlike our good old South African traffic and police officers who are more worried about when their next new BMW patrol vehicle is coming or whether they have trapped enough speeding motorists to get whatever it is they get for hiding behind the camera all day because it is too hot to actually stop people and check their papers or vehicles. OK, enough moaning, back to Malawi...
Got to Lilongwe at lunch time and headed for the Old Town section, which is the main business and shopping area. I changed some dollars at the Stanbic Bank but afterwards I found out that the rate at the Forex Bureau in the Nico Centre just a block down the road offers much better rates, so go there instead of the banks. A little further down the road is the Department of Surveys' map sales office, where I hoped to get a decent topographical map of Malawi. No luck, they have no maps at all. Filling up I also found out that the price of fuel had gone up nearly 20% about 2 weeks before to K71.58 - groan.
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The Chawe forestry camp site
The remains of the raspberries and strawberries |
Then it was time to head off to the Zomba Plateau, which we reached just after sunset. As we climbed the temperature dropped sharply, and after the high temperatures of the last few days we probably felt it a bit more so reached for all the warm clothes in a hurry. The road winds its way up and around the heavily forested mountain for about 12km to the Ku Chawe Inn, the forestry camp site and a few private cottages all at the end of the road (the road is 2-way so watch out for vehicles and cyclists). For camping, there are 2 options: the Chawe forestry camp site which is cheap and easy to get to, and the Chitinji camp which is more expensive and harder to reach along a 6km eroded track that takes you to the top of the plateau. Having arrived lateish we chose the former, and over dinner made ambitious plans to do a bit of walking the next day "to break in" the hiking boots in preparation for the Kilimanjaro climb. Well, the next morning we were so lazed out that even pouring milk over the corn flakes was too much hassle, so we did nothing. Chatted to a Dutch couple who backpacked Asia for 15 months, came to South Africa in June and are making their way to Nairobi by mid-January 2004 to fly back to Bangkok before going back to the Netherlands. Also at the campsite were an Aussie couple hiking to Blantyre, a camper truck from Namibia, and a LR Series 2 camper from Germany. Why work if you can travel! There is a small primary school just outside the camp site and it is quite sweet to listen to the various classes trying to outsing each other during what must be "singing" period. By lunch time it was time to get out of the chairs, but not go walking, so we compromised and decided to ... go for a drive. But first we bought raspberries and strawberries for lunch, which for K150 (about R10) for a 2 litre ice cream tub, are cheap. And yes they are the real thing, and they taste great.
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The plateau was beckoning, so we first drove to the Chitinji camp site along a pretty but eroded mountain track to the north west section of the plateau. Unfortunately the effort in getting there ensures that only a trickle of people go there, and at K300/person for camping is a lot more expensive than our K50/person forestry camp site. But it is better and quiter and at least it had water (our camp site had no water - the camp attendant fetched buckets of water from the nearby school's hand pump and each group got a bucket for washing, and he filled up the flushing toilet's cistern every time it was used; apparently there are plans to install a pump and new piping by the end of 2003). Camping is also possible at the trout farm close to our camp site but at K800 plus entrance fees it is much more expensive.
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The track up to the top of the plateau (and the Chitinji camp site)
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We had a great drive around the entire plateau, stopping at the various points along the way: Chingwe's Hole offering stunning views over the Shire Valley to the north-west, Queen's View overlooking Zomba town 800m below, Chagwa Dam which we thought was a perfect setting for a quiet picnic, and Williams Falls where we stopped to watch the wood cutters at work (in the mornings they "walk" their bicycles the 12km to the plateau, they then chop wood all day, which they load onto their strengthened bicycles, and "walk" down to Zomba where somebody will hopefully sell it for about R40. Hard life we thought. They all have permits, and they seem to pay some kind of toll every time they go down, but difficult to communicate as the men we stopped to watch did not speak more than a handful of english words). Unluckily for us, the views were somewhat spoilt by the dust and smoke in the air, but being so high up above the surrounding countryside made up for it.
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The stunning view over the Shire Valley to the north-west from Chingwe's Hole
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By the time we got back to the camp site, a bunch of American Peace Corps chaps had arrived and chatting to one of the guys I found out that they have different jobs in various towns and villages so they try and get together on the Zomba Plateau whenever possible. Loaded with 2 cases of beer for the weekend they had taken a taxi to the camp site. They apologised in advance in case they made a lot of noise and invited Isla and I for a beer - good tactical decision on their side but I told them to go ahead as we normally sleep through most things. For supper I braaied the impala chops we had bought outside Nylstroom, which turned out to be outstanding so these wrapped up a great day! The evenings get pretty cold so high up, so we bought a bunch of wood from the watchman. It turned out to be fresh cedar wood, and with its peculiar smell the evening was rounded off beautifully. While we huddled around our small fire, we smiled at the night watchman: he was still wearing his T-shirt, channel-hopping on the radio at full volume, going round and round the few available channels. In the morning we spent ages deciding whether to stay another day or leave for the warmer climate around the lake. We could stay, relax and start work on the web site, or we could go and spend a day or two at the nice-sounding Steps Campsite at the Livingstonia Beach Hotel at Senga Bay. Heat 1 - Cold 0 so we packed up, bought more raspberries, and headed down the plateau to Zomba's market. Now I don't know how typical or atypical Isla and I are of people travelling around on their own, but we have no qualms about going to local markets to buy fruit, vegetables or whatever. It is there, after all, where you find better choice and prices for most things you need. If you were to rely on nicely packaged and displayed goods at a supermarket you will probably go hungry. The Zomba market was excellent for both the range of goods available and prices (after haggling a bit). What is also always nice is that after the surprise of seeing white people at their stall, everybody wants to sell you their things but when you turn them down they accept it and do not hassle you any more. What we also do is buy things from as many different people as possible to spread the money as widely as possible. We hope it makes a small difference. We bought brinjals, red onions, shelled peas and a pawpaw for K95 (R6!!). The small PTC supermarket sells fresh milk for K50/half litre, and 300ml cokes are K20 (R1.25!!) everywhere in Malawi.
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Eating my chips and coke outside the bottle store |
Getting the very important issue of food (for me at least) out of the way, we made quick progress towards the lake until I saw one of the chip-frying stalls next to the road at one of the many tiny villages you pass along the main road (it WAS lunch time after all). I jumped on the brakes and very conveniently the Landy stopped outside a bottle store - my monthly dose of luck had arrived but I was worried what the rest of the month would be like. A bit of good-natured haggling over the price and amount of chips I wanted got me 2 good sized packets for K20, and together with a couple of cokes to get all those chips down, we sat on a rickety bench outside the bottle store Malawi-style, eating and watching the people walk and drive by, very much to the surprised look of everyone who walked past. The road to Salima was good but slowed a little closer to Senga Bay. We arrived at the Steps Campsite mid-afternoon and were immediately dissappointed with the place. They let day visitors in and there is no separate area for campers, so being a Saturday afternoon the place was full of day visitors with no place for us to set up camp. And the beach is nothing to rave about either. So we parked under some trees and waited for the locals to leave. Be warned that the grass is bad news: it did not take long for the ants to take over and it is impossible to sit and relax. Once the local crowds left we moved to the sand on the edge of the beach and it was quite nice, without the ants. Besides us there were only a handful of other campers. The evening was warm with just enough wind to keep the mosquitoes at bay, and we could see the lights of the fishermen's boats out on the lake, fishing like they have been doing forever. In the morning there was no water in the ablutions, apparently the pump broke, and even the hotel (quite pricey) had no water. That, and being a Sunday the local crowds would be even worse, made our mind up that we were leaving for better pastures. After a breakfast of strawberries and coffee (you get to eat strange stuff together when supplies run low) we set out for Nkhwazi Lodge further up the lake shore. There are a number of lodges in the Chinteche area but a number of people have stayed there with very favourable reports so why go against the "trend"?
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| Diary entry summary: |
| Camp sites/places to stay: |
| Place | GPS position | Costs | General comments | Our rating (*) |
| Chawe forestry camp site | S15.35962 E35.30347 | MWK50 / person | Good place to relax: (I) flushing toilet; (II) grass, some shade, braai places, rubbish bins; (III) in a cleared area in a forest; (IV) excellent value for money; (V) hiking, sightseeing and fishing. |   |
| Steps Campsite | S13.71667 E34.62792 | MWK300 / person | Good place for a night or two during the week, stay away on weekends: (I) old but clean ablution facilities with hot water; (II) sand, some shade, water taps, lights, rubbish bins, wash-up area; (III) best camping is on the beach sand near the water; (IV) average value for money; (V) bar. |  |
(*) stars represent (I) ablutions, (II) camping facilities, (III) setting, (IV) overall value for money, (V) anything extra that warrants an additional star
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Border crossing costs: |
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Entering Malawi from Zambia: MWK600 for Temporary Import Permit, 3rd party insurance required but we used the COMESA Yellow Card
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