Week 26 - May. 5th - 11th
day 176 - Chipata to South Luangwa National Park
day 177 - day in South Luangwa NP - game drives
day 178 - South Luangwa NP to Chipata to Malawi border to Lilongwe
day 179 - Lilongwe to Kande Beach
day 180 - day at Kande Beach
day 181 - day at Kande Beach
day 182 - Kande Beach to Mzuzu to Chitimba Beach
Week 27 - May. 12th - 18th
day 183 - day at Chitimba Beach
day 184 - Chitimba Beach to Tanzania border to Iringa
day 185 - Iringa to Mikumi to Dar Es Salaam
day 186 - Dar Es Salaam to Stone Town, Zanzibar Island
day 187 - Stone Town to Nungwi beach
day 188 - day at Nungwi Beach
day 189 - Nungwi Beach to Stone Town to Dar Es Salaam
Like being in a zoo, but in the cage along with the animals
As I write this a monkey has just run off with a big loaf the garlic bread that we were supposed to have for dinner. This was mainly because we were camped in South Luangwa National Park and the camp-site doesn't have any boundaries between the untamed wilderness out in the park and the area where tourists put up their tents. We were told that hippos, elephants, leopards and even lions regularly enter the camp, especially at night so apparently going to the toilet after dark was an act that was meant to be taken with extreme discretion when camping here. We were also told that if we ever heard a very loud munching sound in the middle of the night it was probably a hippo eating grass next to our tent. Under those circumstances the only sensible thing to do, assuming staying alive was a priority for the person in question, was to stay absolutely still and remain utterly silent. Because you don't want to upset a hippo. In fact a hippopotamus is a far more dangerous animal than any of the African predators, lions included. So staying on their good side, or to be more exact, staying out of their way altogether seemed like quite a good idea.
As it happens our cook team managed to get dinner ready without any more monkey thefts and we were soon tucking to yet another delicious meal. The next day we headed off for almost an entire day of game driving, the first all morning and the second from the late afternoon until after dark. Both game drives were very exciting and the animals put on quite a show. The morning game drive was slow to kick off at first, not much was spotted and we were moving around spotting only a few antelopes here and there until we came across a whole pride of lions, at least fifteen of them, stalking a herd of buffalo. With baited breath we awaited what we hoped would be a successful kill, after all nature photographers can spend decades in the bush and still see only one in a whole lifetime. Even Gav and Summer, who have been touring this area of the world for years, have yet to see a kill in the wild. We watched, tingling with anticipation as the female lions, it's always the female lions that do all the work kinda like how it's always the woman in Africa that do all the work as well but I digress, slowly moved towards and surrounded a single buffalo that had been separated from the rest of the herd as it was moving on. The lions weren't even trying to be stealthy about it, they were moving towards the creature in plain sight. We all assumed that the buffalo was sick or injured and had been abandoned by the herd and so we expected to see the pride tuck into a feast t within short order.
Naturally we were all quite surprised to see that after one of the lions got within striking distance from the buffalo it suddenly reared up and faced the lions, its huge lethal looking horns ready to do some damage, and this was a really big bull. At this point all the other lions had given up the hunt, leaving one lion that was gutsy, but not quite gutsy enough to face off against the potential bovine meal. I'm sure that lots of thoughts were swimming through the head of the lone lioness that was standing almost face to face with the apparently fully healthy and fit buffalo, not least of all thoughts such as 'well fuck this!' and after a short stand off the lioness backed off and then walked away. We weren't quite sure why this lone bull had abandoned the herd and remained seated when at least fifteen lions were prowling around it with the full intention of chomping on its succulent innards but then perhaps humans are not the only creatures that are thrill-seekers. Maybe it was a teenager and was trying to impress his girlfriend! 'Check me out! I'm playing chicken with a pride of lions and I WON baby YEAH!' Or something like that.Run fatso run!
The afternoon game drive was also very spectacular. We came across a pride of lions, quite possibly the same pride of lions we saw before, only this time they were sleeping. It was really quite unbelievable how close we were able to get to those creatures, especially when you consider we were in a completely open topped safari truck and that there was nothing to stop the lions from jumping on top of us and ripping out our throats should they have desired to do so. We actually got so close that we almost ran over a tail of one on the sleeping felines. Which certainly would have given them good reason to bite off our heads. Some of them were at most a few feet away from us as we all snapped hundreds of photos of them. Some of them lazily got up and wandered around for a little but, presenting their fangs as they yawned but other than that this pride of lions was well and truly out for the count. Until darkness fell that is and our night time game drive began. One of the tour guides brought out his searchlight and started to scan the area for wildlife. At first we watched the lions spring into action. Lions love to hunt at night and soon the area was a bustle of activity and the pride was clearly ready once again to get some food, especially after their previous half-assed attempt at bringing down a particularly ballsy male buffalo. We followed the lions until they disappeared into the bush and then we began our search for other nocturnal animals. Hippos are also animals that like to graze at night and they usually remain submerged in water for most of the day so our next goal was to spot a hippo out of the water. We did manage to find several of the creatures, in fact not only did we spot them out of the water but we also spotted them running. And man oh man can those creatures run. It really was quite astonishing watching such an unbelievably corpulent animal with such stubby little legs run at such a speed, I almost wouldn't have thought it possible if I hadn't seen it. But believe me they can run REALLY fast. As our safari guide said, Ussein Bolt wouldn't stand a chance! These things could easily outrun an olympic cyclist. 50-55 kilometres per hour was apparently not an unusual speed for these weighty creatures to attain. So remember that fact the next time you think 'oh I can outrun that hippo, it's so fat!' As unlikely as it seems that you'll be presented with the opportunity.Back to the beach
We left Luangwa the next day and drove back to Chipata for supplies, crossing the border into Malawi soon afterwards. We headed to the capital, Lilongwe, and spent one night there at a very pleasant little camp-site in the centre of town. The next day we made our way to the coast of Lake Malawi, a huge beautiful lake that spans the length of much of Malawi and seems more like an ocean than a lake, although you can catch a glimpse of the other side on a really clear day, though just barely. We stopped at a quiet little refuge called Kande beach and spent a couple of days there enjoying the sun, the scenery, the water and the peace and quiet. We even bought a couple of whole pigs and spit roasted them over a huge charcoal fire, sharing them with the other African Trails truck that was also at the beach. The other truck, less worn and battered since having NOT been through West Africa, contained a mere four travellers. This was apparently due to the delays caused by the Icelandic volcano that had blocked all air traffic in and out of the UK. If fact when the truck had left Cape Town it only had one person in it!We also adopted a puppy during our time at Kande Beach! Or at least some of the girls did anyway. Apparently the locals were trying to sell the little dog and they ended up paying about one dollar for her. So they named her dollar. Makes sense. She was a big shaken and malnourished and not very sociable at first but after a couple of days she was bouncing around in the ways that caused almost everybody that met her to go 'aaaawwwwwwww!' Of course we all knew that we couldn't keep dollar and so when we left Kande beach we had to give her to one of the locals, although the overland truck that was next to us was more than happy to look after her as well. Guess what they said when we handed her over. They went 'aaaaaawwwwww!' We left Kande beach and made our way to another beach, Chitimba Beach, which was even more scenic than Kande and we spent a couple of nights there.
On to Tanzania
After spending plenty of time lounging, lolling, loafing and lazing around on the beach and doing nothing all day it was time to leave Malawi and to make our way to our next country: Tanzania. We reached the border not long after leaving Chitimba and crossed is a surprisingly short time and without much hassle. We drove all day and stopped for the night at a camp-site near a place called Iringa. The next day also involved all day driving and after a ridiculously long day on the road we were finally in the huge sprawling city of Dar Es Salaam. Gav had already warned us about this place. You might recall that he has a low opinion about the people of quite a lot of African nations but it seems that he is most wary about Dar. I believe he not so succinctly described it like so: 'when Ben Kenobi (from Star Wars) described Mos Eisley Spaceport as the worst hive of scum and villany in the entire galaxy he had actually forgotten about Dar Es Salaam. Or had never been there himself. His caution was not entirely unwarranted though. When we reached our camp-site it turned out that the driver of the other African-Trails truck had actually had the air compressor stolen off the bottom of the vehicle while it was stuck in traffic and in broad daylight. Quite a brazen theft I think you would agree.
The next day we too the ferry from Dar to Zanzibar Island in order to spend a few nights there. We started out in Stone Town where we spent the first night. Stone Town was a very pleasant and vibrant place which reminded us of some of the Moroccan towns that we had toured so many months ago at the beginning of our trip. Zanzibar's Muslim roots were certainly very evident in the design of the local architecture and also the dress of the people. After our night in Stone Town we went on a morning tour of the city before heading off to tour one of the local spice farms. After the tour of the farm we were driven to the north end of Zanzibar Island where we spent a couple of nights at picture perfect white sand beaches, spending most of the day doing pretty much the same thing we did during our time on the Malawian beaches, i.e. lazing around and doing nothing at all for the entire day. Which is a great thing to do, or not do when you're on an extremely picturesque and tranquil beach for days at a time. Eventually it was time to leave the paradise island of Zanzibar and report back to the continental mainland, catching the ferry back to Dar Es Salaam.we would be spending a couple more nights in Dar before heading north towards Arusha where the most famous of all the sights of Africa awaited us: the Serengeti Plains, Mount Kilimanjaro and the Norongoro Crater.
I can't wait
Our temporary puppy: Dollar!
Beach on Lake Malawi
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