Drive from Luwawa Forest was DREAMY in the back seat of a luxury SUV (all things being relative of course). Pulling into the outskirts of Lilongwe (Malawi’s capital), traffic went from pretty much nothing, to a minor traffic jam… I wonder why so few people venture out of the city?? (there ARE a lot of police check points in Malawi… this could have something to do with it) Everyone speaks of Lilongwe as being a bit of a shithole, but at least at first sight of the downtown area, it seemed quite pleasant to us – I guess everything is relative and based on expectation. Got a lift directly to the Mabuya campsite – was recently taken over by a young, British/Kenyan couple in their late 20’s… one of the better kept places we’ve been to so far… somewhat inspiring we found.
Went for a walk around downtown and before we knew it we had 2 rasta guys harassing us; had a bit of a head cold at the time and it’s amazing what that does to my patience level. Went in to do internet for an hour or so and when we came out, who did we eventually find following us around again… sigh… (actually had a local yell something at them and they went away). After finishing with our errands decided it might be a good idea to take a taxi back to the campsite instead of walking. Luckily we would eventually return to Lilongwe and have a better experience walking around the area…
Decided one last trip to the beautiful Lake Malawi was in order before departing westward for Zambia. Standing on the corner near our campsite in Lilongwe, minibus after minibus passed us by, choc full of people. Decided one more and if not we’ll walk to the bus station and sure enough the next one pulled over and in we crammed. The usual chaos at the bus station, found the right one to be on, good hour wait for it to fill and we were off (I think the waiting for the bus to fill with people is what’s getting to us more than anything on the trip these days). Hour and a half to a small town called Salima, into the back of a pickup, another half hour wait for that to fill and we were off to Senga Bay… around 4 hours to go maybe 100km or so. AND there were 2 girls with us that were out for only the day, heading back to Lilongwe that night!!
Stayed at “Cool Runnings” on the beach… lady that ran it was insane (in a good way I mean) – white Zimbabwean widow, doing wonders for the surrounding village (got her talking and she would not stop). Just got over having cerebral malaria (the one you REALLY don’t want to have), village thinks she’s a witch because she had a dispute with the local bar across the road about the noise, the police put him in jail one night and within 2 weeks he grew soars on his throat and died (plus with her hair down, she really does look like a witch). So no one messes with her. But she does great things – runs a mobile clinic for the locals, builds tricycle wheelchairs for the local disabled, starts small businesses for them and if after a year they’re not taking care of them she takes the businesses away to give to someone else. She exports local woodwork to raise money for the village, etc, etc. Quite a story. Also told us about how she gets emails from European women who come back from holidays in Malawi HIV-positive because they slept with one of the beach boys out front. Smart. (apparently 1 in 6 do NOT have HIV)
Woke up and made it our mission to buy a pair of wooden, Malawi “Chief Chairs” and post them home. Walked the 5km out of town to the shops, found some, bartered down to around $30/chair, packed ’em up, back to Senga Bay in the back of a pickup. Next day in Lilongwe, added some more stuff, repacked, etc, etc… for 65lbs, only cost $75!! (they say Malawi is one of the cheapest places in the world to mail stuff from) Was quite an accomplishment getting it all done.
Anyway, that was really about it of Senga Bay… beach wasn’t as good as Nkata Bay so didn’t bother swimming… ended up catching a 5:30am lift back to Lilongwe with Samantha (the witch) even though we had to go all the way to the airport with her and help unload her truck full of boxes… still worth it though, not having to go on the minibuses.
Roadside market
Me on a bus