2Taylors

After crossing the border not a lot changed. The houses were still rectangular mud brick or mud plastered, with thatched roofs. People were on the road and bicycles were still in abundance. The road to Liwonde was in pretty good condition so the trip was easy. We were stopped a couple of times by police, but only one checked our drivers licence, carnet and insurance, all the others just wanted a chat.

It wasn’t long after entering Liwonde National Park that we started to see animals so the trip to our camp was a pleasant game drive. There are loads of waterbuck, impala and warthog. We also saw elephants, baboons, bushbucks, squirrels, kudu, hippos and loads of birds. The main focus of the park is the Shire River which is quite large and flows along the length of it. There are not a lot of roads in the park and the main one follows the river. The park itself is really pretty with the river, swamp areas and trees and there are enough animals around to make game drives worthwhile.

We stayed at Mvuu Camp which is right on the river. It is not worth the $US15 per person if you ask me. It is pleasant and the lodge has a nice area to sit as well as a restaurant and bar, but the showers were lukewarm at best and there were no lights in the amenities in the morning even though it was dark inside. There was also no garbage bin in the campsite and with baboons everywhere we had to keep putting the rubbish back in the car. For that sort of money I expect a little more.

From Cape Maclear we headed off north a short way along the lake to Senga Bay. From the border all the way to Cape Maclear there was no diesel to be had anywhere and we knew we wouldn’t have enough to make it all the way north and out of Malawi. There was still no diesel at the first few places we tried on our way to Senga Bay, however at one of the police roadblocks the officer told us he thought we might find some in Salima. Sure enough, the third petrol station we tried in Salima had received a delivery just that morning, so we joined the short queue and managed to fill up, which was a bit of a relief. (We had planned though to make sure we were at a really nice place on the lake if we got stuck and just had to wait until there was diesel again – I could think of worse places to be stuck!) It must be a right pain in the neck for the locals with the constant fuel shortages. We’ve been told that they will run out of petrol one day and be out for a while, but will have diesel and then the reverse happens. Because of it, the price of diesel is a ridiculous 260 Kw ($1.70) per litre, although it is the same price everywhere.

Today our car window shopping whilst we were in the queue for fuel, consisted of some eggs, which we thought were uncooked, but turned out to be hard boiled. No problem, I had them on my sandwiches for lunch. I guess it is the African version of drive through take away.

We spent the night at Steps Campsite on the lake’s edge. The campsite is quite nice with heaps of sandy beach, lots of grass and really hot, clean showers. It has a large bar area and you can order food from the hotel, but it was a bit too pricey for us. Unfortunately it was also really windy, and whilst the wind wasn’t cold it still made it quite unpleasant. The wind also stirs up the lake and forms waves just like on an ocean beach, and because the lake is so huge you forget it is a lake. We spent some time chatting to one of the locals, but it was an early dinner and into the tent to read to escape the wind.

We left the shores of Lake Malawi and headed inland towards Mzuzu where we managed to top up our diesel, ensuring we will have enough to get us across the border and into Tanzania. About an hour out of Mzuzu the road becomes pretty rough and slow, passing as usual through rural villages where we were warmly waved at by both children and adults.

Vwaza Marsh is a small reserve, somewhat off the beaten path, but was well worth the effort. We arrived at lunchtime and our campsite gave us a clear view of the marsh and open plain (the picture at left is part of the view from our campsite). As we sat and ate our lunch, within 200 metres we could see a group of elephants, hippos, impala, baboons and bushbuck. Not a bad scenic backdrop. In the afternoon we took a drive along the marsh, managing to drive quite some distance right beside the water and plains with an unobstructed view and loads of animals. There aren’t many roads in the park, and those not directly beside the water had tall, thick scrub so game viewing was not very good. There are so many hippos in the park – more than we have ever seen in the one are. There were pods of 10-20 all huddled together on the water’s edge. There are also heaps of kudu, as well warthog, impala, baboons, bushbuck and elephants. We stopped off at the lodge and went down to the open shelter they use for dining. Not 30 metres in front of us there was a group of around 10 elephants eating, including 2 babies. 3 of them got really close, and one started walking straight towards us but finally stopped about 5 metres from where we were sitting. Very cool! As we sat and ate our dinner back in camp there were 2 hippos grazing about 8 metres from us, again an awesome experience. All night we heard the hippos calling, which was great, but they also managed to wake us up  numerous times as they were so close and loud.