Malawi - Kande Beach

We were woken this morning by other campers out and about so we were organised earlier than planned. A small group of us walked into town and met the truck there as Eunice had more shopping to do. 

We did some shopping in the local markets which are made up of people who cannot find work elsewhere so  turn to arts and carving to make a living. There is a 30-40% unemployment rate in all of Africa so it is great to see them trying to find a way to make money. They are generally quite talented too which makes it hard to decide what to buy!!

We also went shopping in the local 2nd hand clothing market for our fancy dress party that would be this evening.... oh man there really were some great finds!

Our new campsite was at Kande Beach on the shore of Lake Malawi. Lake Malawi is 580km long, 75km wide, and between 280 - 930m deep. It is the third largest and second deepest inland lake in Africa and apparently is the home to the widest range of fish species in the world.

Our evening started with the making of the punch... 13 bottles of Malawi’s “finest” white spirits, 1 bottle of Lemonade, 1 bottle of Champagne, a fair amount of fresh fruit, some juice concentrate, and lots of water.... lets just say it was extremely potent, and not that tasty :-). We then, whilst starting to drink the punch, exchanged clothing which we had bought as a surprise for each member of the group in a modified secret santa style. It was very amusing to see what each person purchased within their budget of 350 Malawian Kwache (approx US$2). And... as you can imagine the rest of the evening was more of the same, combined with some added dancing on the bar at the campsite.

Malawi - Lilongwe

Today we crossed the border into Malawi which means ‘warm heart of Africa’ in Chewa (one of the national languages). We spent quite a bit of time in the truck making our way to the capital city of Lilongwe. We were able to spend a little time in the city whilst our cook, Eunice, stocked up on supplies. Unfortunately the power was out so there was not a lot to do.... T.I.A :-).

We reached our campsite which was located not far from the centre of town sometime after 5, helped cook dinner, had our brief about tomorrow, and then retired for an early night.

Zambia - South Luangwe NP

Up before sunrise for an early morning game drive through South Luangwa National Park. The sunrise was beautiful and the park equally as picturesque. Within our first hour we had seen our final member of the Big Five.... the Leopard! It was very cool. And then within the remaining 3 hours we saw Hippo’s, Elephants, Buffalo’s, Hyena’s, Warthogs, and lots of Impala and similar animals.... what a fabulous morning!

Then whilst relaxing at the campsite whilst awaiting our evening game drive some Elephants with their calf came to visit, graze on the trees and explore the bins in the campsite. They were so close you could see the hair on their face, it was slightly scary but absolutely awesome!

Our evening game drive was a little less exciting but still an experience looking for animals by spotlight after dark. The highlight was that we got to witness yet another spectacular African sunset.

Zambia - South Luangwe NP

After a lovely morning walk where we were joined by some local children, we boarded our truck bound for another campsite in the north of Zambia across the river from South Luangwe National Park.

On the way we stopped off at a textile factory where they make cotton items and hand paint them with various traditional and contemporary designs.

We arrived not long after lunchtime and just chilled for the afternoon watching Hippo’s in the river which forms the external border of the National Park.

Zambia - Chipata

A very early wake up this morning to get on the road for a long day. We spent 10h in the truck today driving through north east Zambia. The changes in the villages and hut architecture is really interesting. The huts have gone from completely straw, very communal living in Namibia, to straw with little fences and private sections in Botswana, to mud and brick walls with thatched roofs in Zambia. The villages in Zambia also have straw storage tanks scattered amongst the huts.

Tonight we stayed at Mama Rula’s campsite at Chipata which we shared with the President of Zambia. He obviously wasn’t camping :-).

Zambia

With our new crew - Chris (Guide), Eunice (Cook), and (Magic) Johnson (Driver), new truck, and some new additions to our group we set off this morning bound for Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. 

We spent 6h on the truck today and played cards for most of it. We camped outside Lusaka at Eureka Campsite.

Zambia - Livingstone

Today we went White Water Rafting on the Zambezi River. It was so much fun! 

The Zambezi contains rapids of grade 2-5 but because of the high water the Grade 5’s were closed so our trip was mainly made up of grade’s 3’s & 4’s. We were on the water for over 2h and went from Rapid number 11 - 25. We deliberately flipped the boat at our first grade 3, Rapid 12A, and Brii managed to lose her grip on the boat so went for a swim down 12B by herself and 12C on the front of the rescue Kayak... she had a ball! We all had only just got our selves back into the boat before we hit Rapid 13 which was a grade 4... lucky! After this swim we were all pretty happy to try not to flip the boat and managed to stay upright, we did jump out a couple of times for a swim through some ungraded, unnumbered rapids. All in all, we had a blast... a great day!!