Hello,
Recently I was in Malawi. These are the events as they occured. (Mostly accurate)
We took off from Zambia on a Saturday morning and the trip to Malawi did not take long. We took local minibus taxis to the capital and found some accomodation at a church. Lilongwe is not an exciting town but we managed to burn two days.
Early on Monday morning we headed for the taxi rank and started a very long journey to Monkey Bay. We took three minibus taxis then hopped on a Matola. What is a Matola you ask? You know when you see photos of a developing country and people are riding on a huge flat bed truck piled high with goods, goats and chickens? That is a Matola. We almost crashed twice (Dont worry Mom) and made some Rasta friends. (Always so friendly)
We spent the next five days in Monkey Bay snorkeling in Lake Malawi, kayaking, feeding eagles, drinking good beer and having a grand old time with Taffy and Jenny. The water in Lake Malawi is mind blowingly clear and bath water warm. It has a huge number of Cichlids and not too many crocodiles or hippos so it is great for swimming. If you ever EVER find yourself in Malawi stay at
http://www.normancarrcottage.com/
Taffy and Jenny are amazing and run a great place.
After leaving paradise we hopped on the Ilala ferry for a two day trip north. The Ilala is quite a ship and the crew are quite a group of crazies. It was amazing to watch the sun set and rise from the boat and at night the lake was lit up with torches of fisherman out on the water.
We dropped at Nkhata bay at 5 AM and headed for beds. Nkhata is a fishing/tourist town so we had quite a bit to see. We took off the next morning for Tanzania and have now hit area covered in thick forest.
More on Tanzania later.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Zambia
After we crossed the border from Zim to Zam we hoped to take another train to Lusaka. The trains in Zambia however, are in poor condition and we were warned against it. So we spent a day in Livingston. This was highlighted mostly by men trying to sell us 100 Trillion notes from Zimbabwe and other handicrafts.
From Livingston we proceeded to Lusaka and took a few days rest there. Lusaka is a nice town, not a whole lot going on but it was a good change of pace.
We took off from our few days rest and headed to Chipata, the border town with Malawi. There we met some Peace Corps Volunteers from Zambia and spent two days wandering the markets and eating the local food then proceeded on to Malawi.
From Livingston we proceeded to Lusaka and took a few days rest there. Lusaka is a nice town, not a whole lot going on but it was a good change of pace.
We took off from our few days rest and headed to Chipata, the border town with Malawi. There we met some Peace Corps Volunteers from Zambia and spent two days wandering the markets and eating the local food then proceeded on to Malawi.
Tea with Uncle Bob
The Greatest Trek began in Zimbabwe.
Jesse and I took the Greyhound bus from Johhanesburg up to Masvingo, Zimbabwe. The trip was an interesting one. We spent four hours waiting for our bus to be searched and then were on our way again. I was a bit nervous about going to Zimbabwe, people in South Africa flat out told me I would be killed there. They could not have been more wrong, the people there are some of the nicest I have ever met and the landscape beautiful.
We made it Masvingo and headed straight to the ruins at Great Zimbabwe. I had been looking forward to this for a long time and it did not dissapoint. This massive stone city was built while Europeans were still mucking around in mud and sharing the plague with one another. (1270 to 1550 AD) The city had a fortress on a hill, as well as several large stone compounds and had up to 50,000 residents at its peak. The residents traded with coastal tribes and because of that archeologists have found Chinese Porcelin, Arab jewelery and many other products from around the world. It was abandoned after the population grew too large for the surrounding area to support and was forgotten for a time until Europeans "discovered it". The Europeans tried their best to make people believe it was not Africans who built the city, but the Chinese or Arabs in an effort to prove "the natives" were not capable of something so great and not capable of governing themselves. The overwhelming evidence proves this is false. If you want to read more and see some pictures (until I put mine up) take a look at this Wikipedia article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Zimbabwe
After Masvingo we took a mini bus taxi to Bulawayo. This is a large city, and we wanted to see some of the art museums but they were closed for the Easter Holiday. We bought tickets and took the night train up to Victoria Falls.
Vic Falls is amazing. If not a little too touristy. We went at a good but bad time of year. Good because it was the end of the rainy season so there was a tremendous amount of water. Bad because there was so much mist we could barely see the falls.
The next day we crossed into Zambia and sadly never got to have tea with Uncle Bob.
Jesse and I took the Greyhound bus from Johhanesburg up to Masvingo, Zimbabwe. The trip was an interesting one. We spent four hours waiting for our bus to be searched and then were on our way again. I was a bit nervous about going to Zimbabwe, people in South Africa flat out told me I would be killed there. They could not have been more wrong, the people there are some of the nicest I have ever met and the landscape beautiful.
We made it Masvingo and headed straight to the ruins at Great Zimbabwe. I had been looking forward to this for a long time and it did not dissapoint. This massive stone city was built while Europeans were still mucking around in mud and sharing the plague with one another. (1270 to 1550 AD) The city had a fortress on a hill, as well as several large stone compounds and had up to 50,000 residents at its peak. The residents traded with coastal tribes and because of that archeologists have found Chinese Porcelin, Arab jewelery and many other products from around the world. It was abandoned after the population grew too large for the surrounding area to support and was forgotten for a time until Europeans "discovered it". The Europeans tried their best to make people believe it was not Africans who built the city, but the Chinese or Arabs in an effort to prove "the natives" were not capable of something so great and not capable of governing themselves. The overwhelming evidence proves this is false. If you want to read more and see some pictures (until I put mine up) take a look at this Wikipedia article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Zimbabwe
After Masvingo we took a mini bus taxi to Bulawayo. This is a large city, and we wanted to see some of the art museums but they were closed for the Easter Holiday. We bought tickets and took the night train up to Victoria Falls.
Vic Falls is amazing. If not a little too touristy. We went at a good but bad time of year. Good because it was the end of the rainy season so there was a tremendous amount of water. Bad because there was so much mist we could barely see the falls.
The next day we crossed into Zambia and sadly never got to have tea with Uncle Bob.
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