23 September 2007

3 weeks on....
This morning we arrived in Malawi. Never paid anything to get in....still can’t believe it. Showed them our comesa and our carnet while the guy chatted to us about Durban as he stamped us in...What a pleasure!!!
Amazing though, as you drive through the border there is suddenly all this infrastructure and road. It felt like we were floating in comparison the road back from south Luangwa which is about the worst corrugated road we have ever been on. Although about 1 hour down the road we had our first really scary moment of the trip. I was driving and a guy just jumped into the road...well I got the fright of my life and swerved....and nearly rolled the car, the back just slid right out. Rohan and I were pretty shaken. Especially Rohan as he was reading and as he looked up he saw the guy right in front of us. What an idiot. Felt like stopping and beating the life out of him....
Anyway....
We have spent the last week with rohan’s folks who flew out here. It was really good having some company for while. Feels strange now that they have left. But we had a great time. We were lucky enough to catch the SA v England while we were in Lusaka....all I can say is GO BOKKE.....awesome stuff. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send us updates on the rugby (CALVIN!!!)...we are really trying to catch the games....but this is Africa and DSTV is bit maar min....I saw the final is on the 20th October...let’s hope I get a belated birthday pressie from John and the boys
We went down to the lower Zambezi National Park, and under estimated the drive through the park and landed up having to head back to Lusaka. From there we drove to Chipata where we stayed the night and left the next morning for South Luangwa National park where we camped at the wilderness camp. It was awesome. We all went on a night drive. There were loads of cars out and all you could see where lights and spotlights and the guys radio was bleating...we did however get to see a hyena and another leopard just at the end of the night. But the poor thing was surrounded by 4 cars all trying to get the best snapshot. Nothing like Kafue where we felt the guys was really tracking and we never saw or heard another car. Next day we took a drive through the park looking for wild dogs...but they evaded us and so did the cats. But we saw plenty elephant, hippo, Thorneycroft giraffe (only found here), puku, impala, waterbuck, warthogs, zebra....it was really amazing....
The campsite had a nice pool and lapa right on the Luangwa River so we spent the rest of our time there, swimming, reading and watching for game. Last night we heard a herd of elephant crossing the river and one came within about 10m of our tent grazing. Was really awesome to see. He was totally oblivious to us there.
Rohan’s folks left yesterday lunch time to drive back to Lusaka and we headed this way into Malawi today. At first we thought we had killed one of our deep cell batteries as it was dead. But we found electricity in the campsite, plugged in to keep the fridge going and decided to head to Lilongwe to have it checked. We have been running the fridge as a freezer so had not noticed this before.....
It was recommended to us to head to Salima near the lake, so that is where we will be heading for some sun and snorkelling tomorrow. Zambia was amazing in every sense of the word, but it has been unbelievably dry. The Looking forward to some swimming....
Till next time.....