The rot sets in...

27/05/10

It started out as any other normal day… as normal as it gets out here. Already tired and grouchy due to the night with ants, I wasn’t amused when our “fixed” truck broke down after 30 minutes. We stopped for an hour, having lost power and rolled downhill and stopped partly in a ditch, then set off revving hard. Soon after this we reached a queue of trucks snaking up the hill. We powered past them as fast as our dying truck could manage…a right ripping speed of about 20 km an hour, and onwards towards a huge lorry that was stuck in the middle of the road and blocking our view. The road was in really bad condition and full of clay. With the heavy rains that morning the road had become a wheel spinning quagmire of a car trap. We made it level with the other truck before we ground to a halt and started to slide back into it. There must have been around a hundred locals standing around and clambering up around the sides of the mud. With remarkable speed and efficiency a group of local guys gathered and produced a rope. They attached this to the front of the truck while we all clambered off into the mud. At this point I still didn’t really believe I was going to see what I was going to see.
Watching twenty men and all the guys off our truck pull/push the 45 ton truck uphill through the slippery mud really had to be seen to believed. I struggled to watch as Nick had decided to position himself right next to the sideways slipping, mud slinging back wheel, with only his flipflops for traction. Many people were barefoot. How someone didn’t lose their footing and end up under the truck I don’t know.
Incredibly they made it the 50m to the top where we gave the helpers the spare cash we had available (about $80) and they erupted into huge cheers. We then gave a lift to a local guy whose car was stuck, into the next town where he was going for a job interview. It was only then that we found out from him that the very same men who helped us get up the hill, had been out the night before damaging the road to make it impossible for vehicles to pass unaided. Doing this whenever it rains is how they make their living. Annoying, but enterprising. I was still grateful nonetheless. A tour group had had to camp there the week before, waiting for the ground to dry out.
Our journey continued up into the mountains. With the breakdowns, mud challenge, and slow hill climbing pace, it was decided that we wouldn’t stop for lunch and would grab snacks on route. We crossed the border into Tanzania with the truck making new noises of distress every kilometer. It was late and we had 70 km to go. We made it 10 km further before the pipe to the compressor snapped and we lost all brake pressure. John, Gordon and Dan stayed out in the rain for an hour trying to fix the pipe with duct tape, cable ties and wire. Having a steep winding decent on dark wet roads ahead of us nobody was really to keen to test this repair job. We made it 10m before it blew. The rain was torrential, there was nowhere to set up camp and we prepared sandwiches in our seats for dinner. Work continued on the bus and at 10.30 we were told it was fixed enough to get us to the next town. There was then a long discussion between all on board as to the merits of talking the hill with the fix verses the sleeping on the bus where we were. Surely it’d be easier to deal with in daylight hopefully without rain. We were eventually convinced that it was ‘reasonably’ safedue to the accumulating pressure tank (in non mechanical speak this means…not quite instant death when the pipe bursts going down a hill). The whole idea terrified me, but I actually slept the whole journey and woke when we bounced into the hotel carpark at midnight, the pipe having burst 30 metres up the road. Our expensive hotel upgrade cost us $30 and not having to put the tent up and down in the rain was worth every penny.

Chilling at Kande...??

27/05/10

Welcome to Africa. This has been one of the most insane and testing 24 hours I’ve had. Sitting on the bus in a hotel car park feeling very jaded, and very ready to leave the truck. Yesterday we left Malawi after a 3 night stay on the shore of Lake Nyassa, although it was a small miracle that we made it there. 100 km from Kande Beach the truck temperature gauge failed, upon investigation John found that the compressor for the breaks had sheared off its mounting and was swinging around inside the engine breaking stuff. It took him about an hour to fix this. We eventually set off with a piece of wood wedging the compressor in place. It was a bit of a wild ride into camp as the revs had to stay above a certain level to reduce the vibration and avoid shattering the wood and sending splinters through the engine. We rough roaded it at high speed down the 2km bouncy track before we screeched to a halt and the engine stuttered and died. It was an impressive enough entrance to bring out the other truck drivers and camp owner to see what all the noise was about. John and a whole collection of other people with good intentions and some novel solutions spent about 40 of the next 48 hours under the truck.

Kande Beach is a mecca for overland trucks, and while it is beautiful and spacious, it has parties every night with whooping fancy dressed teenagers running around the camp at all hours. Been there, done it, would rather they stayed in the bar and let me sleep. Yes, I’m officially decrepit. We got a few uninterrupted hours each night. The last night we finally managed ro get one of the cute beach fromt huts. That night the party was ‘magnifique’ ….crescendos of noise to beat all noise. Combine that with a hut that had a midnight ant infestation so bad I ended up with ants in my ears and up my nose, and I went off in desperation to try and sort out putting our tent up on my own. Much to my extreme frustration the lockers were all bolted and I had to go back to bed after a small private tantrum and suffer being crawled over. I got about one hour sleep that night. It was the only time in the entire trip that I was grateful for a 5.30 breakfast.

Other than the noise and the smaller wildlife, Kande Beach was fantastic. We went on a 2 hour horse riding village tour that took us at a leisurely pace past waving kids and choirs singing and clapping in churches for midweek practice. We got to wade through a 4ft deep reed filled flood plane and then finished off with a bareback swim in the lake before sunset. It’s a lot of fun but very painful if you’re unlucky enough to be sitting on an extremely narrow ex-racehorse. The next day we went for a dive in the lake. Lake Nyassa is huge and with the incoming wind it has waves big enough for body boarding. Getting the small 15 horse power RIB out through the waves was fun. The dive was nothing special, apart from being our first dive at altitude. We went round a small island made of boulders. There are sunken canoes, trees, and even an old VW jeep. For the excitement level of the dive it would probably have been best to stay on dry land as Nick managed to snap his mask as he entered the water, and then my underwater housing flooded and my camera died… not bothered about the camera, have more concerns for the memory card and the irreplaceable pictures.

A few days after leaving we heard that very sadly one of the Dutch convoy of football supporters who had driven all the way down from Holland, drowned in strong current in the lake at Kande Beach. How incredibly sad to have something so bad happen on a trip filled with hope and joy.

WheretheMalawiarewe...?

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23/5/10

After yet another long day driving we arrived in the capital city of Malawi late last night. As with every time we end up driving round in the dark things went wrong. A truck of that size is not easy to manoeuvre, and getting lost and the resulting 3 point turns are no fun. We arrived too tired to deal with our own tents and gratefully accepted the offer of an upgrade to ready made cozy bedded tents for the pricely sum of $1.

Up again at 5.30 today. These early dark mornings are loosing their novelty. 30 minutes into the journey and we're climbing up slight hills at 15km an hour, before pulling over and trying to solve the never ending power problem. We waste thirty minutes at the side of the road and set off no faster. The truck is definitely on it's last legs. People are starting to get irritated. We leave an hour before any other truck and arrive hours after them. Activities and exploration time is cut short due to never ending drives. We are experiencing Africa only through a truck window. Getting up at 5.30 so we can make 400 km in a day is silly. There is now talk of hiring minibuses. It is really hard for Gareth and John, our guide and driver, it's their first trip with this company and they are having to deal with a dying bus.

Malawi, country number 5 on our tour. It has been called Africa for beginners, with it's wide range of activities, beautiful scenery and apparently the most helpful and friendly people on the whole continent. Not sure the first Western explorers to arrive here would have agreed, missionaries who came here to do their stuff. Hundreds died for every Malawian that they managed to convert to Christianity. Malaria is pretty rife here.
 

Malawi is a relatively small country, 900km long and between 70 and 150 km wide. A lot of this area is taken up by Lake Nyassa which separates the country from Mozambique. With a population of about 14 million in such a small area, it has one of the highest population densities in Africa. The towns we have been through have had vibrantly hectic streets; people milling everywhere, markets bustling and music and singing. As with Zambia, kids appear every time we stop to watch us, and can be seen sitting in the dirt barefooted and in rags. They shout 'Mazungu', meaning white person when we pass. You can't help but be affected by this sight when you see it so often. It hurts me that they have so little and we have nothing to really give them that would make a difference. In the past we have been told not to give kids pencils are pens as gang leaders often make kids go out and practice begging then take whatever they get. We've been told that doesn't happen here and that they are just grateful for anything that they can take to school. With an average GDP of $170 school equipment doesn't come high up on the list of priorities.

Contrary to all appearances, John says that as far as African countries go, Malawi is now doing ok. In 2005 there were drouts and famines that crippled the country but it has recovered for now. Life expectancy is about 40.

One interesting fact I've learnt about Malawi...the first president here, President Banda who had control of Malawi from 1966-1994, had some rather curious habits. As with many African presidents he leaned towards the dictatorship style of leadership, but his eccentric behaviour went as far as wearing ganster clothes and hats, waving a flywhip around and having dancing girls follow him around whenever in public, all dressed in clothes made from cloth with his face printed on it. They were there to chant praises at him.