Malawi: Ngala Beach to Livingstonia.

Friday 6^th March

NGALA BEACH: 5000kms completed so far.

Yesterday we passed the 5000 kms stage in this journey. Not really sure how much is left but I would have thought not more than 4000kms. Two weeks to complete it. Up at 7.30 this morning and ready to depart for 9am.

It’ll probably be Dar Es Salaam before we are back on the blog again. We’ve been given a good recommendation for a hotel there, The Peninsula Beach Hotel, in Oyster Bay.

It’s a beautiful morning today, no rain. That is good because the road to Livingstonia will be a lot easier if it is dry. If we cannot go there, we will stop just short of the Tanzanian border tonight & head for Ruaha National park tomorrow, instead.

About an hour into our journey we hit a heavy rainstorm. We’ve really been lashed with rain since we came to Malawi. So much for the nice sunny start to the day. The rainstorm lasted about 90 minutes and then we were back in the sunshine again. The journey to the town of Mzuzu was 2.5 hours, with a long and gradual climb up to it on tarmac roads. When we got there I called David Gilooly and arranged to meet him. He arrived within an hour, meanwhile we have used the time to fill up with fuel and check over the disco, Everything was just fine.

David took us along to a small cafe/backpackers place he knew of, run by two Swiss men. It’s called Mzuzuzoo. Ordinarily, I’m sure it would have been lovely, it had a nice feel about it, but it was rubbish removal time and the town skip truck was there. It stank for a while. Nonetheless, we all ordered toasted sandwiches and coffee and sat and chatted for about an hour. It was nice to meet David, a fellow home town man and just say hello. I don’t think he gets too many passing through. He works as a volunteer for a UK charity and with a business background, is assisting local entrepreneurs set up small businesses involving micro solar components. It was nice to sit and chat with someone from back home.

After lunch, we set our sights on Livingstonia. The drive down the mountain was quite spectacular. We were getting great views of the lake from time to time. There were a lot of Lorries on the road and occasionally we’d meet one as he climbed the mountain, completely on our side of the road, on a bend.

Further down we witnessed yet another one that had failed to take a bend, sitting on its side, with the police in attendance. 

We stopped briefly at a roadside heritage center, in a rural area, and beside an old suspension bridge. I did walk very briefly onto the bridge but there was no way I was crossing it.

We arrived at our turn off to Livingstonia, now it was only 16 kms to the mission. It was going to be touch and go whether we’d have enough daylight so we removed the spotlight covers, just in case. With four very powerful spots, 2 on the bullbar and 2 on the roof rack, we were not going to be short of light. It took about 90 minutes to drive up and we met just one vehicle, on this narrow and twisty road. It wasn’t as bad as we were led to expect, or perhaps we’ve just seen so much on this trip, we did not consider it too bad. We arrived at Livingstonia in the dark, as we thought. We quickly found the Stone House, a national monument, combining a museum and guesthouse. 

We secured ourselves two beds from a very sick night watchman, named Genesis. He said he thought he had malaria, or a bad flu, or both. We gave him 2 'Neurofen Plus' tablets and watched him take them. We also gave him some paracetamol & told him to take 2 every 4 hours during the night. It should help if it’s the flu. The feel of the whole place is lovely, an old Victorian Village stuck at the top of a mountain in Malawi. We used the kitchen facilities and cooked ourselves a lovely pasta dish with tuna and were in bed by 1030 pm. 

From Dust and Diesel

By the time we were ready for bed, Genesis was like a man reborn, he said he felt strong again. We went off before the effects started to wear off! We went to our rooms and opened up the mosquito nets, not the easiest to sleep under.