Starting from Bujumbura, Burundi on 6 May, I arrived to Lilongwe, Malawi on 13 May. The first leg of my trip was an overcrowded minibus for about 6 hours on dirt roads through the wilderness from Buj to Kigoma, Tanzania. The next part was a train from Kigoma to Morogoro, Tanz on the other side of the country. That was 3 days in itself. The train track, and the train itself is colonial era so the train went through hundreds of kilometers of unspoiled wilderness and small villages with no cars. It was beautiful, watching the landscape change from the hilly, palm tree forested Central African region back to the Savannah wide expanses of the Eastern portion. It made it extra fun riding on a colonial era train. The chickens under my bunk were kind of annoying. Chickens are a form of baggage here, so you usually have a bunch of them on whatever transport your on. Thank god the cabin was to small to put a couple goats or something. After Morogoro it was a bus down the whole length of Tanz to Mbeya near the Malawi and Zambia borders. Then another bus to Mzuzu, then Lilongwe. I'm in Blantyre now, off to Mt. Mulanje tomorrow. Then back up then west to Zambia. There's apparently a game park there that you can go on a walking safari to see lions. Sounds awesome. And it's not ridiculously expensive like in Kenya and Tanz. Oh also, the food is good in Malawi. In East Africa your choices are fried chicken and rice, fried chicken and french fries, or fried chicken and bananas. No seasoning unless you consider salt a seasoning. I was starting to go crazy. Good meat and assortments of food here. Can't wait to get to South Africa and get some huge bushmeat steaks.
