We crossed into Malawi and spent two nights in Chitimba and three nights at Kande Beach.
Ross held my hand and I instantly felt a surge of passion go right through me. I gazed into his eyes and saw deep into his soul. It was right then I knew how amazing he was…I was awake all that night thinking about him.
RIGHT- note to self, do not leave the computer unattended to get food as people will make up stories in my blog!!!!
Ignoring what Ross has just typed- wishful thinking on his part, a group of us signed up for a massive walk to the mission of Dr. Livingstone from Chitimba. We were meant to leave at 6am, but a few people were slow to get their stuff together, and we did not realise the guide was waiting outside the gate. Anyways, we left for the walk at about 6.45am, and did not get to the top of the mountain and stone house until 11.30ish. It was the hottest walk I have ever done, it was not overly challenging- but the sun was HOT and it was very warm, and I have NEVER sweated soo much in my entire life!! The boys finished their water in the first hour, and I had a very NASTY head cold- so much so that I nearly did not go on the walk. They wanted to use some of my water since I took my 3L bladder, but apart from the fact that I would use it myself, I told them I had a cold and managed to get out of it. Fortunately there was a place on route that they could buy soft drinks- which I did not buy, but in hindsight I really could have used the sugar. The museum was rather unremarkable, but I went on the walk for the walk, sitting on the truck for two days solid driving was making me feel lazy!!
The main thing that happened in Malawi was the Halloween party- we stopped at a second hand clothes market on the way to Kande Beach and were given a budget of 500 kwacha to buy an outfit for a name we pulled out of a lucky dip. The rules were that you could not buy something that you would not wear yourself, I got Andrea and bought her a hideous silky spotted shirt and baby blue silk pants- and a truckers flaming hat. Ross got my name and bought the skimpiest clothing I have ever seen. I had heard all the girls say that they hoped that they didn’t have Ross, and when it came time to exchange costumes I understood why. He bought me a tiny red and black skirt that did not cover my bum if I bent over, and had a ragged hem, making it look like something a cave woman would wear. The top he purchased was equally as skimpy, it just covered my bust, and had another hideous print, black and white somewhat like an animal print. Together they covered next to nothing, Ross said that he was going for a cave woman look. If it had been anyone else I would have made them wear it and taken the outfit bought for them, but Ross is rather sensitive and I know he would have been very upset and not enjoyed the evening- so I just put the two pieces over what I was already wearing… which was my Kanga and a t-shirt. Everyone kept asking me where my costume was, so I pointed to the skimpy skirt and pulled at the skimpy top…. the response to that was generally “arh” and a look of understanding. Some of the outfits purchased for the boys were hilarious! Anoop scored some lingerie, there were lots of dresses, a skin tight marathon leotard/shorts, a strong man leotard/full legs, a body suit, a clown outfit, a cape and many other hideous items of gold. It was a very entertaining evening, as my photos will demonstrate.
The next day was “pig day”, where two pigs were killed and put on a spit and roasted all day. I tell you it put me off eating that meat seeing the pigs spread on the bars and roasting all day, it felt cruel. Most people, including myself, spent the day reading, sleeping, swimming or chatting by the spit on the straw mats off the truck. There were many shenanigans as people drank for three straight days, most notably the tents all being moved about and covers and sleeping mats being hidden.
From Kande Beach we headed into Lilongwe where we only got to spend the afternoon. Normally the truck has a day and a half here, but we needed to leave early for repairs in Harare. I spent 3hours with Hayley helping her cover the chess table she purchased in Chitimba with cardboard to post to Australia. In the end I decided to post a bag home, but because there was only 25mins before the post office shut this was a rushed affair. I ran to the supermarket where we got the boxes to wrap hayley’s table, and I asked for a box. Unfortunately the box was rather big, and I did not have anything sharp to cut it down, so I just placed my bag of souvineers within the big box, and hopefully it will reach Australia without breaking everything inside. I don’t hold much hope for my gorilla trekking certificate, I think it will be very battered by the time it gets to Melbourne. Gavin if your reading this I have put my hard drive inside the box within a zebra wallet- can you have a look and see if you can get all my photos off it please. I think when I dropped it I broke the mechanism that reads the drive, it still powers up but you just cant access the information on it, or that is I don’t know how too. There was a really good pool at the camp site in Lilongwe, and we spent a few hours in it playing ‘keeping’s off’, trying not to drown in the deep end, which must have been about 2.5-3m deep.
We left at 6am to head into Mozambique, saying goodbye to Hayley, my tent buddy. It was to be two solid days of driving to get into Zimbabwe. We reached the border within 2hours, and exited Malawi without any hassles, entering Mozambique was to be another story. We reached the entrance at about 8.30am and Andy took all of our passports into the office, 1.30pm we were still waiting to get them back. Andy went to enquire how the process was going a number of times, and each time he was told to go away, that they were being processed. It was a very hot day, and we were all sitting on the truck heating up. Candice was sitting on the beach- which is a bed on the front of the truck, behind the cab, that has two man holes that open up above. I was sitting under one side with the man hole closed, she was on the other side in the sun. It took 6hours to get our passports back, and Candice suffered a strong stomach ache while we were waiting. It got so bad that I suggested that maybe she should go to the toilet, and I walked with her back to the Malawi side to use the office toilet. On the way Candice lost her vision, and basically passed out, both from the pain in her gut and dehydration. Anoop and I had to carry her back to the truck because she was so weak. One of the nurses on the trip had a look at her when we got back and was concerned about the lower right flank pain she was reporting…. (where the appendix is) . Andy managed to spot a vehicle at the border that was for doctors without borders (written in Portuguese, the national language in Mozambique), and we followed the vehicle to the local hospital, 30mins within the border. I went inside with her, and the guy at the desk inside the door did not speak a word of English. Fortunately a Brazilian doctor soon appeared that could speak English, and he preformed an examination. Candice had very low blood pressure, fortunately not appendicitis, and he decided that she needed fluids. We spent another 3 hours at the hospital for the fluids, and Candice was also given a number of pills to take to ensure she did not have any parasites that could be causing the stomach pain. Leaving the hospital on the way to our bush camp for the evening, we passed a group of people on the side of the road in traditional ceremonial dress- full feather head pieces and painted faces, it was cool to see. There is not much else to report on Mozambique, we only drove through it to reach Zimbabwe.
