Today was definitely a first for the group, we had planned to be packed and ready to leave the Backpackers by 8am, which to most of us in the group (especially me) means we will leave at 8:30 earliest. Surprisingly enough we were all packed and ready to leave by 7:30, so with 30 min to spare we decided that Dani could have another chance to make the group some coffee for the road and unlike his fail of a first attempt he surprised us all with an amazing cup of coffee which we were all forced to personally thank him for.
At 8am we left for the Lilongwe Wildlife Sanctuary with our trusty guides Sarah and Elaine who Charlotte had randomly met at the bar the night before. This was definitely an incredible move by Charlotte as we got a guided tour of the facilities and many rescued animals including baboons (more commonly known to us as snoobab’s), vervet monkeys, blue monkeys, a large leopard with knee problems, many duiker and our favorite was Bella the lion who put on a huge show for us as she stomped up and down along her cage rolling over occasionally purring loudly for us. Unfortunately we only had time for the quick tour due to the time restraints of a long journey ahead and after an hour we had to head out; but not before meeting with the main management and swapping of contact details so that hopefully the Isuzu Books For Africa committee could make the Lilongwe Wildlife Sanctuary a set stop on the journey to help them in the mission that they have planned for the sanctuary.
At 9:30 we were back on the road and ready for the long journey to Lake Malawi. The Journey was smooth sailing (which doesn’t seem to happen to us too often on the trip) with a half way stop next to the road for some potentially deadly salami and cheese sandwiches, an eventful left hand rock throwing competition, swapping of drivers and then off again.
The closer we got to lake Malawi the more beautiful the countryside become ,who would have thought it was possible. Things finally reached epic proportions when we reached the pass which curved down the mountain to the beautiful beaches of lake Malawi. As we drove down we all realized that there would be no words to describe or photo’s which could truly illustrate the beauty of this place. Epic, exquisite, magnificent, beautiful or truly awesome are all words which still don’t seem to give this place the justice it deserves but we did all however have one regret and one regret only. That we were not driving down the pass ourselves- dam I should have grabbed those keys! Our Isuzu’s gripped the extremely windy roads leading down the pass like a cat on its struggling prey with us all feeling the adrenaline rush as our arms dangled freely out the windows, well except for the drivers that is.
We arrived at Chitmba beach and set up camp quickly before walking the mere 20m stroll to the water line with a local Kuche Kuche beer in hand to sit on the sand with the full moon as our only source of light, could we have asked for anything better! But no matter how beautiful the beach was when you’ve got 8 hungry vet students to feed you don’t dawdle, so we headed back to camp for a nice braai with pap and relish only to find that the smell which had been oozing from fridge for the past couple of days had turned out to be the boerewors which we had bought back in South Africa. But of course boys will be boys and a few of us decided to nuke the boerewors within an inch of its life over the scorching hot fire and eat it anyway. With our stomachs full on our second potentially deadly meal of the day we were off to bed all with the dreaded thought, “I hope I don’t spend the next three days on the toilet.”
Signing off I would like to put your minds at rest and let you know that our the whole groups’ bowels remain in tact with a nice solid stool.
Adam
