Malawi: More than just a lake

Let me tell you all more about life here in Afrika. As we have been travelling now together for more then 3 weeks things are still very good. We have been in Malawi now for more then a week of which we chilled at Lake Malawi for most of the time.

What can I tell you so you all get a better picture of how things go here. Regarding travelling the main roads (so far) in Zambia and Malawi are paved, smaller roads are dirt roads. The dirt roads are the most fun as our car is really tested on these classic African roads.
The people here are (not) surprisingly all black but in the places interesting for tourists you see white people working at NGO’s or travelling like us. We met already quite some westerners who are doing similar trips like ours. Some drive it all the way back to Europe or come down from Europe, motorbikes no exemption. I am already creating plans for getting my motorbike licence and drive from Holland down south along the west coast of Africa which also suppose to be amazing, Anybody interesting to come with?
As driving around you see allot of poverty and people are really trying to do anything to get some money, when we need some sugar cane or vegetables we drive around to find exactly that woman with some kids around and buy what we need from here, giving some extra as we know that it will be spend wisely in the family. I expected actually more people begging for money or food but mainly children are asking for that empty bottle, pens or a little bit of money when you are passing by.
We are taking care who to trust and we always look twice if the car is locked but in general so many people we meet are really friendly and of course in the places where tourists come the market people ask for more money when they see that you are not African but we get better in bargaining every day.

As we have a certain budget per day we camp in our car as often possible, this costs us on average US 5$ per night, we sleep once a week in an hostel which is a real treat sleeping in a normal sized bed compared to our 1.20m / 1.50m bed. Diesel here in Africa costs us around a US dollar per litter, sometimes more like here in Malawi sometimes less like in South Africa.
For cutting costs we eat meat once/twice a week (also because our Cool box isn’t the best) and the rest of the days lots of cheap vegetables prepared in nice garlic or spicy sauce.
We found a nice name for our dish; CoErdish. Ok so we met this German/South African couple who were driving their Jeep to Germany and they had “Manic trip” on the side of their car, this standing for Marvin and Nicole. Mocking their idea we came up with Co(pray)Er(nst) dish an oath to my good friend Mirko’s background (Kurdish)

Arrived in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe we got our car checked (as this is normally to prevent breakage) and we renewed the oil filter which is recommended to do every 5000km. We were relieved that we finally could get some money with our normal bankcards from the ATM’s instead of going into banks and get it from our credit cards.
We planned a week or so at the lake, first 3 days in Senga bay and then Cape Maclear. Nice blue water, camping just 2 meters from the lake and chilling in our hammock. After a day of kayaking to a remote island and some snorkelling Linda got a bit sick.
With some fever and of recommendation of some volunteers of the clinic nearby Linda started a Malaria medicine course of 3 days. The next day we went to the hospital to get her blood tested to see if she has Malaria, the test was negative but the days after she still felt a bit sick, with today doing already much better, her sick days resting in a proper bed in an hostel in Blantyre. To this day we don’t know yet if it was a minor form of Malaria or something else.
At the moment we are in the city of Blantyre waiting to get our Mozambique visa tomorrow, this is because we can’t get the visa at the border crossing we want to use.
Getting some groceries and Dollars before our Mozambique adventure, northern Mozambique supposed to be quite remote, wild but also beautiful with white beaches and crystal clear water.
Our plan is to stay 2 or 3 weeks in Mozambique and then following Zanzibar in Tanzania for a week.

Hope your summer is just as good as mine.
greets