past blast - August 2021

 The morning we left Tongole we had an wonderful elephant sighting. A small herd were crossing the river, the two smallest ones having a play fight and holding onto each other's tails as they went. 

The drive was quite long, we stopped off in Mzuzu for lunch, at a Kips, a fast food place. I was given a really horrible cup of tea that I couldn't drink. I think mainly made with full cream milk rather than water and a lot of sugar! 

We had a little car trouble, one of the fan belts and air conditioning belt shredded. Luckily we were heading down hill and it was a cool day. So BigA spent a lot of the time working on a solution. He was in his element really! All fixed we hope, so far so good. It was a reminder of just how wonderful people in Malawi are, do willing to help and go the extra mile. I'm this case literally as a man was sent by mini bus to Mzuzu to get fan belts as the ones they could find locally didn't fit. 

And it was fixed at the next place, The Rondaville, it was full of animals, cows, a monkey, 4 dogs, a parrot, a kitten, chickens and a local owl that pops along as the sun sets and tries to eat the monkey! They have pigs and consequently bacon. Goats, and goats cheese. Two baby antelope. Guinea fowl and quails too. 

The food was lovely, they grow so much here, we've had such beautiful fresh salads and home made juices and jams, fresh bread and more. Just wonderful. I don't fully understand why more places in Malawi don't grow more at lodges. 

The toilets are 'organic' I'm not a fan. My nose is far too sensitive. 

The next place was The Mushroom Farm, BigA visited a few years ago with D&D. It was mine and A's first time. It's beautiful, although the drive made me very nervous and I couldn't look at the view. I thought of my dad and his fears and the trips we took as kids in cars on mountains. And how impossible it seems that he did that skydive. It also made me recall the terrifying trip mum and I took in a van up to the top of what felt like a huge mountain when we paraglided in Turkey. My birthday present. Much more frightening than the jump off the cliff edge. The road here was very old, lots of bumps, bigA was very safe but it just really unsettled me. 

It's a fully vegetarian place, which I was happy about, we have eaten A LOT of food in the last two weeks, so aiming to be a little healthier felt good. I still ate loads, their portion sizes were massive! Good cocktails too, they also have a lush and thriving vegetable patch so that helped. I was given a lemon and some tamarind to see if I can grow them. The views are extraordinary, we were their only guests for the first two nights, which was really cool. We did a couple of trips, saw waterfalls and a very old and neglected museum. Played games and generally sat about. 

Yesterday we arrived at Mazuku beach. When we got here we saw my colleague and new neighbour, Tommy, with his two children. Then the new American friends joined us. We had a very pleasant evening meal, despite the power going on and off. It's beautiful here too. I didn't sleep well, I kept dreaming about people at home. Missing everyone despite this amazing trip and country. 

One week left of our road trip, a few nights here and then onto two more places before we head back to Blantyre. It's been so wonderful so far. I'm so grateful for bigA doing all the driving. I know he enjoys it, but it must be knackering.