We said goodbye to Willy and Maggie about 8am and set off for the 5 hour, 225 km drive to Kande Beach when it started to rain again.
The boys had been busy again on the boat making this morning and I had heard then start up about 4am this morning
Made our way slowly around the mountain range in amongst a few coal mines and the local farms with spectacular views back to the lake.
There was plenty of rocks, soil and water on the roads
so wasn't long before we came across the first semi accident hat had run off the road and jack knifed which by the looks of it had only occurred a little while ago.
Then on through some rubber plantations when the guys on the side of the road are hawking rubber band balls
Lots of police check points along the way and only was stopped at one for the policeman to tell me he was very pleased to see us wearing seat belts.
Stopped at Mzuzu shopping centre at lunch time to restock on the essentials at the local supermarket. On the way we stopped at the Airtel shop to see if we could top up the Tanzanian SIM card only to be told that the system that allows you to top up their SIM cards from other countries was not working so we organised a Malawi SIM card with 1GB for the pricely sum of 2 green meanies( 4 bucks) . Then onto the grocery shop and found an attendant to ask if they had any ice and he said he would check and find me in the shop. By the time we were at the grog department he turned up with a box with slabs of ice he had removed from the walls of their chiller. Usually if they sell drinking ice they weight it and write the price on the side and when I asked about that he said they don't sell ice but I could please think of him. So I laid a green meanie on him( all of 2 bucks) and then made our way to the checkout chicks but they had a few issues with their credit card device - they were onto their 4th device by the time the transaction went though( always need plenty of patience here)
As we left I saw the ice guy at the checkout with some milk and beard so at least the money had paid for his lunch. Packed the groceries into the car and the ice into the esky and headed to the local coffee shop for lunch. Don't think I'll be using the chillier ice for our drinks given where it came from but it will keep the drinks cold in the esky.at least
Arrived mid afternoon at the campsite which is right on the lake.
There was a couple of overland trucks with small groups in each so it was a weird experience of being in a camp ground with other people. We decided rather than camp we would take a bungalow right on the beach looking at the lake for US$20 per night.
With a great view out to the island close by
And later on followed by a beautiful sunset
The campsite has many bungalows, dorms and camp sites and gets partying at night time when its full of young overlanders so it's pretty quite tonight. They have lots of security guards with proper batons to keep the locals at bay from annoying their guests( probably helps sometimes with their partying guests
as well)
The gate guy had seen us earlier in the day to see if we wanted any ice, so organised one which is a 5 litre water bottle that they fill up with bore water and freeze so after a few wacks with Jan's heavy duty hammer we were in business for vodie and gins tonight ( hopefully won't catch some bugs from it)
The camp manager came over and introduced himself and had a quick chat with him as he had just returned from spending 5 cold years in NZ so was very happy to be back except his young daughter was fighting malaria plus a young 5 year old boy in the village had passed away recently from malaria- we applied a bit more mozzie cream after he left .
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