We really did try and get an early start from
Nyika, because we knew the road was bad and we had 600 kilometers to go to
reach our half way stop on our way to South Luangwa reserve. Ernest and myself went
down to the lodge to pay the camping bill, while the others were still packing
up all the wet washing.
Fortunately it had stopped raining, not that
that was much consolation, the washing was not going to dry. Going up and down
that very steep slippery slope to the main office was a bit of a trick for us
as all. Mark worked on draining the tanks, etc but it didn't seem to have done
anything for the baby hippo and we were still spluttering and missing.
Anyway bill is paid, up the hill we went,
stalling and spluttering but eventually got back up and we set off hour before
the others. We knew our trip was going to be tortuously slow so we had to get a
head start on them. Suddenly about 10 kilometers on the way, the red engine light
went out, the car started to perform normally and we were off...yipeeeee!!
We were going to beat the lot of them to the
overnight stop and whatever Mark had done, had seemed to have work! We were
heading for Mzuzu, as we felt sure that when we put in the high grade diesel and
all our problems would be solved. Got to Mzuzu about two hours later, we were
first for a change, but there was no high grade diesel to be found. 10
kilometers out of Mzuzu, bleep up came the red light again and we were back to
our snail’s pace again. This time we were right in the mountains so it was a
case of going down hill as fast as we could and up the other side, slowing down
to literally 5 kms by the time we reached to the top.
One good thing about going so slowly is that you
get to see the magnificent countryside. The highland of Malawi are of course
very densely populated but traveling through those areas are picture perfect,
very green, beautiful trees and the agriculture is neat and manicured. They
grow a lot of tobacco which I found interesting, I suppose it is the one cash
crop that brings in actual money comparing against the maize which just feeds
them and doesn't bring in cash.
We were making very slow progress far behind the
others and then just to make matters worse the torrential rain hit us again. We
weren't very happy campers!! By this
time it was very obvious that we weren't going to reach our planned destination
and we would have to find a place closer to where we were. The maps showed a
Luwawa Forest lodge that was not too far away and as it was starting to get
dark, so we decided to go for it. What the map didn't really give us was that
it was 14 km’s off the main road on one of those things the Malawians call a
road. It basically is a cleared path way in the bush with lots of holes, lumps,
bumps and MUD. So we just soldiered on.
We got to this so called lodge, hoping to find a
bed and at least a meal as to start cooking at this point was going to be a bit
tough. They had a campsite with what they call ablutions, lots of trees, thick
bush and lots of mud, so we had to squeeze the man truck in, which Guy had
become very expert at maneuvering around. It was too late for them to give us
dinner however the kids were all in very high spirits so it turned out not too
much of a problem that dinner was late. They did at least have lots of hot
water but again this is the story of Africa, you had to avoid the spider webs
in the showers and wear shoe to avoid what other things were lurking in there.
In the meantime, Mark had been calling Juan who was
in contact with the Iveco agents in SA and they had told him how to handle the
fault. Just pull out all the sensors for the injector’s, etc. and a whole lot
of other stuff and something would reset the fault and the car would go again!
Ernest and myself, had decided to head straight for Lilongwe and try and find a
Iveco agent there who had the diagnostic equipment to handle the fault.
The kids were all occupied with the lodge dog,
who's name was Bob, a huge fellow that looked like a bull mastics, he was quite
hilarious, obviously loved children and would just not leave us alone. He
unfortunately really thought he was the boss and had to put ethics in on the
entire area so the next morning when Luke was banging at the caravan leg with a
hammer, Bob decided that he shouldn't be doing that so raced up and pushed him right
over, sending him flying. It was a bad moment as we weren't sure if he had bit
him, but he hadn't done any other damage other than push him over, so it turned
out he was just intent on stopping him from "being naughty" still it
gave us all a big fright. So Bob was no longer the flavor of the month.
So we set out the next morning with the
intention of splitting up, kids going to South Luangwa and Ernest and I going
to Lilongwe. But all the plugging out and plugging in of the night before had
seemed to work and the car was perfect so we quickly changed directions and put
our noses towards South Luangwa with the rest of the group.
We managed to make good time and arrived at
South Luangwa, early enough for the girls to go for some good old retail
therapy. The Tribal textile shop was still open so everything came to a
screening halt and the ladies including Eve were off on a shopping spree. By
the way, Eve is proving to be a real shopper like her Aunty Lisa. I have been
to this workshop and factory many times and after our long trip we just wanted to
find the right campsite and settle us in so that we got a good riverside site.
The wildlife camp seemed to be our best bet as
it was a little out of town and there were apparently not as many elephants
wandering through the camp. We managed to get ourselves a very good site and
headed straight for the pool to cool off. It got really hot during the day,
such a change from the freezing cold weather of Nykia. We had stayed at this
camp several times before and it was really the right choice, especially we
were headed for the New Year and this camp is far enough away from the villages
around South Luangwa where all the parties would be.
The Luangwa river is a magnificent river, which
is pretty full at this time of the year and is about 150 meters wide with fast
flowing water, full of hippos and crocs. We settled in for a few days of
relaxation. We just had too much traveling and I think we would have had a
children's revolt if we had event tried to move for at least three days. They
could bring out the radio controlled cars, put on their costumes and swim, take
out the kettie's, to shoot the monkeys which proved to be worse than anything
we have experienced before. They had the kids running around trying to shoot
them with marbles which very soon ran out, then had to resort to a pile of
stones.
Monkeys in these camps are a real nuisance and
have become so clever at stealing food, you just can't leave anything out in
the open and they even managed to climb through the tiny hole of the gas
compartment which was connected to the little storage area where we had some
mangoes. They must have been watching when we put them away and figured out how
to get to them, so clever. We were also constantly visited by a huge Likkewaan,
who was about a meter long and I made the mistake of giving it an egg. So now
obviously it had been fed eggs, it just grabbed the egg so fast as we put it
down, ate it in a flash and came back for more. After that it just hung around
constantly and I nearly stood on it a few times. It also became quite
aggressive when anyone tried to chase it away and then just to top it all, we
found that it had two babies that were also obviously very used to humans and
were constantly also looking for scraps. We never found out if they could bite
but nobody was willing to take a chance, their tails could certainly give you a
good whack.
We only went for one morning game drive into the
reserve as it is quite expensive, and we were so sick and tired of sitting on
our butts on any kind of car seat that we just didn't want to drive anywhere.
Besides which there was plenty of game around the camp, the constant flow of
elephants, large and small, monkeys, baboons, then nightly visits of the hippo
and the buck on the grass plains to the side of the camp. The bird life is also
prolific and can keep one entertained for hours, but there was nothing to beat
that pool which was a magnet to all of us. Sitting around the pool with a cup
of tea and Jacqui's Christmas cake.
After four days of real holiday we reluctantly
had to pack up our camp in this little piece of African paradise and move on to
the great city of Lusaka.
It was again many miles of torturous road, the
potholes and trucks not as bad as the great North road but torturous all the
same, anyhow we just had to grit teeth and get on with it. Again the truck was
giving a lot of trouble, so eventually the others went ahead and we trundled on
at a snail’s pace behind them.
We have decided not to try and camp in or near
to Lusaka, it was just too much after the long day traveling and the early
start we needed to achieve, to finally make it through to Livingston the next
day.
We found a hotel that looked reasonable and put
our heads down on a stable bed after a good Italian dinner that was not cooked
by me.
We knocked out!
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