Cape Town to Malawi

 14 July 2023 Cape Town

A dear friend woke up at 4:30 and kindly drove me to the airport. He's also looking after my furry family while I'm away.

My flight left at 7 with a beautiful sunrise.

Landed in Johannesburg just before 9.  Smoggy!

And another coffee!!

I believe that Joburg to Blantyre is one of the most expensive flights. CT to JHB was R1300 and JHN to Blantyre, slightly closer, was R6000! At least the food was good 

Lohan was waiting at the airport for me with Bruno. Only some passengers were disembarking so our suitcases were removed and I got through customs without problems. The airport was small and crowded.

We did some grocery shopping on the way home as well as getting a bottle of Diemersdal to take to Jim and Jo's where we had dinner along with Sandra.  

Jim served this which was delicious

Saturday 15th July Blantyre to Cape Maclear

I slept so well under my mosquito net and we left after coffee.  The roads were better than expected and with just a few short stops we drove the 260km in four hours arriving at the Illove horses about 1:30.

Bruno's comfortable seat 

Cape Maclear is just lovely and our house has the greatest view.

After settling in and having a glass of wine in the garden we drove through the quaint, pretty village and stopped at the local shop.

Sparsely filled ahop

The bar, Tumbe view, is just lovely. 

We had gin and tonic and chatted to a Scottish guy who works for an NGO in Johannesburg and sometimes Malawi

We had dinner prepared for us back at home, braai chicken, chips and coleslaw. We ate outside and then relaxed with a movie. Tired.

Sunset at Tumbe view

Sunday 16 July 

We went for a long walk around the village, seeing monkey's and a baboon.

Looked at the new lodge being built in the hill.

Rice paddies from the lodge 

 I think it was a dead small mamba on the road.

The goats were watching growling Bruno.

Sadly we saw a man's curio shop had burnt down overnight.

We drove to "Chembe Eagles Nest" to book a sunset catamaran trip around the island and stayed for a gin and tonic.

Next stop was Fat Monkeys.

The ladies and goats made a nice photo.

And our final bar for the day was ??

Back home we had fried egg for lunch.

After a quick snooze, our catamaran arrived for evening cruise.

Moses, our sailor has a whistle the Fish Eagles recognise and then he throws a fish near us.. The beautiful birds soon come to us! Just magnificent!!

We threw some bread in the water and I had a snorkel.

There are 11 Breeding Fish Eagles on this island.

We moved to Otter point to watch the sunset 

Moses, our sailor 

We got dropped back home at our Illovo cottage at 5:30.

Neighbours children

Our chef, Bernard 

We had delicious Talapa fish for dinner, locally called Chambo.

Enjoying the last of the sunset and taking brag pic to send to Colleen who I'm texting 🙂

Monday 17 July Cape Maclear 

The dive centre is best explained by a photo.

Leam was our divemaster and we took the short trip to the island.

Putting hired wetsuits on took up a lot of energy and I remembered why I chose an open-cell wetsuit 😂 We got kitted up and rolled backwards into the water off the sides of the boat, then going down the anchor rope. I was disappointed how murky the water was. We headed off, GoPro's in hand. A few minutes later I realised I couldn't see Lohan. I looked around - nowhere. I swam to Leam who was filming a fish and signed Lohan was missing. We turned back and looked, but couldn't see him anywhere. I looked up, no bubbles visible. After about a minute of looking we agreed to surface and thankfully found Lohan there. He had been having a sinus pain on his forehead and it got bad at the lake bottom.  When he put a bit of air in his BC he started rising and didn't have a chance to tell me and remembered me telling the guy last night in the bar - NEVER HOLD YOUR BREATH! He breathed out and picked up speed, rising with his bubbles.  All good.

Leam and I went back down and my left ear wouldn't equalize. Took a while but eventually popped painfully open. We swam on, sandy bottom, some rocks and smallish fish.  Not much later I felt a vibration on my wrist. Hmm. My dive watch's battery was dead so I'd left it in Cape Town. What was this. Shit. I forgot to take off my Fitbit!! I signed poor Liam again, pointing at my watch and he didn't understand so asked if I wanted to go up again. Yep.  The watch was still working, even at 7 meters down. We handed it over the boat and went back down. 

Went the wrong way and sadly there was quite a bit of litter - some cleanup dives are needed I think. It was strange diving without any fear of sharks, but then I reminded myself there are Hippos just 20km away. That brought some adventure back to the dive!

Back at the dive centre, Rob, the owner, told me that up to 15 years ago the hippos would occasionally come past the centre, although not near the island where we dived, migrating down to where they are now. It's sad they no longer do that.

We spent the rest of the morning at Tumbe view next to the dive centre, where I met two young doctors from London doing their apprentice in Lilongwe. They were both young girls and I noticed that there were mostly young girls here and just the Scottish guy we'd met earlier and his 2 colleagues. There is a clinic in Cape Maclear so I think a lot of them are volunteers.

Had a relaxing afternoon with gin and tonic, and magical sunsets.

Tuesday 18 July

After a late sleep I made coffee and dealt with a few issues with Finn chasing cats at home. 

Then opened my laptop and checked a few work messages before we tried paddle boarding for the first time. Was fun.

We had breakfast and then walked along the water's edge to Annie's, which was quiet and didn't have G&T's so we walked on to Tumbe View

I loved the way this lady did her hair.

While having a G&T we met an older couple (oh shit, probably me age 😂) who had traveled from Cape Town by motorbike. They were headed to Tanzania and Kenya next. I gave them the few travel tips I had from my trip. After a few beers we walked back home and took a drive to Pumalani lodge. The views are lovely but they said we couldn't stay for dinner (their phone wasn't working so we couldn't book ahead).

We walked the many wooden steps down to the water's edge where there were pools and a bar. Was truly lovely.

The many wooden steps 😀

The monkeys were so sweet and very interested in Bruno.

The drive home was lovely, baobabs and pink sunsets.

Ladies getting water

We drove through the village where the Malawians are so friendly. 

We went straight to Fat Monkey for dinner, just in time for the sunset.

I had Kapango (Barbel) for dinner which was really good.

Wed 19th July (Colleen's birthday 🎂)

Bernard made us scrambled eggs for breakfast, which we ate while watching the monkeys play in the trees. We watched the squirrels the previous say. Bernard showed me an insect in the house which he said bores into the palm trees and makes the leaves go dry. He was going to kill it.

We packed up and drove to the five star Makakola retreat. 

We planned to have pizza but they'd run out of mozzarella and it was a bit early so we had coffee and I splashed out and had chocolate brownies!

Lohan was having sinus pain so I took over driving back to Blantyre.

It's illegal to cut down the trees and make charcoal but everyone is doing it.

We were warned that there were petrol shortages, so filled up with diesel at the first station we found which had. We drove past LONG queues of cars waiting to get petrol at the few stations which still had. Lohan explained there is a foreign currency shortage and they have previously had no fuel for up to two weeks. I feel quite anxious for Malawi!

Cars queuing for petrol

We stopped at PA's bakery, which has no baked goods....

But something to ease the stress of potholes, pedestrians and animals in the road.

I laughed so much when Lohan told me about his friends, Hendri and Dani who got pulled over in Malawi while drinking beer. They had more than a few and being a bit handicapped, didn't manage to hide their current beers in time from the cops. 

Ooh, what is this, said the Cop. Please can you both step out the vehicle. He continued.... No drinking and driving!  Stand here and finish these beers before you can drive home. Bless, he really misunderstood the law 💜 

We went out for pizza at a restaurant and driving there must have passed 100 cars waiting for petrol at a station. Scary.

Thursday 20 July

I woke fairly early and tried to get my Malawian IP past medscheme security. I still haven't got it sorted.

At lunch we drove to the airport and i flew an hour and a half with Lohan to the Illove farm to collect two people from Durban.

Illovo's plane

 

At the Illovo farm

We flew the guys to Lilongwe which took half an hour, and then we flew back to Blantyre, crossing over Mozambique.

American Airforce at Lilongwe

Flying over Mozambique 

I just love the clouds!

Lohan would tell me to bring down the landing gear with this knob 😀 My job.

We landed about 5. Fetched Bruno from Jim and then met Ron at TJs bar for dinner.

Friday 21 July

I worked in the morning and then we drove about half an hour to Sandra's college. She started in from scratch 17 years ago, and still uses all her personal resources to fund it. It was the graduation ceremony and a big event. The music was VERY loud and it was festive. The graduates danced in.

There were speeches and a long drama. I sat in the office working during most of the ceremony as I hadn't taken leave but I could hear the goings on. Jim have a speech and the president (of the college I presume.)

Sandra

We had lunch with the dignitaries.

I worked the rest of the afternoon and we had dinner with Ron again (from Durban) and Mark, British who has a house in Fish Hoek and is here coaching the football team.

Saturday 22 July

Today I booked my ticket home for Wednesday.

We did some shopping, including beautiful fabric.

Lohan showed me St Michael's church. It is 135 years old and was built by the priest. It has no cement, only clay.

This plague of wood claims to be from the tree under which is buried the heart of Dr. David Livingstone 

In the afternoon I did some work as I'd taken a longer lunch on Friday.

I warmed up some pizza and found it alight in the oven!! 😳. Lohan threw it outside for me 😅

Flambeyed pizza Al la Carol

Sunday 23rd July 

I struggled to pay for my flight with technical issues on Ethiopian site and WiFi dropping but finally managed to get it sorted.

Sandra got here at 10:30 and we drove to Thylo house for lunch with him and Jo. Blantyre is small and lots of the other patron's arriving would know someone in our group. The restaurant is part of the large tea farm and lovely.

Jim, Jo, Sandra, Bruno, Lohan and Carol

Monday 24 July 

I worked, although the lovely people at IT refused to take my calls to allow me on the network. Sigh.

At lunch we went out for mince for lasagna tonight and I stopped at DAPP for some bargain charity shop entertainment. Development Aid for the People from the People. Denim jacket, jeans, dresses 💜

Ramsey met us in the evening as arranged and I bought two of his beautiful paintings!!

When we got back home we made gin and tonics and sat outside - there was a kingfisher on the tree 3 meters who entertained us hunting until sunset.

I couldn't fetch my camera in case it scared it, but here is Lohan's picture.

Kingfisher in the garden

Tuesday 25 July

Lohan went to fill his aeroplane with fuel while I worked. At lunch I ran down to the local market, not far from the house, and purchased some lovely material. I walked through the market and was reminded how beautifully friendly the Malawians are.  

Sandra came around after work for a gin and tonic and then Lohan took us, including Jim for dinner.

Wednesday 26 July

Lohan was flying the MD early so we left home at 6 and I was really for my 9:20 flight. 

There was WiFi at the airport so I worked while I waited. The plane arrived a few minutes before departure time but we quickly boarded and left less than 30 mins late.

The flight was about 2 hours and I rushed through immigration, got my bag and checked it onto the safari flight. Found my gate and continued working before the 2 hours home.

Dad fetched me and stayed a while. Cape Town was rainy but so good to be home. 

Rain, sea view, fire, butter chicken served, great friendship... Malawi was lovely but it's good to be back!