touristy travelling adventures...

AJ & Jarrod arrived on the 21st of Jan and stayed until the 23rd of Feb, it was a month we will never forget, of course it went to quickly, but there was no question it was just awesome awesome awesome! it really is impossible to summarise our time, so I’ll give you some highlights along the way, but I need to say, that for me everything was a highlight, just everything… even the sometimes boring little things in life were fantastic, having the company of these two amazing and hysterical guys around! Although I’m absolutely loving life here in Malawi and have made some great friends here, there really was nothing like having a bit of home here in this world!

The guys fitted into life here awesomely, and none more obvious than after they left, I tell you, the number of kids who continue to sit on my porch asking when they are coming back is just endless! We had heaps of fun, we cooked together, washed clothes together, danced in the rain together… actually that was AJ & Jarrod!! We read Shantaram together, played yahtzee, take two and uno! We caught minibuses, went to church, had water fights, aj worked with Henry making wheel chairs, Jarrod met with our doctor learning more about Malawi medicine, we explored through town, got caught in the rain, ate cinnamon bagles, strolled through craft markets, bartered for hours for clothes, shoes, calculator watches, chitenji’s, local lanterns and other random stuff. We had an absolutely fantastic time!!!

About a week into their time here, I took holidays so we could explore some of Malawi! Initially we had some trouble deciding what to do, the indecision came largely from waiting for my visa to come through so we could travel outside of the country together. One thing we knew for sure was that we wanted an adventure…and that we got!!! We divided our toursity travels into the north and south of Malawi, and we chose the north first!

We caught a bus up north that we thought would kill us, the driver was not particularly clever on corners near cliff tops, it really did feel like a rollercoaster, but without the same security of being actually attached to something for your safety. The speed wobbles were horrendous, and it didn’t seem like it would take much to end up on two wheels instead of the four, he rarely used his side of the road, instead of using the horn to notify occasional wanderers of his presence he pretty much planted his hand on the horn the entire journey as he was always winding all over the road like a manian, so a constant “im coming through…run for your lives” was actually rather necessary!! I held on so tight to the handle on the chair in front of me for fear of our lives that I eventually broke it clean off the screws, I was really hoping the wheels we were sitting above were secured more accurately than it had been!! Wow it was scary! We vowed never to catch that bus home again, and I’m sure we all prayed and stared straight ahead in between our gasps and looks of “is this for real?” but we survived. Not without developing headaches and exhaustion that was rather tiring!! For most of the trip AJ sat with his knees up near his chin, Jarrod just ate macadamia nuts all the way and I rotated between nervous giggles and sheer panic!


A great thing about AVI is the contacts! Pretty much wherever you go, if there is an avi volunteer nearby, you can always find somewhere to stay, and learn some local knowledge off them! Never more true than with Carol in Mzuzu, who completely spoilt us in our time there! She just took us in, fed us, showed us around town and lent us her car…. Which we managed to nearly crash driving all the way up a one way street oblivious that anything was wrong… actually I can imagine the guys punching me now…. I should correct that.... It was ME who drove up the wrong way! we explored town and fell in love with mzuzu, the atmosphere was certainly a laid back place, even more than Lilongwe, and we loved the markets, and loooooved the little mzuzu internet café that had banana and chocolate cake that was so good we sat one day ordering piece after piece until it was nearly gone!! The internet never actually worked for us, but the cake certainly did!

Then there was Nyika… but that’s another story for another day (having trouble uploading this update will try again later) So we hiked for 3 days across the entire stretch of Malawi’s largest national park. We flew into an inaccessible park in wet season and then comenced 80km of steep hiking in crazy weather conditions. It was one of the most amazing things we’ve ever done, simultaneously the toughest and stupidest thing we’ve ever done, but we have no regrets, cos we did it! we survived to tell the story!!!

None of us had any clean clothes, and we need to regroup a little from our hiking adventure. So we caught a bus back down to Lilongwe (not the same bus) that bus driver was also a maniac, and the volume appeared to be jammed on extreme loudness with Malawian music for the entire journey just for some more entertainment...

The Thursday was spent washing clothes…. ALL DAY…. We had occassionaly breaks to write in journals, eat food and play yahtzee…. But it really did take us all day to wash wash wash… oh and clean the mouldy fridge!!

We dropped into work to declare our victory of the walk across nyika and show off the blisters!!
Then set off on our road trip on a Friday, travelling from Lilongwe to salima, the temperature rose significantly as we came nearer to the lake shore. We stopped at the salima craft market where we spent just short of 5 hours, bargainng, chatting, exploring!! We had a great time, and heaps of wood carvings, Bau sets, paintings and "stuff" were chosen, tailor made and packed into our car! Without enough time to head to our next destination we settled at senga bay for the evening where we took a swim in the not so cool lake. The guys may have gone skinny dipping!! We met some crazy travellors and sat with them for the evening and heard all sorts of stories! Always sensational meeting all different weird & wonderful people!

Setting off to cape maclear we stopped at mua mission for a few hours and went through the mua cultural museum for a bit, had a quick picnic of bread and peanut butter before starting off on our travels again. bumped along a dirt track for what seemed like hours, enjoyed chatting along the way and seeing what sort of clearance our rental car had over terrible roads, and then we arrived at fat monkeys on the shore of cape maclear, we swam in the disgusting water, which felt like we were swimming in diseases, but loved it anyway. We had a show and tell of all the fun things purchased at the crafty markets, ate some dinner and sat up late chatting with our Icelandic friends!! The next day after a nutritious breakfast of banana pancakes we headed out on our kayacking adventures to a local island armed with snorkeling gear and suncream!

The snorkeling was amazing, I’ve never done it before, so I was a bit awkward initially but slowly mastered the art of not drowning! The water was amazingly warm and beautiful!! There are over 800 species of fish in the giant fresh water lake, and it was like swimming in an aquarium. A bit of a storm brewed up while we were lazing around snorkeling, but we made it home just before the storm hit in full force! The water developed quiet a swell of about.. hmm not sure how many meters..hehe..

Later that day we headed for mangochi, drove through a river (nice work Jarrod!) very nearly got bogged (but saved again by Jarrod!) and then arrived at our destination. We stayed with Dawn and her Brothers family who are Missionaries with Global Interaction Australia...

ok... i just ran out of money, so i have to leave the internet place now... part 2 later on!

im so massively sorry for my poor updating and emailing over these past few months! im having alot of trouble getting internet access, i do so much want to share everything with you! until next time... tsalani bwino!