To Malawi via Truck, Train, Bus, and Bicycle
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2005
1
44
58
Trip End
Dec 27, 2005
Mangochi,
Malawi
Saturday, August 13, 2005
From Pemba, we were lazy and refused to get up at 4am to catch the morning bus to Nampula. We'd just had enough and thought we'd try our luck hitchhiking if need be - just not another crammed bus. We got to the bus stop late - around 8am and were walking to the main road, hoping to catch a ride with someone heading south
Goodbye to Mozambique via Bike
. We were stopped by a chapa and decided we should take up the offer as there wasn't much on the road that morning. They even gave us seats up front, so we were thinking we were lucky. After about 2 hours, we caught up with the morning bus, and got a lift from them as it was only half full that day - go figure. In Nampula that evening, we fought the hordes at the train station to get a couple of second class tickets on the Nampula-Cuamba run for the next morning. 5am the next morning, the train lurched away from the station - ON TIME! We had seats with some families traveling across the country - 3 adults and 3 children. I tell you, every woman here seems to have a kid either strapped to their back, or strapped to their breast feeding it - something they are not shy about doing in your small train compartment, walking down the street, or waiting in line.
The train was really enjoyable, the countryside was beautiful. We passed dozens of small hut villages, rocky hills, and open wooded plains. The train stopped every 15 minutes to load people and to give the locals the opportunity to sell the passengers vegetables, fruits, bread, crafts, etc. Each stop was a different vegetable - garlic, onions, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes - gives the passengers the opportunity to do their entire shopping before their arrival. I got a whole sugar cane and tore that thing apart during the 10 hour journey - it's a refreshing, if strenuous pastime to rip that thing apart with your teeth. At one point, I got off the train to take a picture and the train lurched ahead closing and locking the door behind me so when I scrambled onto the stairs, I couldn't get in. I only had to ride a few hundred meters out there before someone heard me knocking and, chuckling to themselves, let the crazy Muzungu in.
In Cuamba we met a student at the Catholic University for Agriculture in town and he showed us a good place to stay and we had some food at a restaurant that night. In the morning, we were again lazy and got a late start around 6:30am so we had to wait around for a few hours before we found a bus going north to the Malawian border. Once in Mandimba, we had to hitch a ride on the back of some bicycles the last 7 Kilometers to the border. The road was dusty and bumpy and I felt really sorry for the guy who had to haul me and my pack (some 250lbs) over that bumpy stretch of path. At the border, we met some German girls who were driving their own vehicle and they gave us a ride the last 50 kilometers to Mangochi.
Its nice to be in a country where the national language is English. The people are also very friendly. While looking for our hotel, we bumped into a group of guys in white clothes and a police officer and they asked where V and I were headed. They said the hotel we wanted was right on their way and that we should follow them. It wasn't until I passed a building on the corner surrounded in barbed wire and filled with people who had similar white clothes on that I realized the group of guys who were so eager to help us out were convicts being led around by a guard. Nice guys though, I passed them again this morning as they did some gardening outside the gates and they asked me how I liked the place. I also met a butcher at the bar last night who found I was interested in local news. When I woke this morning, he had left me the newspapers from the last 4 days at the reception. We've been to the hospital 2 times now and despite everyone working to help us, we haven't seen a doctor. They have called them on the phone and gotten a prescription on the phone for V. They also give us medicine for free and only asked we give them what we thought was fair. We're pretty sure that payment went into someone's pocket, but oh well.
We're going to hang out here for a day to see if V's eye infection gets better then push south to do some hiking and visit a national park. We want to finally see some hippos and elephants.
