A few days driving
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2008
1
12
18
Trip End
Oct 13, 2008
Iringa,
Malawi
Monday, September 22, 2008
We drove through the outskirts of Dar es Salaam and through the Mikumi National Park where we have the first opportunity with our new 4 friends on our truck to show our expert game hunting. We spot giraffe, elephant, buffalo to name a few. The best part of the drive through was having a mum and baby elephant right beside the road. We got some great photos. Our overnight stop is Baobab Valley where we choose to upgrade into the 'honeymoon suite'. It is even more beautiful than our last upgrade. The room is totally open to the river and built from stone and bamboo. We have a massive four poster bed covered in mosquito nets and a stone bathroom open the outside also. Of course it wasn't so romantic when we came to sleep in it. We had so many little critters, that I seriously considered pitching our tent after all, but once we counted the legs on the GIANT bug and there was only 6 instead of 8 - I was convinced that it was ok to sleep with beetles instead of spiders. Of course later in the night we think we heard a crocodile wandering at the base of the suite as well, so I didn't exactly sleep the best. Anthony however thought it was great.
The next morning we had a walk with the local Masai men to a waterfall. It was very hot and sticky and we had to contend with massive amounts of ants which of course only seemed want to bite us white people. In fact the term: "Ants in our pants" was very true. They crawled everywhere and their bites HURT.
We continue driving south west heading to Malawi and stop again overnight in Iringa at The Farm House. It was a great location and a birthday of one of our group where the local ladies had made the best chocolate brownie cake I have ever tasted. We were up early and away before 7am. Anthony and I are both sick this day. It is a long driving day and we cross into Malawi. Instantly the people are even more friendly and even the adults wave to the truck as much as the kids. We stay at Chitimba on Lake Malawi at the tip of the country. The lake is massive 83kms wide and 500-something kms long. It looks like a beach with waves, but it fresh water. It is beautiful. That night we head to bed early as we are still not feeling 100% and are awoken at 2.48am with a roster getting confused about the time for sunrise. It squawks for the next 4 hours. We are all up before 5am, unable to sleep anymore.
