Norman Carr Cottage Lake Malawi National Park

... one but Ant had a few! We're still not exactly clear on what it is but my best guess is cane spirit (which we sampled a couple of bottles of with squash (not advisable!) on the last night once our gin supply had been exhausted.<br><br>From where we were staying we went into Mangochi (the nearest town, about 20km away) to get money a couple of times.... we got a bus there once but the other times it was the ubiquitous pick-up. On the way back one time I counted 20 people ...

... were all pretty happy (though we all had hangovers at 6 in the evening!).<br><br>The next few days were the festival which was awesome. It was less of a festival (with one main stage, one small stage) than a giant beach party but a lot of fun. The stage was on the beach and only a couple hundred metres from the water. So it was party party party for the bext few days, with a healthy dose of the infamouse Chibuku Shake Shake, which ...

... day at the hospital here starts with the morning handover meeting at 7:30 am and we had a two hour trip to get to there for day one - madness! Mangochi is the main town in the district and has things like internet and a cash machine which Monkey Bay doesn't. It's at the mouth of a river that feeds into the lake so it has no beach and the water is full of reeds and crocodiles so there's no jumping in the water to escape the heat! - an incredibly sweaty place. <br><br>The Hospital here ...

... to get a shared taxi to Karonga, and onwards a matola (like a matatu) to Mzuzu. We drove through some stunning scenery, high up along the Nyika Plateau and got some great views of the lake. It's MASSIVE! About 900lm lonk and 80km wide (maybe more).<br><br>We stopped the night in Mzuzu, and found that the Malawi Flames had managed a draw with the Ivory Coast - which meant they weren't quite totally eliminated from the African Nations. This was a cause for massive ...

... centre of town in the worst hotel I've ever been in. Econolodge - says it all. Dirt cheap and rank, down a dark alleyway with shady looking characters all over the place. We were gutted when we realised the Tazara train which we needed to catch to get down south only ran twice a week and we had a 3 day wait in Dar. After a night in the lovely Econolodge we took a wee detour 20km south of Dar to Kipepeo beach. Amazing! Its known as the less touristy Zanzibar. White sand ...

The owner of Mufasa wanted to go to a party in Cape macclear so we taggged along. <br><br>We really did not like cape macclear, It was over priced, the beach was littered with Bilharzia shells and you were hawked by people selling you stuff everywhere.<br><br>The party wasnt really a party. We headed over to gecko lounge where it was full of tourists and rubbish music and overpriced beer. I stayed 10 ...

... our theme for the day was Noahs Ark and it was SO much fun! Emma and Katherine and I were on the younger group and it was the most fun ever, we did loads of colouring of animals for a mural and taught them songs (my God is so big, yay!) and an amazing Noahs Ark take on the Port and Starboard game you always play in Brownies and Sunday school (animal actions, genius!) AND we even did the hokey kokey, which drove them absolutely crazy, they LOVED it! Never knew ...

... to be " i prefer mangoes to apples" instead someone just whacked down a casual "GROUNDnuts" Another favourite is answering the question with the same question...not cool, we had to give out a few 16/100 although a few did get in the 80's most were 40's to 50's...that evening we had more fun and decided to have smart evening, as the boys had bought some goat from the market, so we had goat meat in tomatoey onions sauce with mash. we all dressed up in our poshest ...

... their is a mini festical at the cape so we are uber excited for that! Lots of partaying and chilling swimming snorkelling festivalling etc to be done! Coming weekend were off to Dedza and then Zomba for little chap, Andrew's birthday which shouuld be a laf and a haf! so that will probs be the next time i will update this or maybe thurs...Who knows? Peace out xxx Nicky xxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

... sweating a lot, taking <br> loads of showers and watching all the other tourists just dive into the <br> Lake, I could not resist and took a dip myself. It was worth every risk, <br> the water was so wonderful to swim in. As you walk in, swarms of small <br> yellow fish come to sniff at your legs, a funny feeling! <br><br> Here I also met two nice Dutch ...