Home » Malawi » Day 21. Fri 11th October Mzuzu - Chikangawa

Andy and I are up very early and take a walk down to the lake, where the fishermen are coming ashore with the night's catch, and their wives and kids assess the catch.

Day 21. Fri 11th October Mzuzu - Chikangawa

DaveMidgley
2005-10-22 12:53:36

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for us, scrapes right down the side of the Defender, tearing off the rear light cluster. Despite our shouts and hoots on the horn he carries on scraping until the Landrover actually starts to shift. Pete and Auxies immediately leap out and a furious argument ensues between them and the truck driver, who refuses to take any responsibility, and eventually climbs back into his truck and carries on down the hill. The last town we passed through, Chiweta, had a police road block, quite common in Africa, and we make a U-turn and beat the truck back down the hill where Auxies reports the whole affair to the police.

Meanwhile Ken, in the Discovery, who was quite a way behind, reaches the road block, sees us, and realises something is up. When he hears the story he loses his rag completely, marches up to the police "office" (a desk, a chair and a flag by the roadside) grabs the lorry driver by the tee-shirt and starts shouting that he has a vehicle full of British tourists, and demanding of the policeman that he be arrested immediately. It's rather nice that he is so protective of us, but it does rather lose him the moral high ground. The police finally quieten everyone down, and the drama ends without further mishap.

We keep well out of the way, drinking coke and looking round the little cluster of shops and traders, including a take-away kebab and chips stand, African style. I manage to grab a photo of this with my unobtrusive little camera, but when Nathan tries the police jump on him and tell us all we are not to photograph near the barrier.

Eventually we get underway again and reach the Kasito Lodge in Chikangawa without further incident, although some members of the party are obviously feeling the strain...
Nathan and Amanda catch a nap

The Kasito Lodge is one of two lodges built to house the plantation managers when the pine plantation at Chikangawa was planted. Ken describes this, the largest plantation of exotic trees in Africa, as "the biggest f**k up in Africa". It was planted with the intention of making paper, but the project was not thought through at all with regard to disposal of effluent, distribution, etc. etc., and no paper was ever made. The trees are now too old to make paper with, and too thin for decent timber, so the entire forest is completely worthless, and the lodges are used for tourists.

In the evening we enjoy a good meal, and then sit in the lounge drinking scotch and reminiscing. This is the last evening we will spend, just us as a group, as tomorrow evening we will be in Lilongwe in a restaurant, probably with Ken's wife and possibly Auxies' too. We feel very much that the holiday is drawing to a close, and we swap contact details, and talk about the high points of the trip.

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