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The story so far
The previous post from our boat trip on Lake Malawi led to numerous emails and text messages from worried parents as well as some people suggesting it all just happened in my imagination after having one beer too many and falling asleep on the sun deck. For our parents, we are still alive and currently at home in Norway with you, eating your food, sleeping in your houses, driving your cars and spending your money, thus, it is time to be worried in an all different way. For the rest of you, I can assure those who doubt what happened that my imagination is rather non-existent after too many beers and that my story is a true story of those events that took place that dreadful night on November the 18th, in the year of our Lord, Two Thousand And Five.

Safari from the train window

Robinbye
2006-01-05 20:54:41

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to the bus on our backpacks. The situation didn't seem particularly bad --- yet. 90 minutes later the bus driver came over to us and asked if we wanted our ticket fare back. 'How would that help us,' I replied and refused, 'you are responsible for getting us safely to our destination.' The "other" bus had not appeared and clearly it was not going to either. Our only option was to wait for the next official bus, which might not appear until the next day! At this stage it was getting dark. In the absence of electricity, the only lights were a few fireplaces here and there among the houses in the little village where we had stopped. Considering the
last few days' incidents, we were quite paranoid at this stage. I asked the bus driver if we were safe and he could ensure us that we were, as long as we kept sitting behind the bus, hidden from the village on the other side! This information didn't exactly help in calming us down. A little later a ute-like small truck arrived, offering us a lift onwards. A british student, the only non-local traveller apart from ourselves, jumped on. We didn't dare to, because we thought the chances too great for the car to stop before our destination. Due the the fuel expenses, drivers usually refuse to drive any further unless the car is completely full. We would likely end up in another village but without the "protection" from our bus driver and "guarantee" of onward transport. At least we could enter our current bus and lock the door for the night if it came down to it.

Another hour went by and we enjoyed the amazing starlit sky. There are probably no more stars to view here then elsewhere on the Earth, however, when there is no man-made city light interfering, the sky becomes incredibly clear with innumerous stars Kids, as well as adults, always met us at each stop, trying to sell us fruit or crafts or simply hoping for us to throw something useful out the window like half-empty ...