I've committed to blogging... I guess

Well, I started this blog and never actually shared the address because I wasn’t sure if I would keep it up.  Now sending it out to you all, I guess I’ve made a commitment J  This is a long entry since it’s been almost three weeks and I hadn’t posted anything.  That’s my excuse. (And I'll try to put up pics later)

I set out from Dar es Salaam (clearly very well rested) with Sabrina and Alexa who decided to join me and see me off by traveling with me to the Mbeya, where I would then cross over to Malawi.  I knew police stops would probably be an issue so I had spent the previous weeks getting all of my papers in order.  Well, we got 90 minutes outside of Dar when I was tested for the first time.  I had overtaken a truck on an upward climb, and I crossed back over just as the dotted line on my side ended.  And then the police officer pulled me over.  To be fair, she was very nice, complimented me on having a well charged fire extinguisher, and promptly wrote me a legitimate ticket for 30,000 tzs ($18 USD), without even waiting for a bribe to be suggested.  Fortunately, through patience, politeness and good luck, we escaped the two next stops by police officers. This trip could be more expensive than I thought.

The highlight of my time with Sabrina and Alexa, other than being lucky enough to have two of my close friends begin my adventure with me, was going to Kitulo National Park.  In February, Kitulo is known for its wild orchid displays but in August, it’s more for general hiking.  For me, we used it to test my car (Baby Blue) and my off-road driving skills.  Between Alexa directing me where to put the wheels and convincing me that Baby Blue was made for this kind of driving, I was able to overlook Sabrina’s white knuckles as she clung to her seat for the better part of a two hour trip on a dirt track (we can’t call it a road) J  We only had one issue, when Baby Blue decided she’d had enough and overheated.  I now realize that pumping the AC while trying to climb uphill for 2 hours on an extremely hot day, may have been asking too much of her.  We waited it out and she’s been great since.

The hiking was beautiful and our official park campsite was rugged (a random turn-off into the bush, with no road/tire tracks, facilities, or anything marking it as a campsite).  We ended that section of the trip with a nice stay at Utengule Coffee Lodge in Mbeya.  We said our goodbyes (or “see you laters”, and I crossed over the border into Malawi, without any real problems.  I then headed to Mushroom Farm, a camp/lodge I had heard about near Livingstonia.  It was again, an hour of up-hill, somewhat off-roading terrain, but the campsite (my tent overlooking a ledge with Lake Malawi below), food and staff were amazing.  I hiked to Livingstonia, lounged in hammocks and met some other travelers in my three nights there.  When I left there, I had gained three travelers with me, since we were all heading to Mayoka Village in Nkhata Bay (we continued to travel and bump into to each other throughout Malawi).

The Lilongwe tobacco trading floor

Lounging by the lake, swimming (but ideally avoiding bilharzia), reading and chatting pretty much covered the rest of my week in Nkhata Bay, Kande Beach and Senga Bay (meandering south on the lake).  From there I went to Lilongwe to spend a couple days before Sarah (my friend from high school) flew in to accompany me.  While Lilongwe isn’t touristy, I recommend going to visit the tobacco trading floors in the morning.  I had a free, private tour, got to chat with the head auctioneer, and watched as hundreds of bales of hay were sold separately, in a process that was really hard to follow.  It all moved so quickly (and in accented English).  And in true backpacking style (ignoring that I have a car so I’m not really a backpacker), I stayed at a friend of a friend’s house in Lilongwe, who I hope to meet up with on my way back through Malawi (thank you Sim, Giulia was a fantastic host).

Once Sarah arrived in Lilongwe, we headed out to Cape Maclear the following day, a tourist hotspot on a peninsula on the southern tip of Lake Malawi.  After kayaking, a little snorkeling and trying out every one of the lodge’s restaurants, I think we’d say that Cape Maclear was a beautiful spot, but with the lake and beach being used as a bathing ground and dishwashing location for the locals, swimming wasn’t high on our list of to-dos.  It was a good four days though, and through walking in the village, and driving to and from Cape Maclear, we saw a small slice of Malawian village life.  And Sarah promptly decided she didn’t think she could live in Africa (part of this may be due to the frogs living in our bathroom that were a surprise).

Driving in Malawi has been very easy, and while there are regular road blocks, most of the time we were just waved through by smiling police officers. The border crossing into Zambia took a bit of time (although we were the only people there) partly due to a vague “road tax” we were forced to pay for, but weren’t provided any documentation on the amount required. I ended up paying half of what the “official” wanted, so my guess is he still got a little tip on top of the true amount.  Ah well, into Zambia we went, with our first stop being South Luangwa National Park.

Before we even got to the camp, Flatdogs, Sarah’s mouth was hanging open. We had seen about 12 elephants by the roadside and a few baboons – not a bad intro to safari life!  And as we headed to our tent with the receptionist, we were prevented from entering it due to elephants surrounding our tent, and then felt sandwiched when we heard hippos calling behind us, and a lion roaring from inside the park (which was across a river).  Sarah
vowed, at that moment, to only wear sneakers for the rest of the trip, in case she needed to make a run for it at any time. 

Day one of safari in South Luangwa National Park has been exciting.  Even though we thought the elephant and hippos were still surrounding our tent in the morning (Sarah was unable to sleep for fear of a large trunk breaking into our tent), we made it to the 5:30 am breakfast only 10 minutes late.  After meeting our guide Malama, we were on our way.  After a few hours in the park and seeing giraffes, hippos, puku and hyenas, we came across a male elephant whose trunk had been caught in a snare people set for hunting.  Malama called it into the South Luangwa Conservation team to alert them, and we tracked the elephants until they came.  The conservationist (maybe that’s a real word?) and her team came to tranquilize the elephant so that the snare could be removed. We watched as she mixed the tranquilizer meds, poured them into the dart, and loaded the gun.  Eight minutes after we heard the shot, we were told he was down, and we got to see them cut the snare off, and feel the skin of a wild elephant while it was sleeping (and snoring), and then watch as it was given the anti-body to the tranquilizer, and got back up to join its herd.  We like to think that we saved an elephant on our first day J

That was the highlight of our morning game drive, and while we thought it couldn't get more exciting than that, my lunch was stolen by a small baboon as I turned for 10 seconds to talk to people.  Those little guys are fast – and pretty scary.  Since then, we've seen a leopard and a pride stalking buffalo, only to be run off by the whole herd.  And today, day two, I waited 15 minutes for the elephants to move from our tent site, only to see that 15 baboons had broken into our tent... or so I thought.  They were just playing with the outer flaps, but I'm sure my minor freak-out gave the camp staff a funny story.  And now we're off to our second night safari!  Wish us luck!