It appears that Mangochi is mosquito central, at least as far as our hotel room was concerned. Even being 'DEET'd' up to the max, we still got bitten. In fairness there was a mosquito net, but that had a few too many large holes to be truly effective. Plus with it down it was just too hot in the room. Even though we were in the executive room, the provided fan didn't have a plug fitted. Instead you are supposed to push the two bare wires into the socket and hope that you aren't electrocuted. Perhaps in the standard room you don't even get a socket, just some live wires coming out of the wall!
After the standard breakfast of cremated egg, chips and stale bread, we set off for Liwonde National Park. The headwind hadn't left us during the night, but fortunately it wasn't as strong as the day before. Along the way we encountered the usual begging children and caused quite a stir with some local women when we stopped for a break. Aside from them asking for money, water, stuff, etc, they seemed generally amused at us being there. Debs was the centre of attention and our not so restful break turned into a slightly bizarre yet overall fun experience. Lots of shaking of hands later and we were back on the road.
One good experience was countered by a not so great one, when we passed a large school. In truth it was an ill chosen spot to take a break, but we didn't imagine that we would be surrounded by such a large group of money demanding children. This was a far cry from the other groups of school children that we have encountered elsewhere in the world.
Heading into what seemed like the busiest town in Malawi, we had a pleasant surprise. It turned out that I had misread the map and 20km earlier than expected, we were close to the turn off to the national park. The long day into the wind that we had been expecting was thankfully going to be a fair bit shorter. About 500m out of the town of Ulongwe, we turned onto the dirt road that would take us to the park. The road surface was pretty good and it winded for the next 16km through some of the best stocked villages we have encountered. There was of course the expected shouts of 'give me' by some of the kids, but for the main part it was very friendly.
Just over an hour later and we arrived at the National Park gates. We paid our entrance fee and headed, slowly as we had been warned about elephants, towards the jetty where we would get a boat across to Mvuu (Hippo) Camp. After a bit of a discussion with the parks person we decided to stow our bikes with her instead of taking them over to the camp. They had sent a big enough boat to take all our gear, but it still seemed a bit of a struggle to get the bikes on board as well.
Obviously managing 5 bags each when they aren't attached to the bikes is a bit of a mission on its own. Fortunately the lodge staff were all really friendly and helped us carry them to reception. The camp seems to be a very professional set up and rather more upmarket than we are used to. At $15 per person to camp it is also the most expensive place we have camped for a while. We will certainly be giving the $25 per head dinner a miss! With 'beware the hippo and other wild animals' posted all round the site we went off to pitch our tent. We are pitched under a tree, to offer some shade and hopefully make it difficult for a hippo to trample us during the night!
Having got settled we went to see about lunch. We will be making full use of the good self catering facilities here. The area is secured by a screen door to keep out the grabbing hands of the resident monkeys, however the staff keep helpfully leaving the door open! Emmanuel at reception has already given us a key to the lockers in the kitchens, with the parting words “keep your food locked up, the monkeys will cause lots of problems”.
Back at the camp-ground we met a lovely English couple, Ron and Jo, who live in South Africa. Once again our little tent was shown up by their rather magnificent off-road trailer, complete with huge tent and kitchen, that they are towing. They are very good company and we will be joining them on a river safari tomorrow morning. Liwonde National Park has one of the greatest proliferations of hippos in the world, not to mention large numbers of crocodile, elephant and bird life. A trip on the Shire river is the highlight of visiting here. The camp-ground itself seems to have quite a large population of warthogs as well, which do a good job of making your heart race when you nearly walk into one during the night!
A dinner of steak and vegetables washed down with a couple of beers and a beautiful sunset rounded off an enjoyable day. I have calculated that it is cheaper to drink beer than soft drinks. If any more excuses were required as to the benefits of beer, then in Malawi at least, it is money saving!
Assuming we survive the attentions of any roaming hippos or elephants we will be up bright and early for our river safari. Something we have been looking forward to for ages.
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