Day 310 Malawi 08/09/2011, Mvuu Camp – Shire camp, Liwonde. 24.92miles/39.82km, 2hr17minutes, Av 10.9mph.

Another night where we weren't trampled! While there were definitely elephants in the camp last night they didn't come near our tent, instead staying off to the side. Morning brought a beautifully calm day, the river was flat and the trees were barely moving. It looked like we were going to have an easy cycling day, especially as we only had about 35km until our next stop.

Having breakfasted and packed we said a fond farewell to Ron and Jo, with the promise that we will see them in Cape Town, if not before. They will be following a similar route to us on their way home, so we may meet on the road. A cold drink has been promised if the see us, so we will keep our fingers crossed.

Having settled the bill we carried our bags down to the jetty and were ferried to the other side by Henry, our guide from yesterday. Unloading the bags the other side, I went to retrieve our bikes and we quickly got loaded and under way, watched on by some golden baboons. Signing out of the park took a few minutes and then we were off onto the dirt track back to the road. A few of the now expected 'give me' moments and an upsetting moment for Debs when some kids were grabbing hold of her bike as she tried to ride through a village, put a bit of a damper on what would have been a pleasant ride. As it was we were glad to get to the road where we stopped for a drink, before moving on.

The river may have been calm this morning, but we hadn't escaped the headwind entirely. It was certainly a lot lighter than it has been, but the occasional gusts still made for heavy going. With such a short ride ahead of us, it was never going to affect us too badly though. One annoying occurrence during the ride was that I had completely forgotten that we would pass the 9000km mark today. We had expected to do it on the ride to the park, but the map misreading had meant that we hadn't gone far enough. When I eventually remembered we stopped for a photo, but then got disturbed by a Malawian bicycle taxi rider who seemed convinced that we could employ him somehow. At least he did come up to us looking for employment as opposed to just asking for money.

After just over two and a quarter hours we arrived at Shire camp in Liwonde. Having had a look at the camp-site, we decided to treat ourselves to one of their rooms. The light, airy reed buildings are very spacious with what appears to be a very comfortable bed. Which will be nice after the often hot and occasionally uncomfortable tent. Lunch may have taken an age to arrive, but the setting right on the banks of the Shire River watching hippos made up for it, just about!

It eventually arrived not a moment to soon as Debs was losing the will to live. Fortunately it was tasty which was just as well as it was also cold. I have no idea what they do with the food they prepare, but they obviously have no way of keeping anything warm.

For the rest of the afternoon Debs fell asleep, or at least tried too. The wind got up during the afternoon and knocked over first Debs' bike and then mine. Sadly breaking my rear view mirror in the process. After a couple of hours I woke Debs for round two at the restaurant. The service wasn't any swifter and they gave me boiled potatoes instead of the rice which I had ordered. As it turned out though the boiled potatoes were really good and we were fed up with waiting by then anyway. With dinner eaten it was back to our room to do battle with the myriad of flying insects that seemed attracted to our computer screen while we tried to watch a film. Having had enough of the bugs, we pulled down the mosquito net and settled down for the night.

Tomorrow we have another shortish day, although this one involves some climbing, when we head to the city of Zomba.

Day 309 Malawi 07/09/2011, Mvuu Camp, Liwonde National Park. A boat Safari, a game drive and some great company.

Another night survived, although Debs did encounter a large animal when she went to the toilets in the middle of the night. By the pile of dung near the tent, we are assuming it was an elephant.

Having breakfasted, we met Ron and Jo and headed down to reception to meet our guide. A little later than planned, Henry came and introduced himself and said that he would be back with the boat in a minute. In the meantime we had been watching a baby swallow be harassed by some weaver birds. Suddenly, a grey headed bush shrike swooped down grabbed the swallow chick and flew off with it! It was all rather dramatic and not altogether pleasant to watch. If we were after the wildlife experience then we were off to a good, if somewhat blood thirsty start.

As the boat arrived at the jetty, Henry called us over and we went down to get on board. With only four of us on the boat and Ron and Jo both being keen birders it was going to be an informative trip. In the last few years we have endeavoured to learn a bit more about British birds, but elsewhere our knowledge is a little lacking. Had it been only us on the boat the conversation probably would have gone “look a bird” and “look there is a different one”, or “ooh that one's pretty”. As it was with a combination of Ron, Jo and a very informative Henry we learned a lot, which when it comes to labelling the photos we will have completely forgotten!

Other than the prolific bird-life we encountered some very large crocodiles, countless rafts of hippos and lots of elephants. It is hard to do the safari justice in words as there was just so much to see. It would certainly count as one of the highlights of our trip. Hopefully the photos will give you all some idea of what a fantastic experience it was.

Later in the afternoon Ron and Jo very kindly offered to take us for a game drive around the park. After the morning's river safari, the drive round the park didn't produce many great animal sightings, but we did get to see some elephants, impala, water buck, hippos and a lot more birds.

We also got to see rather too much of some painful biting flies, that made having the vehicle windows open impossible. It is hard to believe that something so small can cause so much havoc. We eventually resorted to spraying the inside of the car with some powerful insect killer! The dirt roads through the park eventually took us to Livingstone's Baobob tree, where he had allegedly rested within the trees hollowed out core. Strangely the tree didn't appear to be hollow, although the large creepers growing round the outside may have covered over the entrance. We didn't actually get to stop for a closer inspection as we were being pursued by an underpants clad local, who was trying to get money for a photo Jo took of him while he posed acrobatically on his boat!

Back at the camp having had a terrific day, we cooked dinner and then went to sit with Ron and Jo around their fire. Helpfully they also identified the birds in our photos, so if any are incorrectly named it is their fault or my listening! Good company and some marvellous game spotting has made for a very enjoyable stay in Liwonde National Park.

Day 308 Malawi 06/09/2011, Mangochi – 'Mvuu Camp', Liwonde National Park. 39.10miles/62.40km, 3hr59minutes, Av 9.8mph.

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.