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.

Day 307 Malawi 05/09/2011, Cape Maclear – 'WelliVille Lodge', Mangochi. 46.66miles/74.57km, 5hr18minutes, Av 8.7mph.

In what seems like typical fashion on the day we intend to leave, the wind got up quite dramatically during the night. The constant flapping of the tent, howling wind and crashing waves wasn't particularly conducive to a good nights sleep. The more beers than are recommended for a pre-cycling night probably didn't help either. In truth we didn't have that many we just got chatting to Kim and Chris and lost track of how many we had had. Turning in for the night I managed to get a bit of sleep, but Debs had a shocker!

Having breakfasted we de-caterpillared the tent, loaded the bikes and set off up the dirt road into the wind. Due to the fact that we were moving quite slowly the wind wasn't really an issue. In fact during the first part of the track which was a bit of a climb, it had a nice cooling effect. Fortunately Debs hip has been a lot better lately, so despite being tired she managed the few steep hills without too much difficulty.

18km later and we reached the tarmac which was a bit of a relief as the corrugations on the last few kilometres were quite bad. Before we set off for Mangochi we stopped to say thank you and goodbye to George, Matthews and the other carvers who were involved in making our wooden touring bike. They are a really friendly bunch of guys and we are very pleased with what they came up with.

Back on the road and it was a case of another day and another headwind. At times during the journey it was so strong that we were barely moving. I would love to say that we travelled through beautiful scenery but I really didn't see any of it. The entire journey was spent with headphones in to distract from the burning leg muscles and my head down looking at the road just in front of my wheel. Debs meanwhile was doing her best to stay in my slipstream. We had considered stopping earlier than Mangochi, but had decided that as it was only 75km away it would be a waste of a day. At times during the journey that looked like a really stupid decision.

With lunchtime approaching we stopped in a small restaurant and discovered that they only had 'nsima' (thick starchy porridge made from corn or cassava) ready. Having avoided this for the last two countries or at least it's similar counterpart, we decided that we better give it a go. Lunch turned out to be somewhat less than a triumph! Nsima has the consistency of school semolina and almost no discernible taste. There, for us at least, is nothing to like about it. Worse still the accompanying beef, I use the term loosely, was gristly with splinters of bone running through it. Even I couldn't eat some of it and I normally manage to eat everything!

With stomachs full of disappointment, we hit the road and after another 25km of struggling against the wind we arrived in Mangochi. The 'WelliVille lodge' is fine for one night although they are hoping a bit with their description of our room as 'executive'. Also we have come across this strange anomaly a few times in Malawi where despite being a double room you only get breakfast for one. If you both want breakfast you have to pay extra. All things aside, hopefully it will be quiet enough that we get some much needed sleep.

As our next stop is 'Liwonde National Park' we headed to the market to get some supplies. The food at the camps is quite expensive so we really want to self cater. Shopping fortunately didn't take too long as we are both shattered. An early dinner and an early night is definitely this evening's plan. We hope the wind dies a bit before tomorrow as we have a fairly long day ahead of us.

Day 303 – 306 Malawi 1/09/2011 – 4/09/2011, Fat Monkeys, Cape Maclear. Another break by the lake!

Just a short blog for our time in Cape Maclear as we have had a very quiet time. For the main part we have had the camp-site pretty much to ourselves and the supposedly hassling beach boys have been fairly tame. For the first full day we were here, we shared the site with a nice Swiss and German couple, Dominik and Christina, who are travelling north in their old converted Swiss army vehicle.

Since then there has been one overland truck in with 5 people on board and a couple from Australia, Kim and Chris, who are on a short trip in a hire vehicle from South Africa. Despite the fact that 'Fat Monkeys' looks like it could be a bit of a party place the bar has been very quiet. If we could only stop the staff from raking the camp-ground at 6:30am it would be very peaceful!

Aside from a lot of reading, we have seen a beautiful sunset, shopped in the local village, bought some cards and bracelets and been once again to the street cinema.

The highlight however has been the arrival of our finished model bicycle. We hadn't expected to get it until we left Cape Maclear, but one of the guys who made it brought it to the camp-site for us. Considering what they had to go on, a tiny picture on our business card and a rough sketch, the result is terrific.

One more stop along the lake as we head south and we will be saying goodbye to any great expanses of water until we reach the Mozambique coast. With any luck a couple of days on the road will take us to Liwonde National Park where we plan to do a river safari. From then on it will be a few more weeks in Malawi and then off to the Portuguese speaking country of Mozambique; we better get some revision in!