Mbeya Tanzania & Makuzi Beach Malawi

Next day we took Rupert into the garage at Mblazi, a bustling township a few miles from Utengule on the road to Mbeya.  By any standards it is a remarkable  place but for Africa it is a little gem.

Set up by the Evangelist Church in Switzerland it's main role is to help Tanzanians gain a trade and give them a decent living. Originally run by Marcus today it is managed by Ari his son while Marcus devotes more of his time to the running of a new hospital they have also built locally and it doesn't end there Marcus's wife manages the day to day running of a training school which provides courses for Tanzanians in everything from carpentry to computer science. 

Marcus and family have lived in Tanzania for over 40 years, indeed Marcus and Francis went to school in Tanzania together. The whole family speak fluent Swahili and seem fully integrated into Tanzanian society and all profits from the garage go to help the other projects so for once we can say this is one Church based project where you can see real benefits for the Africans, something which is sadly not so evident next door in Malawi where the amount of aid workers and church based organisations is far higher.

The garage is very well equipped, with a body shop as well as mechanics they are able to work on any type of vehicle but because of Mbeya's location tend to get a lot of 4x4's. Ari himself is a big Landy fan and is very knowledgeable having built one of his own, he also has the Swiss trait that the job is done absolutely right, that and the fact they use young Tanzanian apprentices means we use them and support them whenever we pass through.

The rains had brought on an explosion of insect life at night particularly the Moths which in Africa are truly fantastic. There are so many that you lose count of the different species, an entomologists dream. Some like the ones shown are almost the size of a man's hand but unfortunately we don't know much about moths so cannot name them, maybe one day.  

We spent three nights in Mbeya, seeing Francis & Fionuela for dinner on our last night but time was getting on and we now had less than two weeks left before catching our flight to London so we said our last goodbyes and headed South for Malawi.

If we pushed it we could reach Taffy's in two days, our first stop would be Makuzi Beach the place where we had had the bust up with the Germans of Livingstone 4x4 DE in October but first we had to cross the border.

The journey did not get off to a good start, driving towards Mbeya the early morning traffic was heavy, as we crawled along we suddenly saw a pig the size of a large sow start to amble out onto the road. This in itself is not unusual as domestic livestock tends to wander along the roads unhindered in all the countries in the region,  normally people slow down or avoid the animals however on this day a huge articulated truck coming towards us showed no signs of doing either.

The truck hit the pig full on but instead of running it over the pig took off like missile cartwheeling over and over through the air before landing on the side of the road about 50 yards away. Instantly a crowd ran over to where it landed, we just hoped it had died instantly, meanwhile the truck just carried on as if nothing had happened.

Reaching the border at 10.30am we had finished with both sets of immigration and custom by 11am, almost a record. Entering Malawi is a breath of fresh air after all the hassles going in and out of both Tanzania and Kenya. Unlike the other countries Malawi does not charge for visa's nor for road tax or any other dodgy tax like council tax or carbon tax so the entry formalities are very simple and straight forward.            

Malawi is one hour behind Tanzania so we had also gained an hour, Mzuzu the nearest town with fuel and banks was 160 miles away and Makuzi another 80 miles so time was precious. As we neared the mission town of Livingstonia the road climbed very steeply with sheer drops as we rounded sharp hairpin bend after hair pin bend.

It is bad enough in Rupert with it's longer wheelbase but for the heavy truck drivers who literally have to crawl up the hills it's a nightmare. Many are poorly maintained so they break down and the drivers mates have to jump out quickly to put rocks and anything else they can under the wheels to stop them rolling back down the hills, not one of Sue's favourite roads.

We reached Mzuzu just before 2pm, stopping only to get some cash from the bank and buy some drinks, especially Malawi Gin which is very good value at around £6 a bottle.  Finally at 4pm we pulled into Makuzi Beach, it was sunny, hot and humid so we were looking forward to a dip in the lake.

Happily no one else was camping so we had the site to ourselves, we were greeted by Brett and Lara the owners and Scooby Doo their new puppy, a mastiff/great Dane cross he was already bigger than the average mutt.

That night we sat alone under the stars with our candles and lamps aglow and the lake gently lapping on the beach, perfect,  however it had been a long hard day so we climbed up into the roof tent and almost immediately fell asleep. In the early hours we awoke to the dreaded sound of rain, Brett said they had been getting rain in the mornings but it brightened up later so we thought no more about it and snuggled down again in our cosy rooftent.

By 6am however the rain was getting heavier, a strong wind had got up and we could hear thunder in the distance, nothing for it but to go back to sleep until it stopped. Then, suddenly there was an almighty crash, we looked out and saw one side of the awning had collapsed sending tables, chairs and everything we had left underneath flying.

We had no choice now but to get out the tent and there's nothing worse than having to climb out of a roof tent in the pouring rain with it going down your neck! It was 2.30pm before the rain finally stopped, by then we had had over 10 hours of solid rain and it was too late to carry onto Monkey Bay and Taffy's, at least we had the place to ourselves.

Fearful of more rain in the night we packed everything away except of course for the roof tent and just as well as by 4am it started to rain again but this time thankfully only for a couple of hours this time. We left Makuzi at 8am, the roof tent having to be packed away wet which is not good but we would dry it out at Taff's.     

Scattered along Lake Malawi are various lodges and camps, Makuzi is on a stretch called Chintenche, the next village down about 30 minutes away is Kande. The Kande Beach camp is famous or maybe infamous amongst the backpacking/overland fraternity as the place to party on the lake. Just outside the gates you can get everything from tattoos to wooden carvings and of course the local herb known as Malawi Gold, although the camp has signs all over the place saying you will be thrown out if you bring any in.

We never stay there as we like a bit of peace and quiet these days but we do pop in when in the area as it's the only place along the Northern part of the lake which has internet. We would not have internet access once we reached Taffy's so we spent a couple of hours doing emails, bank and website before carrying on with our journey South to Monkey Bay.

We reached the small town of Nkhotakota around 1.15pm from here it was about 250km to Monkey Bay. The beauty of travelling in Malawi is the roads are good with little traffic so you can make good time but there are much more people walking along the roads, many walk miles to get to their destinations so as we drove we passed a woman with a tin bowl over her head how she could see where she was going was anyone's guess but it was her way of getting shelter from the sun. 

At 4.30pm, over eight hours after leaving Makuzi, we finally reached Norman Carr Cottages, Taffy & Jenny's place near Monkey Bay. Jenny was there to greet us warmly, Taffy was out on the lake with some guests, it turned out the lodge was full as it was a public holiday, something which we were blissfully unaware of.

However, Taffy & Jen had very kindly kept the house we stayed in on our first visit free for us, they could have rented it out ten times over for much more but they had stayed loyal to us, the generosity and kindness from African's both white and black never fails to impress.

First things first was to have a drink on the sun deck with Jenny, it was still so hot and sunny a few cold G&Ts were very needed after our long drive. Taffy and guests returned not long after so then it was more drinks on the deck, it was dark by the time we got into the house for a quick freshen up before dinner.

Kasonda who had looked after us on our last visit greeted us and he was so happy if he had been a puppy his tail would have been wagging like mad, it was really great to see him again, Nelson who had also looked after us last time was apparently now working in the main lodge so we would see him later.

Back to the sun deck for more drinks then a very nice dinner of roast beef and chicken followed by a few more drinks until we went back to the house and collapsed into bed, it was good to be back.