Leaving Malawi we have a full day of driving across the Southern region of Tanzania. It’s a very long drive, that is why we have to leave at 4 in the morning to be able to avoid the worst traffic entering Dar es Salaam. This is a huge city, packed with cars and three-wheeled vehicles (called tok-toks) driving all over the place. We reach our camp at the end of the day, where we get a nice meal and we can hopefully get rid of all the dust we have accumulated during the ride. The outside showers look pretty good: they are inside a wooden fence, the are stones on the ground, you can see the pretty Ocean from the top and on the side of the shower there is a nice big mirror. As you release the water, though…salty drops are washing your body, and you end up being as dirty as before!
Entering Malawi is absolutely charming from the landscape point of view. There is a powerful sense of pure nature all over, along the dusty and disconnected roads. At the same time there is a feeling of having left the touristy heart of Africa in Vic falls and having entered one of least developed countries in the world and one of the poorest in Africa. Here people live mainly of agriculture and small, local, family-owned activities. The most unexpected feature of the country is the immense Lake Malawi and its sandy beaches. We stop for two nights at Kande beach, a campsite where we, for a few dollars, can upgrade to suites (ie. beach huts) just on the beach (see picture!). It’s fantastic!
The first half of our trip will soon come to an end. Most of our fellow travellers will be leaving after a few days in Livingstone. I and Andreas will continue our journey to Kenya, together with Matt and Nathan, and some new people will join our truck. It feels kind of sad because we had a great time as a group over the last three weeks, but I’m sure we’ll have a lot more to enjoy. We leave Botswana very early to get to Livingstone in time for some people to do some rafting while the rest of us is going to have a great breakfast at the lodge. We’ll be staying here for 4 days. The campsite is waterfront by the Zambesi river, with a pool, a bar and a restaurant in a beautiful location just looking at the water flowing. One of the greatest differences with Botswana is the temperature and high humidity which is also bringing plenty of mosquitoes. Actually, the worst moment of the day is indeed when getting into the shower which is stuffed with insects both alive and dead!