Day 35 Nairobi to Cape Town
Mbeya Bush Camp, Tanzania to Chitimba Camp, Malawi 330 km We were up, fed, watered, campsite broken down and on the road by 07h00 for what would be a long day on the truck. Our day started well with a lot of kilometers being chipped away. We managed to get to our lunch spot and be only 20kms from the Tanzania/ Malawi border and as we had lunch we were watched by locals who were curious as to what these "Mzungus" we're doing parked opposite their huts. We finished lunch and covered the short drive to the border in no time. At the border Gareth checked us all out of Tanzania and we crossed the Songwe River into Malawi where we all had to check in with immigration, convert currencies at the forex bureau, turn our clocks back then wait for Patrick to try and clear the truck in which due to the Malawi anti corruption policies meant a lot of running back and forth to the Malawi bank (for the carnet), immigration & customs for final clearance.
Finally we were back on the road around 14h30 for the 4 hour drive to Chitimba Campsite passing some of the friendliest people we had seen on the trip so far. Sadly of the 17 million people living in Malawi 60% of the population is under 18 due to AIDS which has claimed many of the kids parents and is slowly coming under control through AIDS awareness.
We pulled into Chitimba Camp which was situated along the coast of Lake Malawi and were greeted by local kids & Mr "No Hassles" (a local wood carver) who had way too much Sunday "Spirit"!! We setup camp for cook group then grabbed the key for our upgrade which was to be right on the beach. We joined the rest of the group for dinner then off to the bar to try "Special Brew", the national beer of Malawi which was surprisingly good then off to bed for a well earned sleep on a real bed (what a treat!)