Trip Report #20 (12 - 15 July): Big in Japan

While I am at it, I will draft an outline of the next few days.  Won’t say too much as it is not too interesting, but sure Carl-Hein will flesh this out with the exact spare part numbers, spanner sizes etc for those interested in the mechanical details.

We make it to Lilongwe on grace.  (CHM:  It had nothing to do with grace and everything to do with me driving through mountain passes pulling at a very stiff choke cable by the tip of my fingers… not fun)

Lilongwe is pleasant enough.  Only recently made capital of Malawi, it still has a small townish feel.  Most charming is the ‘Old Town’, but still the three days we end up spending in town are two days too long. 

 

 

 

 

 

A GP number plate in Lilongwe:-)

 

We do however locate the VW dealership, the Mamma Mia Pizzeria, Don Brioni’s Bistro and the Kiboko Town Hotel all within 0.5km from each other.  Great news seeing that we will be on foot for our time here. 

Mamma Mia.  Fabulous authentic Italian fare in the most quaint setting in the ‘Old Town Mall’ and Carl-Hein can feed his ever growing pizza craving.  We visit twice and feed our faces.

We unfortunately only get room for one night in the Kiboko Town Hotel, an oasis in a scruffy city centre, and have to relocate to Mufasa Lodge.  Partly owned and run by South Africans, the converted top floor of a really dreary building on the main street is a wonderful surprise and cheaper than the Kiboko.  A good thing for our dwindling budget, but unfortunate for our night rest as the nearby Diplomat Bar is not very diplomatic with its operating hours or noise levels. 

	Kiboko Courtyard, Moroccan Bar, Kids Play Den and messenger bike

Don Brioni’s is adjacent to Kiboko in what turns out to be a little magic corner of Lilongwe. It serves THE best burgers ever made according to a recipe shared with the owner by his son – owner of the Grand Union pub group in the UK.  It serves other good food also and almost every dish has a story the Gregarious Englishmen (Yip I meant to say ‘gregarious Englishmen’) owner will share with you. 

Carl-Hein working methodically through the yellow pages, Spares shops hunting for suitable parts anywhere in Lilongwe or Blantyre 

 

The reasons for our staying in Lilongwe so long? Well the primary reason is that VW is just not big in Japan.  In Africa you drive a Toyota. 

Of course the hijacking of the consignment from Blantyre VW to Lilongwe VW with the ONLY spare accelerator cable in the whole of Malawi contributed.  Also the fact that the initial inspection of the Volla bus from the vantage point of a mechanics pit revealed that the rear drive shaft/CV joint connection was broken (we can only speculate for how long already).  Add the need for a thorough service, a list compiled by Adri and Carl-Hein that needed checking, new tyre and battery neither of which are standard Toyota issues and you loose three days quite easily.

Oh and of course we find out, just as the accelerator cable is fixed, the petrol pedal is also broken after the last few days of abuse (we call in assistance of the local Trentyre where we have our tyres replaced for a temporary rubber hinge and arrange for an ever-growing consignment of parts to be shipped to Lusaka) 

I must commend the local VW/Scania shared dealership and specifically Joffit, the senior VW mechanic.  He used a LOT of initiative and creativity and went as far as convincing a local priest of some denomination to give us the accelerator cable from his 2.5 Caravelle. So the priest is left stranded waiting for a replacement cable while his one is cut to size and modified for us. 

We eventually leave a day later than our worse case scenario.  And get about 500m before the petrol pedal gives way again. 

(CHM:  For those of you reading this who do not know me.  This is roughly where I had a complete sense of humour failure)

We arrive back at VW after lunch break had commenced, of course.  But Joffit responds to a call and gets back during lunch to sort us out.  A relatively minor glitch, and we are eventually really really on our way around 13:00 on Wednesday.

We make it without event to South Luangwa, Flat Dogs camp on Wednesday evening after 18:00.  We pass giraffe at the reception.  We have a good feeling about this place already. 

Parking at our tent we are stormed by a male elephant.  Not sure from the pitch of his trumpeting whether he considered the silver kombi a possible mate or rival.  We give up trying to self cater and eat in the Flat Dogs restaurant.  Good food, good people, good accommodation.  We are pleased to be here indeed.

M-L

Trip Report #19 (11 July): Why we did not see Nkhata Bay

Our route plan was taking us from the Cool Runnings lawns, which we were leaving regretfully, North along the lake and to Mzuzu.  Mzuzu is the first large town when entering Malawi from the North and a key part of our ORIGINAL rough outline which had us crossing through Tanzania around the northern tip of the lake into Malawi and travelling south towards Lilongwe. But, now we were including Mzuzu in our route with the sole purpose of visiting the Chipeta residence and family. 

Plan D.1a: Mzuzu, then back to the lake to stay at Nkhata Bay at a highly recommended camp spot before reversing most of our route on Sunday to be in Lilongwe promptly for the booked Syncro service the next day.  

One of the things that increasingly fascinated us about every country we have travelled in so far is the police road blocks.  At almost every ‘major’ road junction, mostly in a desolate and arbitrary location (in RSA this would equate to the crossing of the N6 and R516 far from any town, shop or infrastructure) a neat little building and sometimes a boom will be manned by a very professional looking policeman/woman or two.  Where they live, how they get to work and how much they get paid to keep them at their post, mystifies me.  It should be noted that the degree of friendliness varied slightly, but not in a single instance – not once – were we harassed at these road blocks (the only thing that raised a police eyebrow and comment was when Anita was driving Adri’s dokka with me as passenger.  The policeman refused to even speak with us girls and went to have his discussion with Adri and C-H who were travelling in our bus)

I have not seen as many nor any as formal as the ones from Senga Bay to Mzuzu.  At another one of these road blocks we ignored the turn off to Nkhata Bay and headed for Mzuzu with the directions Adams gave us for his house on a piece of paper.  The Garmin spitefully refused to recognised any of the landmarks, streets or areas provided, so we were slightly worried.  Even more so when we drove into Mzuzu and realised Adams was quite right when he said it was a fast growing and rather biggish town already.  We pulled over to consider our options.  And a Toyota Land Cruiser with police pulled in next to us offering to assist. 

This way we landed a police escort all the way across town at a very leisurely pace incorporating a number of stops to pick up people, drop off people or ask for directions to our directions.  Not sure what the neighbours think of the people visiting with the Chipeta’s in Mzuzu – either very VIP or very dodge! 

By now we had called Adam’s to also ask for telephonic directions and when we arrived at his house we have family members and friends and neighbours pitching up from all directions to greet and welcome us.  I will not elaborate on the short visit for fear that the meaning of the experience to us will be trivialised in words. 

 

Martha Chipeta (Adam’s and Doreens’s daughter and youngest)

 

 

Carl-Hein with the family

 

 

I should however note that Adam’s and Doreen are in fact landlord’s :-) with more than one (incredibly neat) house and a small farming and tobacco growing operation very effectively integrated into their plot of land. 

 

Chipeta grounds from across the valley.

 

 

 

 

Two houses currently form the main complex.

 

 

Taking the road back to Nkhata Bay for the night, we hardly made it 1km before our first major breakdown for the trip.  The accelerator cable had snapped. 

More importantly the concepts ‘tow truck’ and ‘telephone directory’ simply does not seem to exist in Mzuzu. 

On a dirt road, not within walking distance of any commercial area, late on a Saturday afternoon (stupid every day schedules again), crowded by people and kids with very limited or no English, in (what we discovered later to be) one of the few really dodgy areas in Mzuzu/Malawi, with Carl-Hein’s phone unable to make local Malawian calls and not being able to receive calls from South Africa – we where royally stuck. 

We are OK off course but by shear coincidence and luck resulting mainly from Adam’s orchestrating from South Africa.  

1.) We gave Austin (English speaking security-guard-acting-as-our-interpreter who had been summoned by Adams to his home to facilitate interfacing with his family) a lift back to his work at the university

2.) Lorna calls us on Austin’s phone?! after she had called ‘home’ and was told we had left already with Austin

3.) She is surprised to hear about our breakdown, but tells us that Booysens, Adam’s brother who we know from Johannesburg, is in Malawi and in fact she just spoke with him at Adam’s house where he went in the hope to see us

4.) Austin calls and catches Booysens at Adam’s house.  Now we have the great privilege of a trusted, familiar, extended family member, fluent in English and Chechewa at our rescue.

5.) A random passer by offers to assist and after passing the interview and screening by Booysens, is allowed to start fiddling on the car under strict supervision of Booysens.  He miraculously, after hours of dedicated struggling with bits and pieces of roadside collected wires, devises some form of temporary solution that takes us, at 15km per hour, to the most reputable local repair shop in Mzuzu, which is of course CLOSED.

6.) But, and this tops it all, Carl-Hein remembers that the previous owner had hacked in a ‘cruise control’ connected to a ‘choke’ besides the steering wheel that had been disconnected in the engine.  With a minor reconnection we have a hand operated ‘replacement’ petrol cable that should be able to take us with a bit of effort at a slightly faster pace to Lilongwe.

Adri, irrefutable proof we did not pack too much stuff :-) We cleared out the back and fitted all our belongings and three people into the centre of the bus.  Note Booysens, our benefactor, right at the back

This day and the next are possibly best described by the severe lack of photographs :-) We clearly had a serious humour and photography failure. 

We sleep that night in the exorbitant (but by now familiar and trusted) Sunbird operated Mzuzu hotel. 

And therefore do not get to see Nkhata Bay. 

regards, M-L