Kat and Helens Blog on RealTravel

Cape Maclear journal: Livingstonia to Chitimba to Chilumba to Nkhata Bay to Nkhotakota to Cape Maclear!

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 02:18:06 GMT

Livingstonia is a weird place, really high up and all the houses are brick. It’s a little bit English. We stayed in the Stone House which is a national monument- the house Robert Laws lived in when he started his mission there. The women were so adamant that we couldn’t sleep in a dorm with boys that they moved 2 beds for us into the archives, a ‘staff only’ room where they keep all the records for Livingstonia which was pretty weird but cool!

In the day we had rice for breakfast (wicked) and went to see the museum then the church. We walked down to Manchewe falls which were amazing, ...

Nyika journal: Nyika Plateau

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 00:53:39 GMT

Nyika Plateau was amazing! We were taken by a guy who spoke loads of languages and who brought his cute 2 year old son with us. He cooked all our emals (delicious and mainly grown in his garden), put up tents for us, drove us to see zebra and antelope and had lots of books and information on the stuff we were seeing. We went on horseriding safari which was fun and exciting. The scenery on the plateau is really smooth rolling hills like something in Scotland, the weather is colder aswell as you're so high up.

On the first day we were driven from our lodge in Mzuzu to Rumphi where we had ...

Mzuzu journal: Mzuzu

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 07:05:35 GMT

Welllll we got the night bus from Lilongwe to Mzuzu which was pretty bad to be honest! It was meant to arrive at 10 but actually it was past 12. The guards kept us quite entertained though, they love speaking english to each other so had lonnnng conversations and repeated the same thing about ten times it was funny. We arrived in Mzuzu at 5 am and got a taxi to the lodge we were staying at called Mzoozoozoo. The night watchman had either fallen asleep or skived off so the owner let us in and we slept a bit.

That day we looked around Mzuzu. Its a nice town, the market was good but trying ...

Zomba journal: Zomba, then Thondwe and Machinga

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 06:52:06 GMT

After a late start we got driven to Zomba by a business man and his driver- he is an anti-corruption investigator. We decided to blow a bit of money and stayed in a nice hotel called Annie's Lodge- it had hot showers (oh my goodness!). We had a look around Zopmba which is a really nice town with lots of shops and a massive market that was really fascinating- so much to see. Fruit, veg, live chickens, electrics, clothes, cloth. We each bought some cloth and tried and failed to withdarw money and use the internet (a lot of stuff was broken that day!). The hot shower did come eventually and then ...

Lilongwe journal: Lilongwe with a day trip to Salima (Senga Bay)

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 02:07:15 GMT

The first day we arrived in Lilongwe we just had dinner and went to bed. Unless we're going out in the evening bed is pretty early here- maybe 9pm and get up at 5/6. On the 27th we went roung Lilongwe town centre, bought some things including our bus tickets to the north. In the afternoon we vivited a secondary school. It was the end of term so they were having a disco. People had dressed up so there were some amazing outfits - nearly all the boys were in suits and or hats.

On saturday we had a day trip to Senga bay which is on the coast of the lake and really beautiful. It was nice to ...

Liwonde journal: Liwonde National Park

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 01:55:39 GMT

Arriving in the National Park was funny - They wouldn't let us walk to the lodge as there are too many animals we might have ermm been eaten maybe? Anyway we arrived at Chinguni Hills and booked 2 dorm beds although there were only 3 beds in our room! It was really nice absolutely beautiful surroundings with loads of little tahtched seating areas with cushions outside and the whole camp was on Chinguni Hill and overlooked the Marsh where we could see a herd of elephants. We played cards and chilled until dinner which was sooooo delicious. Just thinking about ti makes my stomach rumble. It was ...

Mulanje journal: Mount Mulanje

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 03:15:14 GMT

It was a bit of a crazy idea to actually climb the mountain but we were all really glad we braved it. The 7 and a half hour climb/hike was pretty darn difficult, and we only just made it in daylight, but at least we made it! The views on the way up were shocking, really good. As we got through the clouds there were some mountain flowers as well, bright colours. We even saw yellow orchids and some monkeys. The hut we stayed in didn't have electricity or running water (the watchman brought the water to us) so it was difficult as it got dark around 5. We spent a day on the mountain where we saw a ...

Blantyre journal: Blantyre, Thyolo and Mulanje town

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 02:39:41 GMT

We arrived in Blantyre after a lovely coach journey and headed straight to Doogles, a backpackers lodge recommended in our guide book. We wanted to use the internet and it was a good place to wait to be picked up by Rose, who then took us to her house to stay that night. On the way we got ice cream that tasted of strawberry angel delight :) The evening was nice, quite chilled except for a treacherous drive in the rain in the dark. We played cards and started to watch a film but went to bed quite early because we planned to head to Thyolo and Mulanje the next day.

We got up pretty early ...

Lilongwe journal: Lilongwe

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 05:25:32 GMT

When we arrived in Lilongwe we were met by about 10 people from Helen's family + friends, said hello to a lot of people and then were whisked away to a rich woman's house for a nap! She had a very cute little girl called Hilda. After being fed, going to the shop and sleeping we went to Alex Chiwala's house and met a lot more people. There was a blackout when we arrived- apparently they get them alot and without warning. Pretty hard to remember names in pitch darkness. Started learning some chichewa which was good. We had nseema which is the main carbs of malawi, they make it out of flour and ...

Addis Ababa journal: Ethiopia

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 04:23:37 GMT

We were panicking as we arrived in Addis because we landed 20 minutes before our transfer to Lilongwe was meant to leave BUT the air hostesses told us we would be fine and sure enough we got off waited then boarded the exact same plane for the next leg! Obviously they gave us free cake and cups of coke at the airport, how nice is that? (Im so used to easyjet and getting nothing for free in England)

Malawi journal: Kat and Helen go to Malawi :)

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 04:09:18 GMT

After deciding not to have a gap year together (though Helen is planning one now) we thought we should travel a bit in the long summer after exams and after lots of deliberation settled on Malawi- friends to visit, different culture, beautiful scenery and animals!