Day 194: Liwonde to Zomba

We really took our time to pack up and Hugo had some quick work to do. Caro and Lisa also took out all their souvenirs and especially cloths to show each other. This caused both of them to want to buy even more fabrics.

Gerrie and Lisa left before us, but we are potentially both going to the Trout Farm in Zomba tonight. The Two Monkeys left Bushman’s Baobab just before 12:00 after settling the bill. The camping was $7.5 per person and the boat ride $20 per person. Gerrie negotiated it down from $35 for us.

On the road to Zomba, we saw the Oudtshoorn Ford next to a market so we stopped as well. Caro got out, while Hugo waited in the car. Sometime later the Ford past, but Caro was nowhere to be seen. Some minutes later Caro returned with two more chitenges.

In Zomba, we went to the Steers but were rather disappointed with their pink polony like patties. We then found a butchery and bought a piece of braai meat and some drinks from the People’s store.

We then went up the plateau through beautiful forest and past the dam to the Ku Chawe Trout Farm. At the gate, they confirmed that other South Africans were there, but that they went to the Sunbird Lodge for a while. We thus set up camp so long and paid the 3000 MWK per person. We were quite surprised in a bad way about the three fold increase in price from what we have read online. Apparently, the price went up only a few days ago and the receipt book confirmed this.

Why the price went up is unclear, because after we paid we found out there is no running water in any of the taps and the bathrooms in a poor state. Thus also no showers or anything. They did offer to bring water in buckets on request.

The other’s arrived sometime after us and were also shocked to learn about the lack of water in taps, despite the river running right next to the camp.

They also initially brought wood but wanted R40 for it. When we declined they literally came and took it away again after lighting the fire for us. Like true South Africans Gerrie was luckily prepared with his own wood on which we could braai our piece of meat. They took out another frozen vegetable bag which filled the grid with meat.

The night quickly turned cold and by the time that we finished dinner we were all freezing and huddling around the fire to try and keep warm. We cooked some water on the fire to defrost a bit before getting into bed. Our -8 degrees sleeping bag came in handy.