Camping, days 12-13: Senga Bay, Lake Malawi

Day 12 – Wednesday 29 May 2013

Traveled from Zomba to Senga Bay

This morning we left Casa Rossa and drove the first part of the journey north. We got up, ordered breakfast up at the main house (David had scrambled eggs and I had an omelette) and then got camp packed up.  After everything was packed, David took a quick shower while I soaked Elijah’s foot in a hot salt water bath because he had a little nick in his foot which was getting infected. 

saying goodbye to the Zomba Plateau! this photo gives you a good view of where we were bouncing around on Monday...

We left  Zomba at 10:30am, and arrived in Senga Bay just around 3pm.  We actually managed to drive the entire distance without stopping, except once to let Elijah use the toilet.  That is very unusual!  We stopped in the town of Salima long enough to withdraw money from the bank, but we didn’t let the kids out of their seats – an unfortunate decision, because we really should have let them stretch their legs, but we thought we were only about 10 kilometers from our destination.  It turned out to be more like 20 kilometers, but the kids hung in there.  :)

things we saw along the way - cowboys and cows crossing the river

 Now, we had made arrangements to camp somewhere in Senga Bay.  The idea was to break up the journey so that we wouldn't have to drive all the way from Zomba to Chipata in one day - it's just too far for the children. So we broke the journey into two reasonable-sized chunks, and decided Senga Bay sounded like a pleasant place to stop - and why not spend 2 last nights beside the lake.  :)  When we were packing up camp at Casa Rossa, as I was paying the bill the owner asked me where we planned to camp in Senga Bay.  When I told her the name of the place where we were thinking of staying, she said to me, 'I hope you don't mind me saying this, but I know that you like quiet places to camp, with privacy, especially with small children who go to bed early - so let me recommend a different place to you, because I don't think the place you're planning to go to will be very suitable.'  I was very grateful for her recommendation, which was to ask at the Sunbird Hotel for details about their camping facilities.  I was shocked to hear that the Sunbird offered camping - especially at reasonable rates - because they are generally an expensive chain of lodges!  But David and I agreed to go with the recommendation because being in a quiet, private place for camping is just... ideal.  :)

 

So, we drove through Salima and followed the road towards Senga Bay.  The road literally ends at Sunbird Livingstonia Beach Hotel!  We drove up through the main gate and asked at Reception for details about the camping. We  were amazed to hear that the charge for camping was LESS than we had paid in the other places we stayed on this trip!!  So then we drove around the corner to the hotel's private camping area....

As soon as we drove in the gate, we were amazed.  There was a beautiful beach and a large camping area.  You could either camp in the grass under the trees, or on the sand. We chose a spot on the sand under the shade of a couple of trees.  Camping right on the beach!!

 

our camp at Livingstonia Beach

 The camp ground was well equipped with nice big, clean bathrooms, hot showers, a dish washing station, a laundry washing station, a beach-side bar where you could order food and drinks.  It was very secure with 24-hr guards and perfectly private.  In short, it was an absolutely ideal place to camp and a wonderful spot to spend our last 2 nights of holiday!

The water was as serene as anything when we arrived and Elijah made a bee-line for the beach, so  as soon as David and I got the tent set up, I went down and supervised the kids playing in the water while David finished unloading the truck.

 Camp was set up by 4pm, then we all played in the water for a little while.  It was fun to see the kids having such a good time in the water, since the waves were small enough that they felt comfortable. 

Then we went for an early dinner at the hotel.  We walked up the beach to the main hotel and sat on the terrace for dinner, watching the sun set over the lake.  The kids had chicken and chips, David had sirloin steak and potatoes, and I had chicken tandoori and rice.  As a special treat, we had icecream for dessert!

Then, back to camp for an early bedtime (the kids had had no afternoon nap!).

Day 13 – Thursday 30 May 2013

Senga Bay, Lake Malawi

Our last day of relaxing on the beach!

 

Another early morning as usual. Watched the sunrise...

The campground was populated by troops of baboons who were very opportunistic and seemed to have a morning routine of raiding the rubbish bins.

 

We woke up to a stiff breeze and a heavy surf, so we didn’t go in the water until later in the afternoon.  The sun was shining, so it wasn’t stormy – just breezy with big waves.  Still a pleasant day to be camping!

a local ferry boat passing

We had a breakfast of porridge and then relaxed on the beach – David and Ketzia napped, Elijah playd in the sand and I caught up on more blog posts. :)

By 10am, all the other campers except one couple had left, and we essentially had the campground all to ourselves!  :)  The afternoon was spent swimming and playing at the hotel's small playground.

Ketzia's first time sliding down the slide by herself!

as usual, having done it once, she was full of courage

I used up our tinned food rations with pasta and meatballs (from a tin) for lunch - we all agreed that tinned food is not the way our family prefers to eat, not even on a camping trip!  We made up for it by having another nice dinner at the hotel.  It figures that the cheapest place to camp was also the most expensive place to eat.  Obviously they have to make their money somehow.  :)

This turned out to be an IDEAL place to camp and such a wonderful place to break our journey and spend our last two nights of holiday. :)

Camping, day 11: Having Fun in Zomba

Day 11 - Tuesday 28 May
Zomba, Malawi

This was our last day in Zomba, and we were enjoying not having to rush away to our next destination too quickly!

David took this photo of me buying fresh fruit on the street

Ketzia pretending to make tea like Mommy :)

We arranged to get together with Sangwani's family again, to see them one more time while we were in Zomba.  Sangwani was in Blantyre (1 hour away) for the morning doing a job, but he said it was no problem to come back and meet us at lunch.  In the meantime, we wanted to give the children a chance to run and play together, so around 9am we picked up Betty, Mado, Siphiwe, and Keziah in town and went to the Zomba Botanical Gardens!

The Botanical Gardens were a great place for the kids to run, play, and climb around while we strolled through.

Ketzia had no fear!

 

sleepy girl with no morning nap, again

don't you just love 2-3 year olds in group photos??

We walked around in the Botanical Gardens until about 10:30, when we drove to a restaurant in town called Domino.  The reason we picked this particular restaurant is because it sported a playground, which made it an appealing spot for parents with young, energetic children!  Our family had actually visited Domino the night before for dinner, to scout it out, and then arranged to take Sangwani and his family out for lunch there.  While we were waiting for food, and for Sangwani to arrive from Blantyre, the kids enjoyed the playground.

I'm SURE this playground equipment would be condemned by Health & Safety in the USA or the UK, it was old and metal and had sharp corners and broken pieces, but the kids sure had fun on it!

Ketzia's first time on a 'big kid' swing!

time for food - the kids unanimously requested chicken and chips, and the adults had pizza

Poor Sangwani, who was trying to get back from Blantyre in time to join us for lunch, ended up on a very slow minibus and was very delayed.  We saved him some food, and thankfully he came in time that we were able to spend a little bit of time with him as well as his family.  :)

It was really nice to get to spend some extra time with their family.  Usually our visits to students are way too short!

saying goodbye

We returned to camp in time to let the kids have a late nap that afternoon.  That evening was our last meal at Casa Rossa.  We had a very tasty dinner - the kids had bolognaise, David had saltimbocca (chicken wrapped in bacon), and I had beef filet!  We sat on the terrace watching the sunset while we ate.  :)  It was a great way to end a great extended weekend in Zomba.

Camping, day 10: Zomba Plateau

Day 10 - Zomba, Malawi
Visiting the Zomba Plateau

One of the highlights of Zomba is the Zomba Plateau, a mountain ridge with spectacular views across the valley.

Today (Monday the 27th) we headed out not very long after breakfast to drive up to the Plateau and see the view.  We had looked at the map and it looked pretty straight forward, so we headed up the mountain.   

Where we were staying at Casa Rossa was already part way up the mountain road, so it was very convenient.  There was a nice paved road all the way up the mountain, with fantastic views across the valley as you went further and further up.   

the view as you went up

Then at the top you reach the Sunbird Kuchawa lodge – the most expensive place to stay in Zomba, right at the edge of the Plateau.   

 We stopped at the Lodge to see if we could buy a map because it wasn’t clear right away which direction we need to go to get to the viewpoints.  Right away we were approached by a man who said, ‘You need a guide. Everyone who visits the Plateau gets a guide. I am a guide, I can help you.’  David being the very self-sufficient person that he is, :) was convinced that we could go just using the mental copy of the map in his head, so he told the man no, no, no, not interested, we think we’ll be fine, we’re just going to go ourselves… blah blah blah.  We got a copy of the map which wasn’t very good, but at least it was a map.  Someone told David that the roads around the perimeter of the Plateau were paved.  So after more than 20 minutes of David looking at all the maps ('to make sure we knew where we were going') we finally set off… without a guide.  

Immediately, by the first turn, we were very unsure of where we were going.  The map simply wasn’t detailed enough, and ALL the roads, apart from the main paved road to the Lodge entrance, were DIRT and they were all unmarked!!  So we turned right around the headed straight back to the Lodge, where we hired Moses, the guy who had introduced himself to us, as our guide.  :)  We figured out by the end of the morning two helpful bits of information - firstly, most people who visit the Plateau do so on foot (hiking 4-6 hours to the various viewpoints - obviously not an option for us with two very small tots), and secondly, everyone takes a guide, whether walking or in a vehicle!

Moses sat in the front passenger seat, I moved into the back with the kids, and we went along, bumping along these horrible dirt roads. And thus started an entire morning of unexpected 4x4 driving...

part of what the road/track looked like (and this wasn't even a bad portion of road)

 First we drove to the nearest viewpoint, ‘Queen's View.'  It took quite a while to bump up the mountainside.  The road was dirt mixed with rocks so it was not a smooth ride, to say the least!

 The view from the top WAS amazing, but it wasn’t spectacular.  There was simply too much dust and haze in the air to see as far as we had hoped.  On a good clear day, you can see as far as Mozambique, and many other things.  But not today.  When we stopped, Ketzia was asleep so we left her in the car.

Moses, our guide, is standing on my right

 Then we went to ‘Emperor's View’ another viewpoint which was not very far away.  Ketzia woke up so both kids got out with us.

Leaving the two main view points, on the way back along the Plateau circuit, Moses directed us to stop at the side of the road and we walked down to a pretty waterfall.

what David did - take nice photos

 

what Mommy did - wrestled children away from the edge

what Elijah did - get as close as possible without actually falling in

 Then Moses suggested that some people like to visit 'Chingwe's Hole' which was on the other side of the Plateau.  It is a very strange hole in the mountain, hundreds of meters deep, and there is also another good viewpoint from there.  He said that he had confidence that our truck, being 4x4, would be able to get there just fine.  That should have clued us in, but we honestly didn't realize the distance we would have to drive!  It was decided that we would make Chingwe's Hole our last stop.  So off we went...

the Queen's and Emperor's Views are on the bottom right of the circle, and Chingwe's Hole is on the upper left of the circle... shows how much driving we had to do on narrow, rutted, tracks in the middle of nowhere!

 As we lurched and bumped along the horrifically bad track and got further and further away from any vestige of life (the lodge and the ranger station receded far into the distance), I was trying to quell my inner discomfort about the situation... 

do you see that tiny ribbon of brown? that is the track we followed

It ended up taking 45 minutes of lurching and bumping and grinding and willing our truck to please keep going and not get stuck!  The track was just a nightmare.  I was desperately trying to brace myself because I kept being flung against the side of the truck - I ended up having to sit crossways across the seat, with my bottom against the door handle and my right arm hooked around the driver seat headrest, to try to get some leverage!

At some point I thought, 'This was a huge mistake.  I'm going to end up having a miscarriage because I was stupid and went along on this crazy ride.  No pregnant woman should be doing what I am doing!'  I wanted desperately to turn around and go back, but there was no place to turn around!  (David told me later that he was also having second thoughts but because there was no way to go but forward, we just forged ahead.)  I was really, really worried.  I was feeling more and more awful by the moment, feeling muscles pulling in my abdomen from the force of the truck jolting and straining along the mountainside, feeling unable to properly cushion my body from the rough ride... it was horrible.  I honestly thought I'd made the biggest mistake of my life.  So, please take note: if you are pregnant, don't bother visiting the Zomba Plateau!  The view is actually not worth the risk and the ride!

At last we finally reached Chingwe's Hole.  By this point it was almost 11am and we had been bouncing and jolting around the Plateau for 2 hours already!

this is Chingwe's Hole... you actually could hardly see anything, because it is so deep, dark, and overgrown!

I practically fell out of the truck, thankful to have a break from the terrible bouncing and jolting for a few moments.  Elijah was asleep so we left him in the car!

at least there was a nice view!

There were men at every viewpoint with little stalls, selling small cut gemstones and dried flowers.

Then it was time to head back down the mountain.  Thankfully I found that it was not nearly as painful going down as going up - because we weren't straining against gravity.  :)  David found it challenging driving conditions, though!

We had to stop part-way for Elijah to have a toilet break...

We dropped Moses back at Sunbird Kuchawa lodge, paused long enough to look at the gifts and souvenirs he had for sale (we bought a birthday present for Elijah, and a wooden platter with elephants carved for handles), and then headed back to our camp for lunch.  It was noon!

the wonderful paved road back down the mountain :)

On the way down the mountain, we bought fresh raspberries and fresh strawberries from men selling fruit on the side of the road.  That was part of our lunch, and breakfast the next day!  It was a real treat!

back at camp - having peanut butter and jam sandwiches, and fresh berries

 After eating a quick lunch, I went straight to bed and lay down for 45 minutes, trying to help my body recover from the battering it had experienced.  Thankfully it was apparent that nothing was wrong with Baby, for which we were very, very thankful.  Knowing now how bad the roads are, I would never do it again while pregnant!  Thankfully the only lasting ill effects I had from the day's events was that my right arm and shoulder were so badly bruised from hanging on for dear life, that I literally couldn't move my shoulder for 3 days!