Day 37: 3 September 2002 8:30 pm
The group are excited by the prospect of crossing into a new country, while Tom and Penny contemplate if they have a future on the truck (again).
(US $1 = MK 80)
To leave the truck or not to leave the truck - that is the burning question as we head for Malawi. We were never to see the farmhouse in the light as we had to get up at 5:00am in the cold mist to pack our tent away. It was another interminably long drive to the border where we were granted a 14 day Malawi visa (at no cost).
The only subtle difference that I have seen so far between Tanzania and Malawi is the introduction of tea plantations and the thatched roofs of the Malawi huts. Otherwise, I still felt as if we were in Tanzania. I was completely wrong, as when we stopped on the roadside for lunch, we became the primary attraction for every man, woman and child in the nearby vicinity. It was like bees to a honey pot. I know now what it is like to be stared at as if the Malawians had become the tourists.
On major concern with visiting Malawi is the news of the famine that was sporadically plastered across news reports back home. It doesn't seem very ethical to visit a country that is teetering on starvation but at the same time, is this the real story? I had heard about the controversial IMF ruling over selling their food supplies which the IMF denies. The Malawi government cites this as one of the main reasons for plunging the country into famine. Would I still be welcome as a tourist in Malawi and would there be food shortages?
A posting on the Lonely Planet Thorntree did reassure me and gave a few positive things that tourists can do to improve the local economy: "Mainly the local subsistence farmers that rely on their own crops for survival have been affected. There is plenty of food in the markets, shops, restaurants and hotels and tourists should not be affected but local subsistence farmers and the poor cannot afford to buy food from here. News reports tend to give the impression that the whole country has no food at all and whilst it is a bad situation, tourists should not be deterred from Malawi as tourist dollars can only help the country's local economy. Where possible, buy food and goods as low down the supply chain as feasible i.e. buy from local or roadside sellers as the money goes directly in the locals' pockets rather than a supermarket."
We stopped at the first major town (if you can call sleepy Karonga 'major') and encountered our first Malawi hurdle, changing money. The only option in town was the National Bank of Malawi and it closed at 2:00pm. We arrived just before 1:00pm, approaching the first desk to receive a form from an earnest young man who took an eternity to work out on his calculator the rate for travellers cheques. After filling in a form, we were directed to a long queue for 'No 1' desk, the only desk that could deal with 'paying money' and it was heaving with locals.
Intermittently, another local would push in right at the front of the queue so we never moved forward and the minutes ticked by. My only concern was that we would not reach the front of the queue before the bank closed. Luckily we did under the dawning realisation that African time is nothing compared to Malawi time - the Malawi people are even more laid back than their East African counterparts.
Tom was on cook duty, so he charged off to the only supermarket and local market to stock up on food for the next couple of days. The selection available was poor, particularly the local vegetable market that only had potatoes, onion, tomato and bananas. In wet season, the variety available is even worse. It was cheap though - Tom paid MK 10 for a bunch of 13 small bananas (approx 14 pence).
Life in Malawi is incredibly simple and slow paced - every day is spent searching for firewood, collecting water, tending crops and cattle, trying to scrape a living together. It is such a contrast to life back in the Western world, so frenetic and complicated.
The journey to Chitimba on the truck seemed unusually stressful today. The music was persistently loud, resulting in a splitting headache, resorting to wearing ear plugs to block some of it out. We coasted into Chitimba to stay at the aptly named Chitimba camp site on the coarse sand beaches of northern Lake Malawi. As always, we only had enough time to erect the tent and shower, before darkness and mozzies descended.
For once dinner was delicious and plentiful. I had three servings of marinated chicken, salad in honey dressing and sauteed potatoes. The chicken had been cooked in the new truck oven (an unsophisticated metal box).
Philip had apparently discussed some important matters with the other truck members and now needed to sound us out before giving our tour leader a proposal as agreed by the group. It would appear that no one in the group is keen to merge with the second truck down to Cape Town (I wonder why?). Philip wants to ask our tour leader if the company would agree to run a second truck instead of running the Aussie vet truck at full capacity. The trucks merge at Victoria Falls and the general concensus is that no one wants to be squeezed onto the other truck. Rumours abound of the Aussie vets having a mountain of luggage with some members having two large back packs each plus a mattress instead of a sleeping mat and this is without additional souvenirs. This means that the storage lockers on their truck are already overflowing.
We agreed to his proposal in principle even though we already knew that we had decided to leave the truck and would break the news to our tour leader tomorrow. Tom had already given me an ultimatum - get off the truck or do the rest of the tour on my own and meet him in Cape Town. He made it quite clear that if he spent one more day than necessary on the truck that he would go insane!
We will never do another long-term, organised trip again. This is not a reflection on the company or the tour leader; the problem lies with us not being suited to truck life. We missed the freedom and flexibility of being on our own and making our own choices, even if it means making mistakes. Also, it was becoming obvious that a few of the optional excursions were actually compulsory rather than optional. Belinda asked about the Okavango Delta and discovered that it is two days of driving and only one day in the mokoro. Unimpressed by this, she inquired what would happen if she didn't do the excursion and our tour leader implied that this was not possible as 'everyone does the Delta!'
Positives: We will break the news to our tour leader tomorrow of our impending departure. No doubt this will frazzle our tour leader's nerves further.
Negatives: We will lose the cost of the remainder of our tour as we are jumping off before completing half of it. Never mind, the price of freedom can never be under estimated.