Blunders in Northern Malawi

Malawi lived up to everything I heard about it: the people were friendly, the lake was beautiful, and most things were relatively cheap. When I say friendly, I mean almost everyone greeted us with a huge smile and seemed giddy to talk with us. In contrast to Tanzania, where it felt like every conversation was sparked with the purpose of squeezing money out of us, here people just wanted to chat and often refused money for things we really felt obliged to pay for.

At least on the first logging truck it was just us in the cab

Don't Mess With Texas <3

Our first destination was Nyika National Park. In the future we won’t hitch to a park that is inaccessible by public transport. The only way to get to Nyika is bumping along a rocky dirt road for 7 hours. We weren’t about to fork over $200 for a hired car, and we were told it’s easy to catch a ride with the logging trucks that go back and forth from the park every day. (Never mind how disconcerting it is that multiple truckloads of timber come out of the National Park every single day.) We spent the night in a small town called Rhumpi to catch the morning truck, supposedly leaving at 6 am. 

With half a day to kill in Rhumpi, we were at a loss for things to do. Eating, drinking, and playing cards can only occupy so many hours, so we searched for an internet connection, even though it was a Sunday afternoon in a tiny poor African town. We asked a bike taxi guy if he knew a place and he eagerly walked us to three internet spots that were all closed. He spoke only a few words of English but smiled incessantly and urged us to follow him. We told him no, it’s really ok, we’ll just use the internet tomorrow, but he was set on helping us. He eventually brought us to a friend’s tiny tin-roofed shack crammed with one desk and an ancient computer. His friend closed the computer game he was playing, scrambled to buy airtime for his cell phone, and dongled his phone to the computer so we could get online with that. A small crowd gazed at us while we waited five minutes for gmail to load. They seemed so darn happy and giggly that I started to wonder if everyone in Malawi is just stoned all the time. Whatever it is, they were cheerful, and although the internet was too slow to do anything productive, we appreciated their efforts.

Nyika National Park

The next morning we were on the road at 6 am, as advised, but the truck didn’t leave until noon, putting us into the park at dusk. The beautiful three day hike we planned on taking to a town called Livingstonia was more expensive than we expected and there was no ATM within 100 kilometers. So we were screwed. The last thing we wanted to do was repeat the uncomfortable ride on the logging truck, but there was no other way out. All we could afford with the cash we had was a bike ride, two meals, and two nights at the youth hostel. 

You can't see them at all, but those are zebras behind TK

Waiting, waiting...

And back to minibuses

This time we asked several different people what time the logging truck leaves. Everyone said to be ready at the general store at 6 am, so we were, and we waited until 2 pm. I squeezed in the cab up front with seven locals, and TK sat in the back with a stack of freshly cut 2x4s. By the time we got to Rhumpi, at 9 pm, a thick layer of red dirt coated TK’s face, hair, clothes, and backpack. A free ride is a free ride, but days like these are getting old.