10th October – Chintheche

The road to Chinteche from Chitimba although only 260 k’s was slow going and over a beautiful but very steep pass, of which several trucks had over turned. One was over half way across the road lying on it’s side which made passing a struggle, especially for the trucks ahead of us. We are staying at Chintheche Inn. Funny thing is when we stayed at Sunrise beach in Dar es Salaam, we met briefly, a South African couple from Durbs – Dave and Eva – who mentioned they were in the hotel trade and were touring for 6 months and on their way to Mozambique. When we booked in here at Chintheche a pretty blonde with a big smile said “I’m sure we have met” well within a minute or so we established that we met at Dar. She said that her and Dave had their holiday cut short because the Hotel Group management need them for a short term to manage Chitheche Inn. Again, a small world. This is 5 star camping. You just don’t get better than this. (It is also a hotel with lovely cabin style rooms. On the lake under a big Mango tree gentle breeze to keep the otherwise scorching heat off us, with clean, classy ablutions. Today it’s only 12 o’clock and we have already been swimming twice in the crystal clear water. There is a bit of a swell running with waves of about 2/3 foot to make things a bit more real, as it feels like we are on the sea instead of a lake. Some useless info, Think of the Calendar – the lake is 365 miles long 52 miles wide and has 12 rivers flow into it. Now you know why this lake feels like a deep blue ocean with tropical shores. If anyone needs to slack out and doesn’t particularly want to see wild life then Malawi is the place for them. Beautiful white beaches and crystal blue waters. We will be coming again for sure, maybe even next year.
Also Camping in Chintheche were a german couple who come to Africa once a year for 2 months. They keep their 1982 Landcruiser 3B diesel in Lusaka while they are away and fly in every year. Not a bad Idea, he says he’s been here for 8 years doing different trips.

6th October Chitemba beach Campsite

We made good time from Kisolonga and had the quickest border crossing ever. Form exiting Tanzania to leaving the Malawi Immigration was only 20 minutes. I challenge anyone to beat that. We arrived at Chitembe, must say the first time on our way up we didn’t stop here because the sign and road looked suspect, but after hearing the name mentioned by fellow travellers we came straight here. And what a surprise, very much like Pepeoni Beach camp in Tanga south Mombasa. It’s run by a Dutch couple Eddie and wife. On the lake, nice big trees close to swim, with a lovely bar and restaurant. Also we camped on GRASS, meaning Kikuyu. No more dirty dust feet, which by now we had plenty of. We met a south African couple Jan and Liza – in their mid 40’s (our age He he) and spent 4 days here. They had been at cool Runnings with Jane Stone and travel mate Doug. So all the Skinner was flowing. Short story is that Jane got involved with a guy from UK (Scotland) and dropped Doug to camp on his own for a while, and moved off with this oak. Then came back picked up Doug and shot off to Durban to drop Doug at his home with her Cruiser, flew to cape Town to pick up her anti safari clothes and flew straight over to UK. How’s that for skinner? Anyway we are leaving now going south to Chintheche and then to Cool Runnings then on to SA.

5th October – Kinsolonga Farm.

Again we stayed here as on our way up but this time stayed 2 nights. This is a don’t miss stop. The very best for a couple of nights stop over. If I ever built a camp I would do it on this basis. Its 60k’s south of Iringa, so in a good position just outside Ruaha and a good stop before going to Malawi.

2nd October – Ruaha National Park

Although the Tanzanian Park fees are flipping high on top of which the car cost $40 a day - F@$rk#% - I could not understand why it costs $30 per person to camp. A banda ( a room with 2 beds) cost $20 pppn and an en suite bedroom with communal kitchen cost $30 pppn. I told them they are trying to discourage visitors and camping. We camped anyway. It is actually one of the best Parks for came viewing I’ve seen. I would say similar to south Luangwa which is also on a river. We saw an amazingly beautiful leopard in a tree right next to us and eventually decided to move off – so I got a few pics of it as it came down and then it was gone – nowhere to be found. She was pristine, not often seen like this in the middle of the day. We spent 2 nights there and there workshop rewelded to trailer’s top shock mounting on which had broken on the way in. All Tanzanian and Kenyan parks roads are hectic. The National roads Dept say the parks must sort out there own roads but parks boards say they don’t have the funding. Meanwhile we just stuff up our vehicles and trailers.

1st October – Tanga Riots

On Thursday morning we left for Morogoro (our half way stop to Malawi) from Tanga at a place called Segera and were following two busses when all hell broke out. People were running around the busses with stones in their hands, Machetes’, clubs and all sorts of things, mostly young kids inspired by older types. They were shouting at us not to go any further or our windscreen would be smashed, so we stayed put for nearly 2 hours till the police and army arrived and fired shots in the town and they mob eventually dispersed. Colleen was so upset she had her cigarette in her mouth the wrong way around and was trying to light the filter. By this time there were hundreds of cars and busses behind us. It appeared that Shell had bought land to build a Garage and had evicted the people out of there houses. Even though they had been paid compensation they thought they were entitled to more. Typical.
We pushed on passed Morogoro to just before Iringa to a great camp called Baobab, on the small Ruaha river. A great place to stay – I can recommend it to anyone, also great rooms.

29th September – Tanga.

South of Mombasa. We had one stop at Diani Bech Resort and Camp – a small place not on T4A or any other guide book but gr8 for a day or 2 then went on to Peponi Beach resort. Now this is a place you can chill at for a week or so. We stayed 2 nights as we wanted to get on to Malawi. The owners, Denys and Gilly Roberts who knew my uncle was great and we met some ex Capies (who now live in Knysna) who Colleen used to play tennis with 12 years ago. Lionel and June Willmore ( he is ex Unicef Investment Bank) they are travelling with a Challenger off road Caravan – the big one – I don’t know the model name. But they have not had one bit of problem with the suspension in 3 months travelling – and its independent coil spring. Just goes to show you – its possible. This is an awesome camp site on the sea shore with no hassles’ from the locals ( a big plus).

27th September – Kenya to Tanzania

Malindi camp, the only camp left to stay (others all closed down) was not great but we had no choice and was only an overnighter anyway. The manager of the place arrived that night spaced out – on “Mirah”. He showed me some and I tried a piece. Its like thin and long shoots with a few little leaves that grow on a large tree. You strip off the skin of the shoot by pulling it through your teeth and chew on this skin – much like chewing tobacco – but is bitter as hell. You have to chew plenty of it for a few hours before the world gets a better place. I didn’t have the taste for it nor the inclination as by this stage I had paid the manager and he was off to a club, and it was a Sunday. This Mirah has taken off in northern Africa and is now spreading south. Apparently it only has a shelf life of 1 – 2 days and gets flown overnight all over the place even to London. This frightening stuff and is cheap. What next?