When the mind wonders off – part XIII

When this fairy road took us to the border between Tanzania and Mozambique we realized, the ferry, which is the usual mode of transportation for crossing the wide delta of the Lugenda River, was broken. Since we were forced to travel along the river bank north of Mozambique, we’ve decided to spend one more day on the beautiful shore.

On the way to the shore our breaks gave up unexpectedly! It sounds horrible, but we were driving on the sandy ground and were able to stop, break-less, quite quickly. We had luck that it didn’t happen on a road. We’ve discovered the breaking plates fell off. Once we were able to adjust the pressure in the breaking system we were again able to stop, but that was a temporary solution and we had to take care of the breaks as soon as possible.

Before that we stopped in a camp at the idyllic shore. the day was nice and the evening as well, but the diner and the response of my body, not quite so much. The barbecued fish seemed excellent, but what the eyes saw and the stomach had to deal with were not one and the same.

Next day, when we were looking for a mechanic to fix our breaks, we passed two road accidents and were very happy we were driving slowly and arrived to our destination safely. We found breaking plates and a mechanic, who came along with us to the nearest workshop and fixed the problem.
 
Now we were ready for a the longer drive towards Malawi. I’ve slept through most of the day, for I was tired due to the sleepless night and indigestion problems. At times like this it proved handy that there were three (and not four) of us. If anybody needed a rest, he could have the back bench all for himself.

The dark caught up with us in the middle of a dull landscape on the way towards Lake Malawi. We decided to camp in the nature and while looking for a place, we asked a passerby if he knows where we could stop for the night. He was glad we’ve asked him and offered us a place beside his house. the people were friendly and in few seconds there were 8 poeple around us, observing us, how we set up the tent. After some conversation and a quick supper we went to sleep.
 
But before sleeping – brushing your teeth. I’m used to brush teeth with electric toothbrushes and had one with me, but in this case I didn’t dare to use it. When I’ve tried it once on this trip, a boy was looking very astound and half scared at me and stood there about half a minute wondering where the sound was coming from. So I continued to manually brush my teeth.
 
A pleasant sleep hit the spot and I woke up reborn. It was my turn to drive. We took our farewell from the nice family and left them a tip. We also gave the man, who took the time for us the whole evening, a T-shirt in the spirit of internationality, IAESTE Slovenija. He was wearing a T-shirt in a very poor condition, so I hope we brightened his day.
 
The soft road, with sand like at the beach, and not too many holes were a pleasant change. We’ve stopped a few times to buy bananas and stalk up on peanuts and oranges. A peaceful drive with some stops and chats with the locals was a real joy.

We stopped at the road dinner near the Lake Malawi. When we got food the owner of the restaurant and the nearby camp sat down with us. He was setting up a new camp and was interested in possibilities of how to promote interest for it thought a web page and similar actions. We were happy to explain the basics to him and hope he had success with it, for I believe he had the right attitude for the job.

After a long detour we arrived to Malawi. At departure from Tanzania we were %25 lighter for the “road tax.” The northern part of the Lake Malawi is surrounded by hills, from which we’ve dreamily watched the sun set.

When the moon was climbing the sky we noticed a camp named Bongos. It was managed by a lad from Denmark, who explained the interesting price policy they had. Prices were different for the visitors younger and older than 30. So I and Pere were smiling while paying 2$ a night, while Peter was charged $4.

We were a bit late, but still managed to get some dinner we pleaded for: rice with vegetables and bananas. During our meal we talked to an American traveller, who went on his journey with the goal of seeing as many types of monkeys as possible. The plan for tomorrow was, to hike up the nearby mountains, where he’ll camp for a few days, trying to find a trace of some rarely seen species of monkeys. Good luck!