27^th June – 2^nd July

The guidebook describes Makuzi Beach Lodge as “a little piece of paradise” and it is hugely accurate. Having thought we would spend 2 or 3 nights at Makuzi Beach Lodge we couldn’t bring ourselves to leave that quickly and stayed for 5 – we could have stayed longer but there was a yachting marathon taking place and they were fully booked. We spent 5 wonderful days sitting in the sun, reading, swimming, snorkelling and building sandcastles. Brett and Lara who own and run the place are great hosts and very generous, the food is amazing and the service great - anyone visiting Malawi simply must go there. Thanks to Matt and Bonnie for recommending the place to us.

2^nd July

Left Makuzi Beach with the intention to go to Nyika Plateau Game Park. Half an hour into the journey we decided we would give it a miss as it was a long drive and a big climb and we wanted to head up toward the border to get to Tanzania a few days early. Luckily for us our decision turned out to be a very good one!!! We arrived at Sangilo Sanctuary where we would spend the night and head up to the border the next day. Sangilo is another lovely place to stay but it turned out we would be desperate to leave it!! Having loaded everything up, paid the bill ready to depart Toby checked the usual oil, water, etc and noticed the fan moving more than it should do. After a bit more prodding and poking we found that, although the water pump wasn’t broken it was on its way to being broken and were extremely lucky to have found out about it now. If we had done the 5 hour drive to Nyika we could still be stuck there!! After a few phone calls here and there we established that we could get a new one from Tanzania – excellent we thought. So Toby endured 3 bus rides on local transport (and I am sure they learnt some new English words on the way!!!!), and 2 bicycle taxi ride to go and pay someone to smuggle it back across the border for us and deliver it quickly. We were told that it would be with us by 4o’clock the next day. Unfortunately, this is Africa (or TIA for short) so it actually took 3 days to be delivered! To add to our bad mood the weather was rubbish and it rained solidly for a day (guess we shouldn’t moan too much after hearing about the rubbish weather back in UK). We were desperate to leave and get to Tanzania but we spent another 3 nights at Sangilo. Luckily for us Mark and Mia who run the place were very generous people and they kept our spirits up and even gave us a room free of charge which was greatly appreciated. When the water pump arrived we were shown more kindness by 3 South Africans who basically fitted it for us which was brilliant.

6^th July

Woke up very happy to be leaving Malawi. Said our thankyou’s to everyone who had helped us out and we were off.... Tanzania here we come!!