24th & 25th July Fiona's Perspective

Today was relaxed, a bit of a boat ride along the coast, and some wine with lunch and an afternoon snooze whilst Alan and Gav watched rugby.

All in all exactly what we wanted.

Our last night was spent with Taffy and Jen, sitting around chatting, laughing, drinking and listening to Ismael Lo.
We all couldn't believe the time had passed so quickly and were really sad to leave.

So, we left with Herman, the wooden caricature of a Giraffe and set off before Gavin and Jenny for Blantyre. We would catch up with them after the border crossing into Mozambique.

We met Elizabeth's (our domestic worker) father and sister outside a prearranged spot near Lunzu.
Rhoda, her sister helped me buy some Malawian material and have a few sarongs made up. Thereafter we followed them back to their home in the village, Rhoda on the back of a bicycle taxi and her father on a motorbike taxi.

The rest of the family was waiting outside for us, the children all in their Sunday best. After some introductions, we were shown the house, the yard, the chickens etc. They had a big parcel for Elizabeth and gifts of homegrown Paw paw, eggs and peanuts (all pre shelled) from his garden for us. We gave each child a soccer ball and some pens. I took a couple of photos and Alan Videotaped Precious, her son whilst he kicked his new ball around.
Soon it was time to go as we still had about 700km to do before dark and Gavin had already crossed the border into Mozambique.

The border crossing was once again uneventful and we ended up about 40km behind Gavin & Jen as we had entered Mozambique at a more southern Border crossing.

We caught up with them in Tete, where they had stopped for coffee and to get some take away Chicken and chips.

A quick stop along the road to eat and we were quickly on our way again. The overnight stop was still 300km away and it was getting dark and everyone knows you don't drive after dark in Mozambique or anywhere north of our borders if you can help it.

Well, so much for no night driving. We drove till 8PM, which meant 2,5hrs in the dark, which was not great as we were tired, having been on the road since 7am. Trying to phone ahead for accommodation was interesting as no one seemed to speak English and my Portuguese is a little rusty (ha ha).
We finally decided to aim for the closest place as the cell signal was almost non existent and trying to call ahead was just becoming impossible.

The closest place seemed to be a Kruger Park replica, in the old days. It was a bunch of Rondavel's alongside a lake. With the decor to match the Kruger lodges. But it seemed vaguely clean. So we lay our weary heads down on the pillow and we were lights out.

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