Shine on you Crazy Diamond

Fabulous camping spot

Thunderstorm

 Lilongwe 24.02.2012

And suddenly I’m all alone again. The last week has gone extremely fast. We’ve had many kilometers to do, so it’s mainly been driving. Initially we wanted to go west through Tanzania, but we soon figured, that way might not be too passable in the rainy season, so in the end we decided for the long way around, getting all the way east to Morongoro.

One of the pleasant things with this decision was that we had some more time with Jeremy, who unexpectedly caught up with us at the border between Rwanda and Tanzania. Things had not worked out for him in Gisenyi. We split in Morongoro, after having witnessed a beautiful evening light with thunderstorm all around us, and the following night, a thunderstorm with hail of several cm. diameter. It’s beautiful, but not always practical when all gavel-roads turn into mud, and your tent is wet every morning.

From Morongoro we went via Iringa to the Kitulo NP. We were a bit annoyed by the pricing-system, where you pay 20 USD for 24 hours in the park, but camping is 30 USD, so effectively you pay 50 USD for 24 hours, or as we did camp outside, and only spend the day (fee is for single entry, so they really make life hard for you). Kitulo is not the typical NP with game and the likes. It offers good trekking-opportunities, and now in the rainy-season it is supposed to be bursting with flowers. We saw some flowers, but not the colored fields we had hoped for. The area is nice though, but overpriced.

The last two days we spend in Malawi. We had one afternoon at the lake, with was lovely. The beach is nice, like in Gisenyi, but the water is much warmer, and more pleasant to lie in. If you avoid being eaten by a crocodile or crunched by a Hippo, you’ll have a good time.

Wombosi has been a good boy, staying strong, now when we could not afford much time-loss. Roger has naturally also been a good boy. We’ve managed to spend almost two intense months together without any fighting. For him the highlights were being in South-Sudan, meeting Ekke and climbing an active volcano in Congo. We (Wombosi and I) will miss him a bit. Usually I am glad to be on my own again, because a (short) visit “disturbs” the routines you have, but after such a long time I guess we’d made different routines. Still it’s going to be good to be in solitude.

Ahead lays Zambia. I’m going to take it slowly, fuel being a big expense, so doing 300-500 km every day, like the last week, is not in the budget. Zambia has not much to offer except for NPs though, and those I’ve done, and will do with Daddy and Mparany, so the Victoria-Falls will make the next highlight. I will just go slowly and live the overlander’s life.

Next week;)

Rocky landscape

Jeremy with proof of hail

Cool 1

Cool 2

In Kitulo NP

Orchids

Roger enjoys the view

Bookends

Sunset over Kitulo