More from Malawi

Well I’m back in Dar. Malawi was amazing, and quite an adventure. We spent 4 days on the lake relaxing and SCUBA diving then headed up north to camp out in a national park for a few nights. Here are some highlights:

Driving through the mountains of Tanzania (as rain poured in through bus windows while Bongo Flavor, i.e. Tanzanian rap, blasted through the aisle).

Hotel Hepatitis. This is where we stayed in Mbeya on our way back from Malawi, and I hope the picture captures the sheer dirtiness. If it helps, add some bugs on the walls and a hint of urine in the air…

Nkhata Bay. The town is one street, but it sure does have a lot of energy.

This is the view from our room at sunset. Pretty rockin, I’d say.

Darwin’s nightmare! This double-tailed mutant lizard was chillin' outside our room.

Driving up to Nyika Plateau, a national park on the border of Malawi and Zambia, the vegetation was very tropical and reminded me a lot of Costa Rica. There were also tons of tobacco farms, which brought me back to NC...

The Nyika village kids loved us because we gave them cookies.

There is one road into/ out of Nyika, and it is a dirt road in pretty rough condition. Since it is the rainy season, we took a bit of a gamble going there (it’s easy to get stuck and not be able to leave the park). There are these cargo trucks that are 2 wheel drive that can spend a week going 60 miles. We got to one particularly bad hill and there were three semis that had been parked at the base for two nights. We spent two hours on that hill while our guides helped to push three giant trucks to the top (yes, Katie and I stayed put since we figured we’d be more of a hinder than a help). At least we got to watch a cool sky for two hours. Our truck made it up on the first try.

Nyika is famous for its orchids. There are over 100 species there! In some places I felt I was doing an injustice to the world because it was all I could do not to step on them. It was weird, though, because there were also clover, dandelions, rosemary, and blackberry. What caught me off guard the most was the pine forest behind our campsite. I did not expect pine trees in Malawi, but it definitely reminded me of home.

The park is at 5000 – 6000 ft, and it is full of beautiful open spaces, perfect for watching wildlife frolic through the grass. It’s one part Virginia, one part Ireland, and two parts something totally unique. It’s really an amazing sight. (Notice the zebra and roan antelope in the front).

Kwacha. It looks and spends like Monopoly money and made me feel like quite the pimp.

This is the view from our tent. We literally had the whole park to ourselves—there was no one in the lodge or hostel and we were the only ones in the campsite.

I barely made it back in the country. My visa expires on Friday (I was unaware of this), so I had to sweet talk my way back into Tanzania. Luckily some unknown and very kind person put up the money for my residence permit while I was gone, so I'm not going to be an illegal alien. Woohoo!