Day 280 / 45

Date: 17 January 2023
Sleeping location: Vwaza Rest Camp, Vwaza Wildlife Reserve, Malawi
Distance (km today/total/total Part 2): 37 / 17237 / 2400
Estimated climb (m today/total/total Part 2): 300 / 149300 / 31300
Belle and Sebastian song of the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fT6pssrES8
Day in three words: Chorus of hippos

We had a lazy morning because we only had less than 40km to get to Vwaza Wildlife Reserve. This had been my suggestion, it was a day’s detour from the main route south but we’d heard there was decent potential for seeing some big creatures. The cycling was on tarmac then an acceptable dirt road, bumpy but dry*, and the going was relatively easy apart from a few sandy sections. Twice Maggie slid out and my cleat got stuck in the pedal and I fell very slowly into the sand. I'm claiming that these barely even count as falls, they are equipment malfunctions.  

Near the reserve we took a small detour to a very strange village with hardly any fruit and veg on sale and an unhinged man in small pink shorts who said hello excitedly, almost immediately dropped to the floor to do press ups, then started thrusting his hips into the ground, then kept following us around saying things we didn't understand but that involved the word "money". We picked up what we could - tomatoes and eggs - and hotfooted it to the camp. 

The reserve was surrounded by an electric fence and we enjoyed some baboons getting around this by shimmying up a telegraph pole then launching themselves over the fence, one after another. The campsite was a couple of km inside the fence on the shores of a quite big lake. Theoretically any animals could wander through the camp and at first it seemed like there was a guard with an AK-47 there to protect us, but actually she then went off with a guy who said he was doing research into the local bird life. Must be some pretty dangerous birds. 

There were hippos in the water and also out of it during the day, which is not that common, but mostly they were quite far away. We had lunch (tomatoes with eggs, of course) then enjoyed the breeze and a chorus of hippo "ha-ha-ha-ha-ha"s during some afternoon relaxation. Close to sunset a herd of gazelle came to drink on the other side of the lake, but they were quite far away, then we heard an almighty racket from the same direction caused by lots of unknown animals, maybe baboons or warthogs, but again we were too far to see anything. The tasty coconut noodle soya soup of days past had to be downgraded due to the lack of veg, but was still tasty when mopped up with some bread. Just before lights out I felt something wet on my arm in bed. An adorable little frog had crept its way inside the mosquito net, so of course I took loads of pictures before removing it with my ipad.

Malawian Signs Corner
T&P Shop - the home of: mens, women's and children's wear, mesh, weaves and fresh sausages 
Chris Video Show - home of love 
HTL - for trees, bees and communites

*As we will see tomorrow this is VERY important 

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