Day 288 / 53

Date: 25 January 2023
Sleeping location: Nangondo Resthouse, Mtakataka, Malawi
Distance (km today/total/total Part 2): 56 / 17751 / 2914
Estimated climb (m today/total/total Part 2): 200 / 152300 / 34300
Hedgehog: $2
Day in three words: Excessive time murder

I woke up at 4.45, not quite sure why but not happy about it. The one time I don't have my stove and coffee with me... I wanted to get breakfast but the earliest cafe opening time was 8.30 so I walked around for a bit. There really is nothing interesting to Lilongwe except for a few westerner restaurants and supermarkets. Still, that's what I came for. At the cafe I had multiple coffees and some quite good food including a passable croissant. It was also a bakery so I picked up a sourdough loaf to make the blue cheese experience* properly worthwhile.

The short minibus to the Salima turnoff had a picture of Che Guevara next to a picture of Colonel Gaddafi, and a hole in the floor such that I could see the rear axle spinning round. After paying I had to repeatedly request my change. It's hard to escape the impression that many Malawians are low key con artists. Change is "forgotten", bill totals are "accidentally" miscalculated too high and fall apart when examined, prices are higher for me than for locals. The previous day I paid 5000 and the lady next to me paid 4000, and when I queried this was told she was getting off on the outskirts of Lilongwe, which was a lie. The whole thing is very wearing because you have to be constantly on guard for it. At the Salima turnoff I was shepherded onto a bus that would be full in "ten minutes", and the guy was only one hundred and ten minutes out in his estimation. I wonder if Africa Time is a product of the continent's dire economic productivity or a cause? It's not that people are lazy, but that they are completely content to sit around for hours doing absolutely nothing.**

Once finally on the way back to Salima I had a new record for "weirdest thing offered to me through a bus window" - a live hedgehog. To eat it? To keep it as a pet? To rescue it and let it go into the wild? It was clearly so scared, curled up in a little ball, and it made me quite sad. Back in Salima I had a mass repacking of my food and realised that I now have seven different chilli sauces, which could be considered excessive. Before setting off I had one of the blue cheeses on the fancy bread, with apple, and it was the nicest snack I'd had for weeks. After all the faffing I eventually set off at 3.30 with the aim of biting a good chunk out of the 150km to Cape Maclear to make tomorrow easier. The road was yet more flat farmland/marshland and I just cranked some miles out, helped by tows from a couple of local guys on bikes who were trying to show off by beating me. 

I decided to look for a place to stay after I'd done 40km, but there was nowhere. I didn't fancy wild camping after the events of last time, plus I don't hugely like or trust the people round here, which also makes me nervous about asking to camp in a church or school. I decided to plough on to a bigger village with a lodge shown on google maps, but misjudged my darkness timings as I was further east than yesterday and it was cloudier, so it was almost fully dark by the time I arrived. The place was basic with a tiny room but it was cheap and I was just happy to have somewhere to sleep in peace. Whilst showering I heard a random voice saying "give me money" outside the door, which I assumed was a rogue child, but I just told the voice to fuck off and it did. For dinner I made spaghetti with tomato sauce on the step outside the room and my opposite neighbour said hello. He was a travelling salesman called Ezra, selling USB lights and insect spray across Malawi. He was a nice guy though did seem to be hinting that his business needed money. I decided to take his comments at face value and enjoy the chat. 

Malawian Signs Corner
Goodpeople Motor Workers
Salima Turn-Off Police Listening Unit
Vital...official water of THE FLAMES [This is the Malawian football team's nickname, but it feels to me like England's three lions having an Official Poaching Partner]
Sososo Coaches [which even gave itself three stars on the side] 
Good Ideas Restaurant

*Also a 70s folk/prog crossover band from Somerset
**Though to be fair you could say the same about many dead-end office jobs in the UK, but they are at least being paid for it there

 

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