Day 293 / 58

Date: 30 January 2023
Sleeping location: Kutchire Lodge, Liwonde, Malawi
Distance (km today/total/total Part 2): 0 / 18023 / 3186
Estimated climb (m today/total/total Part 2): 0 / 153300 / 35300
Game: big
Day in three words: Pachyderms and pain

In the night things took a big turn for the worse; I had to visit the toilet four times for some extremely problematic emissions and spent a lot of the rest of the time tossing and turning and feeling considerably less than ideal. When my alarm went off at 5.15 I felt awful, but didn't want to miss the safari so I popped a host of drugs, dragged myself out, forced down some toast and took the jeep into the park with Steph and Faye.*

It was teeming with animals in there and we almost immediately saw baboons, warthogs, waterbucks, impala and a few kudu. Often the different species were just hanging out together, presumably for protection but maybe also for the smaller animals to score some cool points by hanging out with the bigger kids. The waterbucks and warthogs were especially friendly, presumably bonding over their love of the syllable "wart-". 

Patrick spied three elephants and we left the main track to drive across the open grassland and get a little closer to them. And then a little closer, and closer, and closer until we were just metres away. They weren't bothered at all and just carried on eating the grass, grabbing a clump with their trunk, kicking it with their big foot so it came loose, then munching away. As they moved around us they, at times, got incredibly close, perhaps two metres at their closest. All four of us were completely silent, just basking in the many wonderful moments. Eventually we decided to say goodbye and carried on our way. 

Further along we came across a big herd of buffalo, but didn't get anything like as close to them because they are total bastards. And we came across a proper herd of elephants, around twenty with babies in tow, marching steadily through the trees. They were close to us on the road but again didn't seem bothered at all. I suppose it's easy to be casual when you're that big.

We got back to camp about 9.30 and were given our main breakfast, which I again forced down apart from the sausage which I couldn't even look at. After this I went back to bed, notionally to see how I felt at noon as that's when I'd initially planned to leave. It turned out that was not an option and I didn't leave bed for the rest of the day, sleeping quite a lot, lying with my eyes closed and a splitting headache quite a lot, and watching a little tv where possible. The meds had successfully "blocked me up" so I figured a lot of my trauma was now residual dehydration and lack of nutrition, so I forced down the lunch and dinner the lodge kindly brought to my room and drank as much water as I could handle. At 8 I popped a load more meds and went to sleep, dreaming of an easier tomorrow. Still, the amazingness of the safari more than made up for the dreadfulness of the rest of the day.

Malawian Signs Corner
[Malawian Signs Corner is off sick today]

*In my daze I had forgotten my wallet for the park entry fee, and rather than go back Steph kindly offered to lend me the $30. Then in my further daze afterwards I forgot this and didn’t pay her back before they left. When I offered to transfer it she generously agreed to let it stand as a donation to LTCH instead. They were both very nice and I wish I’d been more alive during our time together. 

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