Africa Trip PART 1 Nov 08

Trip to Africa with my brother Keith and daughter Rachel

From Christchurch it was a 3 hr flight across to Sydney. We were excited as this was the shake down flight for the 14 hrs from Sydney to Johannesburg South Africa. I'm a map reader and had expected to fly across Aussie exiting somewhere over Perth and was a touch confused when in in flight video screen showed our path exiting Aussie to the south over Tasmania . We settled into the flight with a solid meal and made ourselves as comfortable as you can in the confines of cattle class. 7 hrs into the flight i looked out the window and seen ice burgs floating in the sea. My first thoughts were 'I'm on the wrong flight'. On checking the video screen i could reconcile that the shortest line between the two cites is to dip way south taking in the spectacular sights if floating ice

Our destination was Malawi . Why? Well Rachel, my daughter, had spent 7 mths there back in 2004. She had traveled the National Parks of Malawi and was familiar with the culture . She spoke very highly of the country and the network of friends she had developed in the country. Keith my brother had the idea that he would like to see the wild animals of Africa, I love to travel so the seeds of out Safari were born.

Our friends in Malawi has arranged a 'Personal Guide' to help easy our passage in Malawi. Unfortunately he had met with an accident and scaled him self with boiling oil . It was too risky to go traveling with fresh burns . Rachel had the confidence and we decided to venture out into Africa on our own. Our base was Dougals Hostel in Blantyre. A Chalet out the back, a Pool out front and a bar in between . A great place to get over Jet lag.

Blantyre kept us amused for the first few days . Markets , Transport , meeting old friends , relaxing and planning our Northward adventure. The Bus station for the north is nearby. This gave us a false sense of security. Honking and Blaring of the Horns indicated that the Bus was near full and departure was imminent . We strolled over at 0700 only to be told the Bus had gone and no more until tomorrow . This seemed to be bullshit as there was an array of buses with Monkey bay displayed inside the screen . I approached the blokes standing around the Bus who reassured that the bus would be going to our desired destination but had to wait until sufficient numbers were on board before it took off . So began our wait .

Two hours latter our decrepit bus lurched off, The Clutch was stuffed , the battery stuffed the seats stuffed the whole bus was stuffed . I'm sure it had done in excess of a million miles even before being pensioned off to operate in Malawi. Stop overs at the main centres seemed to be an integral part of the Business plan . New Customers were sought . Thios bus line mopped up after the main bus companies had passed through. Livestock i.e Goats and and poultry were common sights in the seats around us . Lounge suits tied to the roof and traders attempting to sell their wares through the windows of the bus to sweltering passengers