The tea pickers are up early
Woke early this morning (did not have much choice with the local mosque calling its followers to prayers at 04H30) and crossed into Malawi at Milange in the South Eastern Highlands. What a transformation - dust and potholes gives way decent roads and mountains bathed in early morning mist. The local folk are already busily going about their business; transporting their produce on bicycles to market (bananas, pineapples, charcoal and livestock are all piled high on these iron beasts of burden), tea pickers are gathering the tea tips. Roadblocks and vehicle checks are commonplace in Malawi and the authorities are very strict on heavy vehicles. The police were very friendly and in most instances waved us on with a smile (the flags on our mirrors and the Bafana ballpoints probably helped). Rex and John managed to pick up speeding fines (they dispute that they were speeding) - the traffic police have apparently recently required these radar gadgets so are utilising them to the full. We stopped in a suburb of Blantyre to take on fuel, replenish provisions and of course to change some money into Malawian Kwachas (R1 + MK20).
What a campsite
Moved onto Southern end of Lake Malawi and arrived at Fat Monkies campsite at Cape Maclear in the mid afternoon. We are camping 2 metres from the waters edge. The weather is warm and have therefore sampled the local beer and watched the Bafana Bafana play their first game at the beach side bar at Lake Malawi. (There were doubts that the camp would be able to screen the match but after a tree branch was removed - voila - we had a signal).
We had arrived at the Warm Heart of Africa with its warm people, warm climate and has a wonderful warm feeling too.
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