Day 284 – Malawi

July 16, 2010 – Lilongwe to Mzuzu, Malawi

Since being in Africa, the few experiences we’ve had using the public bus system has taught Eric and I one thing – pre-planning is a waste of time and energy. Instead, showing up at the station early is the most effective way to get to our next destination.

With that said, we show up at the Lilongwe bus station at about 7:30am in search of a bus to take us to the town of Mzuzu. The staff at the hotel recommended two bus companies – AXA or National – so we make those our first stops before choosing the National bus to Mzuzu via Mzimba. This little detour means the trip may take an extra 45 minutes – ish – but it’s still the best option out of the other options available to us.

We load our bags onto the bus, settle into our seats and wait. We wait for the passengers to stop flowing in, the sellers to stop selling, the preacher to stop preaching and the bus engine to stop idling. And 45 minutes after the scheduled departure time, the bus takes off. By African standards, this isn’t a long wait.

After a seven-hour-ride – only an hour longer than scheduled – we arrive in Mzuzu. We peel ourselves out of the bus and go search out a place to stay, which proves to be more difficult than finding a bus.

Our first stop is at church-run rest house. It’s clean and affordable, but way too institutional for us. It’s right by the bus station and if we were staying for only one night it would be okay. But since we’re hoping to stay two nights, we decide to move on.

Our second stop is horrible. In fact, we immediately turn around the second we walk through the gate.

Stop number three is much more promising. It’s a bit of a drive out of town but it’s been recommended to us and it looks fun. Unfortunately, lots of other people feel the same way and it’s fully-booked. But the management makes a recommendation for our fourth stop and one of their guests – Andrew from the UK – offers us a ride, which we graciously accept.

As we’re driving to Pine Tree Lodge – the fourth and hopefully, final stop – we learn that Andrew is currently working up at Nyika National Park. He’s heading back up to the park tomorrow and offers us both a lift and a place to crash. We were planning on visiting Nyika eventually, but hadn’t been able to figure out how to get there and since in Africa “transport is king”, we jump at the opportunity.

We arrive at Pine Tree Lodge and they have room.

And better yet, they have chocolate cake on the menu!!!

Relieved, we settle into the comfortable surroundings and order up a home-cooked meal – I have cottage pie – aka. shepherd’s pie – and Eric has steak & kidney pie.

And of course, I have a piece of the chocolate cake… life is good.