Bizarre

At the house of Mario, a friend in Lilongwe, who shows me the latest mineral discoveries of the Mount Malosa, Zomba Plateau, I found an old issue of ‘’The Traveller”, an in-flight magazine of Air Malawi with an article which I would like to quote partly:

“Mice, mice, please boss are you interested? That is the familiar chant when you are traveling on the M1 road in the area between Balaka and Lilongwe. Village youngsters eagerly line up on the edge of the road, displaying mice sticks (two pieces of wood in which cooked mice are clamped in, like tweezers) while waiving down each and every car that cruises by, coaxing them to buy the delicious treat. Their greasy hands and clothes speak volumes of the amount of oil a cooked mouse can produce – perfect meat for those with a good appetite for fatty foods. Usually the mice vendors will ask for MK100 for a stick of ten mice, however the charges may vary depending on the quality and size of the mice or the status of the customer.

The traditional way of preparing mice for a meal is simple. All you need to do is to first cut the stomach open and remove the digestive system which can be bitter and spoil a good meal. No skinning is needed. In fact it is perhaps the only animal that is eaten together with skin and fur from head to tail!! Boil the mice, preferably in a clay pot, until they are fully cooked, adding salt and other spices as you require, - nothing else.

You slide them on a skewer, stack them one after the other and expose them to the sun to dry.”

Bon Appetite!!!!! – You need a lot of Schnapps!!!!!

Stop shivering you spoilt Wazungu!!!!

Malawi, The warm heart of Africa 9-18 November

Malawi had us sweating for the first time on this trip. What a change in weather condition. 38°C in the shade next to Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi)

The fishermen, next door to our campsite, kept us entertained with their preparations to go fishing after dark with precariously mounted Petromax lamps.precariously. Every time a boat came back during the night, shouting and haggling for the catch ensued. Needless to say, we did not get much sleep.

Then we found Makuzi Beach Camp, a piece of paradise.

We wanted to stay forever, but the rain started after the third day and as it looked like it would carry on for weeks, we packed up and headed south to Senga Bay.

We visited the Red Zebra, which is a tropical fish farm, concentrating on the export of fish, mostly Cichlids, out of Lake Malawi.

The Lake has over 1200 different types of Cichlids, with new ones still being discovered. The colours of these fish are mind boggling.

That night we visited the northern end of the bay with its famous Steps campsite, which normally is the hub of east African travelers - but it was empty. This gave us the authority, being the only paying guests, to demand that all loud music and TV at the pub had to be switched off. Thereafter we could enjoy the bliss of this 3Ha facility.

Next stop was Liwonde National Park. Mvuu, the main camp in the centre of the park had been block booked for three days , so we were directed to Chinguni Hills Lodge. A beautiful spot overlooking the Shire River swamps.

Elephants demolishing a baobab

It was extremely warm and driving and spotting game was strenuous, although we saw what we came for, the graceful sable antelopes.

Beers at the lodge were warm and we had to use Konstantin’s fridge to cool them down. During the night it was a constant pilgrimage to the showers to cool off.

Next morning we made a beeline for the refreshing Zomba Plateau, a hiker’s paradise.

Fresh strawberries, Himalayan raspberries,plums and peaches could be bought on the side of the road.

But more important, it is a mineral collectors paradise!

As our time is running out we had to carry on to Lilongwe.

On the way we saw mushrooms on the stick

Dodging the Rains 7-9 November

We had heard horror news about the road condition to Katavi and so we started very early in the morning from Kigoma. The first 100 km were pleasant and the scenery improved by the hour.

Strange termite mounds in dense Miombo forests were accompanied by trillions of leafless blue flowers.

As we progressed the roads got worse with wash aways. Quite a number of axle twisters demanded that we go pole pole (slow). But the base of the road was sand and Konstantin loves this. We enjoyed overcast weather plus two heavy downpours which formed rivers and huge puddles.

Katavi National Game reserve is Tanzania’s third largest Game Park. Strangely there is no entrance gate and entrance permits must be bought ca.100km away from the park. So we entered illegally.. The only active camp, the Fox camp, was full with camera teams. They told us that the rains had started early which has resulted in the dispersing of the game with no concentration at the only river, which is normally the case at this time of the year. A game drive of over 4 hours resulted in us sighting a couple of impalas, 1 giraffe and some warthogs and not the huge herds of game that everyone raves about.

Our decision was easy and we carried on south, looking for a suitable wild camping spot which we found just as the sun was setting.

The next day we hit clay roads which were in slightly better condition but would be another story in the rain.

We encountered this truck which was blocking the road totally. We had been warned by fellow drivers that there was no way to go round this obstacle, due to the black cotton mud. Luckily a road engineer gave us the advice to turn back and do a detour of 50 km, as there were three more bad patches ahead were the trucks slide off with their trailers and block all traffic. Gladly we did so and could do the next 400km on bad gravel at 20 - 30 km/h watching the dark rain clouds gathering in front of us and holding thumps that we will be spared soggy clay roads. Village children were running in circles with branches to catch the swarming termites, a local delicacy. Just as we hit the tar the rain started.

The hills on the way to Mbeya were showing the Miombo woodlands in all their early spring splendour – all shades of red, orange, browns and yellows.

The next day in Mbeya, Konstantin got the attention of the whole team of Allan’s Mwaji, Toyota workshop. An oil change and new break pads were due. He got his first thorough wash as well, - taking away layers of dust and mud collected in four countries in the last 40 days.

'Monkey Business" 1-6 November 09.

The remaining tar roads in Rwanda were good. After the border, tar soon disappeared into clay with a silt covering which crept through all of Konstantin’s openings , covering us in a red layer. It took Uli two days to wash out this red dye.

As it was impossible to camp on the way due to densely populated areas and refugee problems, we decided to try to reach Kigoma before dark. We had to travel with lights on to use power from the overcharging alternator, however when Uli switched on the bright lights, we were in the dark! We found the cause, a totally melted fuse quickly. Uli made a modification and we could continue into Kigoma, arriving after 20H00. That meant that we traveled 12 hours solid.

We negotiated with the Hilltop Hotel for our visit to Gombe Stream or MahaleMountains National Park. As Mahale seemed out of reach, we settled for Gombe.

Gombe can only be reached by boat on Lake Tanganyika. We utilized a dhow which had an engine instead of the sail.

After we established our home for the next two days, we prepared for our first Gombe chimpanzee trek.

We hiked for ca. 15 minutes along the beach and entered the tropical forest at a little stream and saw a family of six members searching for food in dense shrubs.

We noticed that, compared to the gorillas, the chimps moved fast and to follow them requires quite some agility, especially in the vines and shrubs which seem to trap all parts of your body.

After watching them for a while, we lost them, but while looking for a better path encountered another group. We spent an enchanting hour with these resting and grooming fellows and an energetic two year old chimp who entertained us with his antics.

We made hundreds of photos but bad light and lots of foliage gave us a poor selection.

We returned to camp and received tasty food, outstanding service and luxury accommodation.

To enter our boat for the next day’s chimp trekking, we had to wade through deep water and big swells to reach the swaying boat, resulting in everyone being drenched to the waist. We had a bumpy ride to the trekking station but the expectation of seeing more chimps dried us quickly. The trackers report for this morning was from high on the ridge which would mean a 1 - 2 hour hike to reach them and by that time they would have moved further on again. It reminded us of the gorilla trekking - the 2^nd day being a killer.

With long faces we started our hike. After ca 15 min we saw some movement high up in a huge mango tree and there was a group of 7, including mothers with two tiny babies on nests.

Relieved we settled under the tree and waited for the grooming, resting group to complete their morning routine and to descend.

A five year old chimp was bored by this and relieved his energy by exercising his climbing skills. We watched these activities for over 2 hours. Then a sudden move and they left the tree in fluid movements and we had to follow quickly to keep up. As our trackers surged ahead, we stayed behind and were suddenly on our own next to a mother feeding a tiny baby. She turned and walked directly towards us. We froze! She looked at us: “This is my territory” and passed within centimeters of us. Needless to say that we were unable to react and take photos of this incredible encounter.

The five year old chimp found a termite heap and demonstrated us his tool making and using skills. Stripping a long twig of leaves, which he pushed into the mound, before relishing the resulting feast. This lasted for 10 minutes, however when he heard the calls of his family, he obeyed immediately and joined them and that was the end of our viewing, as they simply vanished quietly and our trackers could not find them again.

The last hour we spent hiking up to the old feeding station and then further on up to a 30m high waterfall which helped to cool down our temperatures in this tropical humidity.(The day ended with a superb dinner and few cold Kilimanjaro’s.)

We woke up with thunder on the day of our departure as huge rainstorms developed again on the DRC side of the lake. We were careful with our breakfast as we expected the 2½ hour boat trip to be a rough ride but managed to stay dry until Hilltop hotel’s private jetty. We moved to the modern Tanganyika Lake Hotel to do this blog and prepare for the long drive down to Katavi.

Sun setting on Lake Tanganyika

Mad 1 returns

Lorna & I in Pennington and Uli & Anka in Kigoma, toasted long distance to the return of Mad 1.

After a R150000 facelift all traces of the accident have been repaired. We really must thank Cross Country insurance for the way they handled the claim and to PanelRite Panelbeaters for the excellent repairs. Its been 2 days short of 3 months since the accident and there is hardly a day that Lorna & I do not discuss were we would have been and wonder what Uli & Anka are seeing. It has been really great receiving their updates, thanks.

A brief visit to Rwanda- 3 November.

Traveling south we entered Rwanda and visited Kigale. This city situated on hillsides will become a major hub judging by the building of high rise structures going up all over.

It is a positive difference since our visit 15 years back, unfortunately the perfect tar roads from that time are starting to break up..

The Genocide Memorial Centre is an attempt to address positively what happened in the passed and lay a foundation for the future, however our feelings are that the region will not settle peacefully in the near future. .

Last day in Uganda 31 October.

The way south showed an endless procession of fertile hills, valleys and hanging fields.

The last night we spent at Crater Lake Mutanda, Nkuringo Safari Lodge, outside Kisoro, to be reached by a very slippery mountain road. This lodge should receive a gold medal for nothing but best scenic setting of any place in Eastern Africa

'Silver beard' visits Silverbacks (28-31 October)

Every days rain made our traveling refreshingly cool but the roads got muddier by the day. A hefty downpour welcomed us to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Buhoma Wilderness Camp, but after all this is the rain forest!! – up to 2400mm per annum.

Our first gorilla trek was a one hour hike up through villages to the edge of the forest.

Here we saw the Habinyanja family, a group of 23 individuals. Taking photos was easy as not too much forest was obstructing the views.

,

On the way back someone let the pig out in the dense undergrowth – which gave everyone a scare.

The second Gorilla trekking became a three hour uphill slog. When most of our fellow trekkers wanted to give this extreme sport a miss, the gorillas presented themselves in a dense section of the rainforest.

It was the first group that was habituated 12 years ago in Uganda, – the Mubare group - one 36 year old silverback with his troop of five.

After the prefixed one hour visiting time we enjoyed a well deserved lunch break and recovering period’Silver beard’ at lunch.

When we started our return, rain showers accompanied us on the two hours downhill slip and slide.

Back at gorilla headquarters everyone got a certificate for their successful completion but the ‘silver beard’ and myself were honoured with an additional verbal masters degree in gorilla trekking!

QENP and Ishasha (18- 28 October)

We explored the crater lakes region was for a couple of days.

Morning mist in the Kibale forest

It is a beautiful hilly landscape with tea plantations, forests and farming activities.

On the way to Queen Elizabeth National Park we passed the salt works on Lake Katwe. These are outside of the N.P. and have been worked on for hundreds of years.

In the park we enjoyed the Kazinga Channel boat trip, the only connection between Lake George and Lake Edward and had a rare sighting of the giant forest hog, vast numbers of hippos,

plus the obvious buffalos, elephants, warthogs and thousands of water birds.

We had the campsite to ourselves next to the channel with lion and hyena making their calls and dodging hippos in the morning.

Sunrise over the Kazinga channel

On the way to the south end of the park we stayed at a lodge on Crater Lake Nyamusingira in the Maramagambo forest, harbouring chimps, hooting and screeching close by.

In one of the best run camps we encountered on this trip, Ishasha Wilderness Camp, we had the most spoilt and relaxing four days in the company of Dave and Karen, the very efficient and friendly camp managers. They made Uli 65^th a very special day!

We were privileged to see this tree climbing lioness, lots of topi, Ugandan kobs, as well as large herds of elephants and buffalos.

. . . . . . .and then Uli found mushrooms/fungi….to extend the menu????

One morning we were taken by Dave, an expert in driving in muddy conditions, to the Lake Edward flats to have another “go” for a Shoebill sighting.

Our results were beautiful grey crowned cranes (5281) and loads of buffalo (5278)