first stop Dedza
on Tom's Excellent Adventure (Zambia), 08/Jan/2009 07:00, 34 days ago
Beth, Dave& I have been picked up and we’re off. Vinny has long way to go today (Best part of 1000k) and is not hanging back in the early morning gloom, taking advantage of the empty morning roads, it’s a touch hairy but we’re making good progress. We arrive in Chipata just before mid day say goodbye to VInny and hello to Anna& Amanda. They have an amazing house in the town centre which used to be an hostel, it has spacious grounds surrounded by an high protective wall. Inside has benefited from the female touch, in particular Amanda’s who’s been here some time, and is very much a home. John& Betty arrive later in the afternoon after an hellish trip from Lundazi a combination of rubbish roads, broken down buses and collapsed bridges, so we’re all together. Amanda, who’s even more anal than me has given John& I a briefing on house rules (apparently we look the most sensible) along with a neatly typed checklist of all the things we need to do before leaving e.g. which lights to leave on, doors to leave ajar etc to make it look like someone’s home and we’re off to the local curry house, which doesn’t do curry, or beer?! We end up in Hills cafe later and bump into some American Peace Corps who are “Letting their hair down” in a very American way. After waiting for the rain to stop, we hadn’t planned for this and are not well prepared, we head for the border. Getting across was incident free but there was a bit of a fight between minibus crews on the other side over who was going to take us to Lillongwe, eventually resolved, we’re on our way. We’ve got to the bus station sorted Malawian SIMs and sorted a bus to Dedza, it’s all going too smoothly. It was, Anna’s just had her bag snatched (Credit Cards, phone& money)what a bummer. It doesn’t help that the bus has decided to sit around for nearly two hours before leaving which means we don’t get to Dedza until after Dark, in the rain and by the way there’s nothing too colourful about the rainbow rest house. Next morning the sun’s out and the spirits are up.We decide to sort out accommodation at the internet Cafe (Grandly titled the AY Business Centre) but sadly internet access is not available at the internet cafe, so it’s off to the mountain(?). As expected we’ve lost the trail and our now battling our way through the undergrowth on a steep incline for a couple of hours. We don’t get quite as far as the top but we do reach a magnificent plateau with stunning views. A quick spot of lunch and the descent begins, we’ve heard that the Dedza Pottery Coffee shop serves improbably good cheesecake and we want to get there before it shuts. Once we get to the road we have approximately 2km to go, having not kept up the pace John& Betty have fallen someway behind, as Betty in particular feels the pace, or so we thought, they suddenly go roaring passed us sat in the back of a“Matola”(Pick up truck)which drops them off at the right turn for “Dedza Pottery”. We catch and pass them, we’re on a mission, the coffee shop shuts at 5pm it’s 4.40pm and we still have the best part of 2k to walk. It happens again, this time Betty& John going flying by in a big people carrier waving and cheering, amidst incessant horn blowing. We arrive at 4.57pm dash into the coffee shop ready to plead with the staff to find that it shuts at 9pm, so feeling in deserving mood we plunge into a combination of Ice cold beer, proper filter coffee, real tea, cheese and various cake as well as main course somewhere along the line. This place is a real oasis with standards that outstrip anywhere we’ve seen so far in Malawi, in fact it wouldn’t be out of place in the Lake District, with beautiful tiered and manicured lawns overlooking dark and moody mountain ranges.That night we pop in to the rest house bar for a couple of cheeky beers and spend some time with Wellington& Oscar a couple of Malawian old boys who entertain us with stories of their youthful adventures. Wellington was particularly entertaining; setting new standards in political incorrectness having shared with us his criteria for choosing a wife,“Beauty& Productivity”.