We are now in Malawi

We haven't been blogging much recently. For some reason we can't work out we just haven't been able to get decent internet access in the places we have been in the last few weeks. This is strange because travelling up the east coast of Africa is so much easier than the west. Anyway we are in Blantyre and will be in Malawi for another two weeks or so. We will be working with Sponsor a Mum for a few days before climbing Mt Mulanje in the south and then making our way leisurely up Lake Malawi towards Tanzania.

Mozambique

Mozambique is stunning! We headed up the coast and stopped at a few towns along the way. The beaches are very beautiful with crisp white sand and deep blue ocean and lagoons. Rob went diving off Vilanculos which has a great reef and tremendous visibility. He saw a group of devil rays, an enormous potato bass and (maybe) a small shark in the distance. We took a boat out to one the five islands off the coast of Villanculos where Wendy chilled out and read her book and met a few locals that tried to make her eat a fruit that looked nasty so she politely declined. At night we ate the freshest seafood - giant prawns and grilled calamari. It is such a polar opposite experience than coming down the west coast! It is a great place although with ever increasing amounts of tourism will probably lose its allure in the coming years.

God's Window

After getting Rob's passport in Pretoria and spending some great quality time with Rob's cousins we headed north to Pilgrim's Rest where we stayed for the night. From there we did a day trip to what they call "God's Window", a beautiful lookout point from where you can see all of the surrounding countryside and mountains. It was spectacular, even though it was a bit hazy and swarming with tourists. Wendy spotted this enormous bug that was about 4 inches in length and had the most incredible colors. It moved very slowly, so we figured it must be poisonous... didn't even jump when we got close to it, but it tasted good ; ). We spent the day jumping out at different viewpoints and taking in the sights and ended up in the sleepy old mining town in a pub that used to be a church. Met some interesting locals that entertained us for the night, then we were off to Mozambique the next morning!

On our way to Mozambique

The British embassy has finally got over its incompetence and managed to issue me a new passport so we are ready to head out. Our trip from here takes us up to Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania and Kenya. We need to be in Nairobi for the first week of November to meet friends and so that we can party with the Kenyans when Barack Obama wins the US presidential election. It is goodbye to my South African cousins who have looked after us so well and back to the rigors of the road.

Drakensberg

We spent a few days relaxing up at a beautiful spot in the Drakensburg. It gave me an opportunity to get my rock shoes back on. This was not a pleasant experience. Six months sitting in a car have transferred what little uppper body strength I used to have into an expanded waistline. Also the bouldering was made more interesting by a pack of babboons which got upset when I strayed a little too close to them.