Journey to Malawi

We left Nungwi mat around 8am to begin the long journey toward Malawi, with a night at a beach camp in Dar Es Salaam on the way.

The ferry (aka commuter barge) is used mainly by locals and runs a couple of times a day shipping people between the port of Dar Es Salaam (mainland Tanzania) and Stone Town in Zanzibar. 

It’s quite an experience as you have to turn up to check in an hour and a half before the boat is due to leave, and pass through immigration, and security where they scan your bags and despite countless bleeps, fail to check a single one. The ferry terminal is sweaty, and packed full of people; at one point a coffin was carried through the terminal and we are still none the wiser as to whether it contained a body or not.  If anyone reading this contemplates doing this journey, book in advance as the ferries apparently gets booked up at least a week or longer in advance as its an extremely popular route.

Despite a couple of hangovers, and bouts of sea sickness within the group, we all safely made it to the other side where our bus was waiting to take us to Pipepeo Beach camp on the outskirts of Dar Es Salaam.  The roads are horrendous here with copious amounts of potholes and generally erratic driving.  The route out of Dar Es Salaam was blocked with oil tankers, therefore Jose our driver, just decided the best course of action was to drive down the wrong side of the road which in fairness to him, was particularly effective.  The vibe is a bit different here.  We’re told to stay in groups, and not go near the beach at night as its apparently very unsafe.  We had the option of upgrading our tented camp to a beach hut and in light of the tiredness from a long journey, we decided to pay the & USD each and do it.  Anything that prevents us having to dismantle a tent in the dark was always going to be a winner. 

For dinner, our chef, Denford, cooked us a spectacular dinner of meatballs and spaghetti in the campsite.  How on earth he managed to whip up such a tasty dish with limited facilities, I will never know.  Needless to say, he’s agreed to share his secret recipe with me which I’ll most definitely be trying out when I get home. 

Its probably a good time to talk a bit about the truck we are overloading through Africa on.  Its a lorry style truck, converted into a passenger vehicle with seats, USB ports, a fridge and plenty of room for storage (think rucksacks, camping equipment, food etc.).  Its one of the newer ones in the Dragoman fleet and is randomly named Florence, so from this point onwards, I’ll refer to our transport by name.  Our overland leader is Tomasz – a Dutch guy who started working with Dragoman at the end of 2018.  We also get a co-leader who does most of the driving and is mostly responsible for the truck and ensuring it remains in full working order at all times.  Enter Jose. Jose is Spanish but has spent virtually all his life in the Netherlands.  He’s a totally unique character, with the sweetest tooth I have ever known.  He also looks remarkably like buddy the elf, and acts just like him too!  We also have Denford, the camp chef who is from Zimbabwe and has ben cheffing for Dragoman for 20 years.  To say he’s excellent is an understatement.  Poor Denford actually contracted Malaria on the trip prior to mine, and was hospitalised for a few days, but now he is back in action and cooking up a storm for us all!  Lastly, but certainly not least is Helen.  Helen is training to be a Dragoman leader so has joined us on this trip to learn the ropes before she leads her own trip starting in Cairo in a couple of months time. 

We’re a 12 strong group now, and joining us are Lewis (UK), Lucy (UK), Norbert (Germany), Travis & Elisha (USA) and Luti (Dutch but living in the UK). I’ll cover them more as the blog progresses.

Dragoman trips are hugely off the beaten track, so everyone is assigned a job on the truck whether it be sweeping, carrying water, disposing of rubbish, unloading luggage, cleaning the fridges or collecting tip money.  We also get put into cooking groups, who take it turns to help Denford prepare the meals for the group. Dragoman are great with responsible travel and sustainability which is evidenced in how things are done.  It’s really worth checking them out if you’re prepared to get your hands dirty, and go without a decent shower for a few days at a time!

Our departure from Dar Es Salaam was an early one, leaving camp at 4am.  It didn’t help that we got to camp inear Iringa in darkness after 16 hours on the road.  I couldn’t face pitching the tents in the dark so Lewis and I decided to bite the bullet and pay 20 USD for a room upgrade.  It was a long day so anything to avoid an early alarm and packing the tents up in another morning of darkness the following day was very much worthwhile.  Although the drive was long, it was great fun with so many games played, and lots of wildlife to see on the way.  The drive took us through the Mikumi National Park where we saw lots of monkeys, zebras, impalas, elephants, giraffes and a herd of buffalo.  Mikumi is situated at the foot of the Uluguru mountains and is the third largest national park in Tanzania.  We aren’t allowed to stop in the park, but Jose did a great job of slowing the truck down so we could snap some photos along the way.

The campsite was exceptionally remote, but when we arrived we were taken aback to find a beautiful table laid, with candles waiting for us.  We were given carrot and cardamom soup to start, followed by roasted beef with new potatoes and veg.  You would never in a million years have expected a meal like that in such a campsite, but to say we were all pleasantly surprised was an understatement!  It was a relatively early night, ready for yet another early start.

We met by the truck just after 5am the following day to have breakfast and get on the road early to allow plenty of time to get through the border at Songwe, Malawi.  The immigration desk upon exiting Tanzania managed to make a right mess of poor Denfords passport by flicking ink all over it.  Upon entering Malawi, the immigration officer gave him a really hard time, despite it not at all being his fault!  We also played a horrible trick on Dani, trying to convince him he should have had an ‘Ebola vaccine’ before entering Malawi, which he totally bought until we had the heart to tell him it was a wind up.  Dani hasn’t had the greatest luck health wise on this trip so he was an easy target for us… I’m sure he’ll get his revenge at some point!

Crossing the border to Malawi was an interesting experience.  Firstly, we had to move at speed from Florence to the immigration office as for some reason they were about to close the border.   I was one of the only members of the group who got my visa in advance (as recommended by the foreign office) and all I can say is its good advice.  The immigration officer made it clear he wasn’t a fan of the British, and made a comment about Theresa May but despite that, he stamped my passport and I was done in all of 5 minutes.  The rest of the group however, had to wait around 40 mins while their passports were whisked off and returned after much scrutiny.  Malawi only accepts USD on the border and its worth mentioning most of the African countries refuse to accept USD if they are dated pre 2009.

The good news is that we all made it, and are now entering Malawi at Songwe!

Will write more when the Malawi portion of the adventure begins!

Luce x