More from Malawi

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world. There is not much industry and people live of agriculture and fishing in a very traditional way. Corn, tobacco and tea are important crops but seven years of drought have not made life easy. School classes gather under huge baobab trees and up to one hundred children for one teacher is common. Life expectancy has in fifteen years risen from about 40 years to over 50, according to an article I read.

We arrive in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. Immigration formalities try our patience but finally we are able to enter the country. Our rented car turns out to be a very much used Toyota Corolla, but we comfort ourselves with thinking that spare parts will be widely available in case of problems. The roads are not too bad although potholes have to be avoided all the time, and suspensions are terribly worn out on our Sputnik car. Police stops are frequent, but the police men are always polite and not looking for bribes. Malawi is a safe country to travel in with very little criminality. 

We stay one night in Monkey Bay before heading out to Mumbo Island (see previous post). After wonderful, relaxing days at Mumbo, we drive south to Satemwa tea estate, which is one of the big tea estates in the country. We get huge, colonial rooms in the beautiful, old mansion and are treated to a fancy dinner in the dining room with silver candelabras. After breakfast with local tea and coffee, we drive to the city of Blantyre and jump on the plane back to Johannesburg. Driving home from O.R. Tambo airport, we realise just how much more developed South Africa is from the rest of this continent.