We arrived to Mozambique in style, as we were lucky enough to catch a ride on a speed boat, which was leaving Likoma island for Cobue our first port of call in Moz. We had to sit back and relax in African time as we waited in Cobue for a lift on a truck (the only means of transport out of there). Luckily we were staying in a beach hut on the Lake so we made the most of the good weather and mingled with the locals. Due to the fact the immigration officer in Cobue was on holiday, we had to pay the local policeman a vist at his house and get a letter from him as confirmation we had arrived in Moz! After two nights of waiting for the truck we finally left and headed down to Metangula where we managed to get our offical entry stamp in to the country. From there we continued on the dirt road down to a town called Lichinga. This was the part of our jounrey which was long and uncomfortable as we slowly made our away across the country towards the coast.One of our most memorable and uncomfotable jouneys so far has been from Lichinga to Cuamba. After waiting 2 hours for the minibus to leave we eventually headed off on a supposedly main road, which was actually a dirt road with potholes and lots of other obstacles. The driver flew over the bumps and holes and unfortunately over a goat which he killed and sped off quickly much to the dismay of the herdsman. We arrived in Cuamba with very sore bums and covered from head to toe in red dust! 
After 2 nights of stopping in this small town we got a 12 hour train ride at 5am to Nampula. This was a more enjoyable and comfortable journey as we looked out the windows watching the locals go about their day to day life. Every time the train stopped we were mobbed by people trying to sell their local produce which ranged from garlic to bananas. People would exchange the produce and money through the window and as the train would soon depart the seller would be running alongside the train trying to catch their money in time.
After 2 nights of stopping in this small town we got a 12 hour train ride at 5am to Nampula. This was a more enjoyable and comfortable journey as we looked out the windows watching the locals go about their day to day life. Every time the train stopped we were mobbed by people trying to sell their local produce which ranged from garlic to bananas. People would exchange the produce and money through the window and as the train would soon depart the seller would be running alongside the train trying to catch their money in time. 
After a night in Nampula we headed straight to Ilha de Mozambique where we knew we had a relaxing and travel free 4 days ahead of us (plus Nats Birthday to celebrate). Known as Ilha to the locals this tiny island is very historic as it used to be the gateway and capital city to Mozambique. Due to the Portuguese colonialism since the 15th century the island has lots of fascinating architecture, which has now unfortunately been neglected. Although in the area of stone town, large colonial buildings still line the small quaint streets. We are staying in a sea view room, so we wake up to the smell of the sea air and the waves crashing against the rocks. We have walked around and explored the island, greeting the friendly locals with our very poor attempt at portuguese. 
We have met two swiss girls and a guy who have been fun to hang out with and spend the evening eating good food and chatting. I was lucky enough to celebrate my 26th Birthday in this idylic setting on Wednesday 14th. In the morning we went for a long, lazy breakfast and spent the day wandering around the small streets of the Island. In the evening we went out for dinner with our new Swiss friends to a rooftop restaurant and they even got me a small gift as they knew I was away from all my friends and family.So here we are sitting in front of the computer whilst being on this beautiful island, so its time for us to say goodbye until next time.
Love Nat and Kim xx
After bidding everyone at Open Arms farewell and wiping away the tears our first stop was in Liliongwe where we stayed with Julie and her family whom we met during our first stint in Malawi. After a weekend of relaxing and great hospitality, Julie and Hugh gave us the use of their car in return for taking some building materials up to Luwawa where there having a cottage built at the Lodge. It was fantastic to see all the staff at Luwawa whom we'd made friends with, but soon found out there were lots of departures, including our feathered friends, Kim and Natalie the chickens, who were taken by one of the staff members who left under dubious circumstances!
The next part of our journey is where our travel adventure truely began. We made our way to a small town along Lake Malawi called Nkhotakota where we waited until 3am for the Ilala Ferry to arrive. Along with lots of other Malawians and half of their worldly belongings, we waited onthe beach in the middle of the night. In the distance we saw the ferry lights and due to there not being a jetty we waited for smaller boats to collect us and take us to the ferry. With our backpacks on we waded in to the Lake and leaped on to the boat and finally got on the ferry by 4am. Our tickets were for 'deck class' which enabled us to sleep on the top deck of the boat under the stars.
After watching the beautiful mozambique scenary we arrived at Likoma Island 12 hours later, and although the island is nearer to Mozambique it is still considered part of Malawi. This is probably the most beautiful part of the lake we'd seen with the typical postcard image of paradise. We stayed in a beach chalet with a view overlooking the lake and spent our time relaxing on the beach, went snorkelling and saw the various types of local fish. On one of the days we decided to head over to the local town and ended up losing our way and by accident exploring half the island in the midday heat (only we could get lost on an island!!). It was soon time to tear ourselves away from this gorgeous, tranquil place and leave Malawian soil as our visas were about to expire.
Within the last week two new volunteers have arrived, Issy and Alyssia, both from the UK. This has given us the excuse to take them around the sites of Blantyre, as it was our last time to experience the things we enjoy about the area. Along with the two new arrivals over the last few weeks we have had a regular visitor in the back garden….. a chameleon! It has been fascinating to watch whilst it has been shedding its skin and moving from one tree to the other but it is now a permanent fixture, and so it is the pet to the volunteers house. Luckily the extremely large black and red spiders to the side of the house haven’t decided to migrate inside! This is how we’d like it to stay!
We are having a farewell meal tonight with our fellow volunteers and Neville (the director) and his partner Ennifer. Neville has made us feel so at home here, from inviting us around to watch all the 6 Nations rugby games at his home and allowing us to get really involved with all the different areas of Open Arms. He does an extremely selfless job, and it gives Kim and I something to really aspire to. 
So now we have come to the final leg of our journey where we will be travelling around Southern Africa for 4 months before coming back home to the UK on July 31st (pop it in to your diary). We wanted to give you an idea of where and when we are planning to go, as we may have limited internet access. From here we are travelling up to Lilongwe for the weekend, and have kindly been offered to stay at Julie’s house, where we stayed previously. We are then going back to Luwawa Forest to the school we are continuing to help build, to see its progress and to see all the children and the Head teacher George. From there our journey becomes far more interesting and adventurous as we are crossing Lake Malawi via the Illala ferry (which is known to be temperamental) to an island called Likomo and then over to Mozambique. We will travel up the coast of Mozambique and over the border to Tanzania. This is the more remote part of both Mozambique and Tanzania but luckily the roads have been improved recently. Once we arrive in Dar-es-Salaam we hope to go over to Zanzibar and from there get a train all the way south in to Zambia. Whilst in Zambia we are going to visit our friend Lara’s parents, who run a game lodge and also do community work, so it is great to have some connections. Of course we will visit the infamous Victoria Falls and then hope to briefly go through Botswana to the Okavango Delta. We then travel through our final country, Namibia and end in South Africa, to see Kim’s mum before our flight home.
Our final weekend trip whilst in Blantyre was to Liwonde National Park, known to be one of the best parks in Malawi for birds and other wildlife. Although we spent less than 24 hours there, we managed to squeeze in as much wildlife watching as we could. Not long after arriving to the rustic lodge set in the south of the National Park, we headed off for a sunset game drive. Bumping, loudly along the paths in the old and dilapidated game viewing vehicle we were surrounded by black smoke coming out of the exhaust, we hoped this wouldn’t scare the animals or birds away. With a large river running through the centre of the park we could hear lots of hippos making their grunting, laughing sounds in the distance. Although the park doesn’t have any big cats, we were surrounded by lots of different antelopes, such as waterbuck, kudu and impala. We came across a family of warthog and soon after we saw a Hornbill flying overhead, which gave me the image from the Lion King Disney film, when Pumba and Timon are singing ‘Hakuna Matata….no worries’. Our driver stopped just as the sun was setting so that we could get out and have our gin and tonics whilst watching the stunning Africa skyline slowly dissolve from an infinite number of reds into the serene darkness of night. For our dinner all the people staying in the lodge ate at a long table in the dining area which made it very sociable and cosy. Due to the fact that the lodge has no electricity lanterns were placed throughout the hallways and lounge which added to the rustic atmosphere. Also staying at the lodge were a group of 3 Belgium girls who had been teaching at Likoma Island at the north of Lake Malawi and also 5 Belgium medical students who are working at Queens Hospital in Blantyre.
Early the next morning we headed off with a guide on a canoe safari which we were first not sure about, as lots of crocodiles and hippos call the river home! Our guide assured us it would be fine as the crocs were not around because of the rains there were no riverbanks for them to sun themselves on. Both of us thought that we would feel safer actually being able to see the crocs instead of not knowing where they were. We were lucky to see quite a few families of hippos in the water pretty close which our guide said was ok to do as because they were not poached they didn’t feel threatened by humans. Needless to say if any of them did start to make their way towards the boat I think both of us would have started using our arms to start paddling. Along the riverbank we saw some amazing birds of all colours and sizes. As its very marshy there are lots of small frogs and snails which a lot of the herons and storks love eating. After getting back to the lodge after the canoe trip we had a nice hearty breakfast and then headed off back to Blantyre with the 8 Belgium people we had met at the lodge. As there were 10 of us all together we managed to get a minibus that could take us all which meant we didn’t have to stop every 5 minutes to pick up new passengers. It was a great trip although we both agreed maybe it would have been nice to spend an extra day just to relax and take in the lovely scenery.
When we first arrived at Open Arms we wanted to take the Harrogate House kids out for a treat and we came upon the idea of taking them to the local cinema in Blantyre (the only cinema in the whole of Malawi). After talking to Neville, the Director, and the head matron we decided that the kids may struggle to keep their attention for a whole film so what we decided to do was take them and some of the mothers out for pizza and ice-cream. So we all squeezed into one of the people carriers and went to the local mall where the kids got their first taste of pizza. Well who doesn’t like pizza…..so you can imagine the kids just hoovered it all up and then turned to us as if to say “so when do the next 10 pizzas arrive”. After the pizzas they each got a cup of ice-cream which they have had before an absolutely love. So all in all it was a very successful outing. Along with the outing we bought a DVD player with money kindly donated by Nat’s dad and installed it in the house and within no time the kids were laughing and pointing at Tom & Jerry getting up to their usual antics. It’s great because now they can watch educational DVD’s as well as some great animated films in the comfort of their own home.
As usual we have been busy with caring for the children and trying to keep them entertained. We have had a few new arrivals at Open Arms recently, first being four fury residents….the guinea pigs. These timid and at first scared creatures are pets to the older children at Harrogate house. We have been taking the children to the guinea pigs home regularly so that both the children and guinea pigs can get used to each other. Luckily due to Kim being a massive animal lover and very confident with animals he has been picking up our new fury friends and encouraging the children to care and look after them. Some of the children are confident while others squawk and squeal at the sight of them, as they are not used to such animals. We have yet to name them but hopefully by the time we leave they’ll each have their own name and be fully settled in to life at Open Arms.
Since we’ve been here, every week we’ve tried giving the Harrogate house children a treat and when it was Shrove Tuesday it gave us the perfect excuse to make pancakes for them (and was just as much a treat for us). We were surprised that both the children and mothers had never heard of Shrove Tuesday or pancakes so as well as being a treat it was also a learning experience for them. Some funny faces were pulled as the sourness from the lemon hit their taste buds, but didn’t stop them from gobbling it all up. As you can see from the photo, another treat was every child’s favourite…jelly! We attempted to make custard, but after that turning in to an orange, lumpy gloop we decided to go with sliced banana on the side (a far healthier option).
Once at Satemwa, we treated ourselves by staying in a place called Huntington House set in the grounds of the tea estate. It consists of five bedrooms lavishly decorated with a real colonial feel (and what a contrast from the day to day life of most Malawians). Once we had settled in we went for a tea tasting session, and as massive tea lovers we were looking forward to tasting the variety of teas grown on the estate. It was interesting to learn that white, green and black tea, all come from the same tea leaves and the arduous process taken to produce a good cuppa tea. After a nice stroll back from the tea tasting we retired to the front lawn for high tea and a spot of croquet (ra ra ra)!! And we’ve never tasted such an amazing chocolate, banana and nut cake before. The evening ended with more great food, all with a tea inspired theme. We were hoping to explore the estate by going quad biking on the Sunday morning but unfortunately it was raining so instead we had a long and lazy breakfast.
After experiencing ‘Colonial Africa’ I soon discovered what else Africa has to offer….tropical disease! Over the past week I had a perfect red ring developing on my face which was getting larger, only to find out it is ring worm! Not a parasite in my face which I naively thought it was, but a fungal infection I had more than likely caught from one of the children. Anyway it’s disappearing now and hopefully we won’t get to experience any other lovely diseases Africa has to offer.
When we saw the sign for the ‘CCAP hut’ which we were staying in, our mood lifted as we thought we had completed our climb. But there was still a difficult 1 hour journey ahead, which contained 2 valleys ahead and a very steep descent down to the hut. After a 6 hour hike we finally arrived, to be greeted by the friendly caretaker, Bonfess who was boiling water over a fire for a cup of tea and hot wash. The hut was very quaint and was built over 100 years ago by Scottish missionaries. That night we celebrated our 2 year anniversary over a candle lit dinner (because there was no electricity) and a warm coke each sitting in front of the fire – quite romantic really. To top it off we saw one of the best sunsets we’ve seen in Africa. 
Even though we didn’t think our legs could manage it we were up early the next morning setting off with Oscar on a hike of the plateau. We rambled through grass as high as our heads and a arrived at a place named the crater, where we sat on the edge looking out over the mountains and we could even see Mozambique ahead. We headed off to some rock pools which led to a water fall, but due to the clouds closing in on us it was too cold to have a swim. The viewpoint on the edge of the plateau gave us a breath taking view of the land below and we spotted the towns we had stopped at during our journey there on the minibus.
The next day it was time to head back down to the mountain (and to reality)! We set off at 6.30am, hoping that an early start would get us down there in good time. But much were we mistaken as the descent proved to be quite tricky due to the slippery paths and rocks. After a very long and tiring 7 hours we were back down the mountain and ready to head back home for a nice hot shower.
The trip to Lake Malawi for Kim’s Birthday was much needed after our busy week. We got a lift up with the Director of the home, Neville who’s an English guy and has been running the home for 10 years. We heard all the stories about what led him to Africa and the amazing things he’s done for these children, which was all very inspirational to hear. Neville stopped on the way up to stock up on fresh fruit for our stay at his cottage and we managed to sample a fruit called a custard apple, which was soft and fleshy on the outside with loads of pips in the centre. The fruit here in Malawi is amazing and there is always one or another fruit in season, so we have taken to buying whatever we can get our hands on and making fruit salad. We spent the first night in Mangochi which is at the southern most point of Lake Malawi, and his cottage looks right over the lake – a beautiful spot. 
The rest of the week we spent helping at the other infant home in Mangochi and due to the building being purpose built for an infant home it has a very different feel to the one in Blantyre. We went along on one of the days to the local market to help out with the weekly shop. It was a great little bustling market with loads of fresh fruit, veg and fish which you could smell even before you could see it. Besides helping with the feeding we also tidied up and sorted out the toys, books and puzzles in the classroom which is part of the home. 
We stayed at Neville’s cottage on the lake and had some regular cheeky visitors – vervet monkeys. One afternoon a monkey managed to jump up and open the door to the house, eating our bread and pineapple!! After being chased out of the house they scampered into the nearest tree and looked down at us munching away on the food they had stolen!
