So our first safari experience in Africa was in Liwonde national park. Liwonde is just short of a four hour mini-bus ride from Lilongwe. We started off bright and early - well at least that was our intention - after talking all my young and lazy friends into a 7:30 start (with much begging and pleading), who do you think was the last to arrive at the mini-bus depot??? Yep, the Arntz-Gray-Quinns, and there was no Quinn influence on our lateness - it was all us. Anyways, after getting over the embarassment and hooking up with everyone, we headed out to find us a good mini-bus - we found a nice clean one, and since there were 8 of us and - thanks to the new minibus rules of only putting 3 to a row - we took up more than half the bus, meaning no stops on the way there. We enjoyed (well mostly) the vendors coming up to our windows selling things - I swear you can just say what you want and someone will run off to find it for you in order to make the sale - anyways, we bought a radio (mainly I couldn't resist the partyish song that was playing on it and had to pay an 100KW for the batteries so we could listen to the radio on the road trip. Then we bumped our way on to the road and were off...
When we got to Liwonde town we were able to find a mini-bus willing to act as a cab and take us up to the lodge we had booked - stopping first at the 'grocery store' (read 2 aisles of NOT MUCH) for supplies (read gin and tonic) on the way. We got to the lodge and were tempted by the $20/person self contained (with a bathroom) rooms, but opted to cheap out for the dorms ($10) instead. Besides, there were these really cool benches carved out in a semi-circle that looked perfect for hanging out in.
We decided only to do 2 activities, since we intend to visit the park again at least twice, so we went for the canoe safari and night drive and skipped the afternoon drive that our friends did. The first day was spent lazing around and recovering from the mini-bus ride...we tried to get people to activate by introducing a frisbee, but ended up throwing the frisbee from bench to bench instead, defeating the purpose.
The next morning, we started out on our canoe safari in true African style...the car broke down, so we had to switch to another car before starting off. Then we drove until the road ended in a puddle. The guides put the canoes in the puddles and we got in.
When we got to Liwonde town we were able to find a mini-bus willing to act as a cab and take us up to the lodge we had booked - stopping first at the 'grocery store' (read 2 aisles of NOT MUCH) for supplies (read gin and tonic) on the way. We got to the lodge and were tempted by the $20/person self contained (with a bathroom) rooms, but opted to cheap out for the dorms ($10) instead. Besides, there were these really cool benches carved out in a semi-circle that looked perfect for hanging out in.
We decided only to do 2 activities, since we intend to visit the park again at least twice, so we went for the canoe safari and night drive and skipped the afternoon drive that our friends did. The first day was spent lazing around and recovering from the mini-bus ride...we tried to get people to activate by introducing a frisbee, but ended up throwing the frisbee from bench to bench instead, defeating the purpose.
The next morning, we started out on our canoe safari in true African style...the car broke down, so we had to switch to another car before starting off. Then we drove until the road ended in a puddle. The guides put the canoes in the puddles and we got in.
Cole, Claire, Andrea and Lindsay in the canoe with our guide:
Hippo in the water:
Then they poled the canoes through reeds so thick I honestly thought we weren't going to be able to get through...but we did, and pulled into a clearing where we were lucky enough to immediately find hippos! We could only really see their ears and noses, but it was great - and we did see them go down under the water and come up again as well. There was actually one point where we were quite close and I have to admit to having gotten a bit nervous, but they left us in peace and we made it back to the lodge for lunch.
After dinner, we started out on our night drive - it was surreal driving under the stars in an uncovered truck - best sky we had seen yet in Africa. As we drove, the guide swung a big spotlight back and forth looking for night time animals. We saw impala and waterbuck and a baby crocodile, but the highlight was definately the freaky looking hippos! Out of the water, their large ungainly bodies look completely alien - added to this it is pitch black and the hippo is illuminated by a huge spotlight. They didn't look impressed to see us and most ambled away fairly soon, but we saw tons of them and it was totally amazing.
When we left Liwonde the next morning, our friends went home and the Arntz-Grays headed to the beach. We had decided to try staying at Chipoka, where we had never been. It did occur to me to wonder why Chipoka is not in the Lonely Planet, but regardless, on we charged, visions of discovering a secret beach in our minds. We got off the mini-bus and took our first bike taxi to the Chipoka lakeview lodge. The lodge was depressing and only had single rooms available so there would be no way for us to share. We checked out the beach and after seeing the stand of reeds at one end and the village at the other (perfect bilharzia conditions) we decided to head to more familliar ground and went back to Senga Bay. The lake was brown from churned up sand, but beautifully warm and we enjoying swimming and getting a little sun.
In fact, we enjoyed a bit too much sun and regretted it for the next three days while we pampered our red skin....at least we recovered by the following weekend!
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As an addendum, I should point out that we actually visited Liwonde March 1 - 4
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