Yesterday we took the journey to the national park here in Malawi. Liwonde is the park and we are staying at Mvuu Camp. We slept in a bit and had breakfast in the village at 7 instead of 6:30 which gave some of us time for a morning shower. The bus arrived around 8:30 and by the time we had it loaded up it was after 9 and we hit the road. We made one stop in town to pick up Abby from Malawian Style who would be joining us on safari. The drive is usually about 4 hours, but since we had to stop for diesel and a bathroom break it took more like 5. I always enjoy the drive out of the city and into the more rural areas.
The landscape is dotted with small huts and rolling mountains. It’s just beautiful especially on a sunny day when the sky is so blue and clouds are fluffy. I sat up front next to the driver so I really enjoyed just watching all the people along the way. The last hour of the drive is on a dirt road that is very bumpy and takes us through a bunch of small villages filled with children. When the children hear the bus coming down the road they all run as quickly as they can towards the road yelling and waving. Some ask for dollars, but most are yelling “bottle bottle give me a water bottle!” The young children like empty water bottles both to play with and to have so they can carry water with them to school. Unfortunately in order to accommodate all of them we would have had to have hundreds of bottles. Giving one or two out the window would have caused a riot of sorts so we don’t like to toss them out. It’s much better to hand them off when you are walking if you happen to come upon a child. This is an easy thing to give instead of pulling money out. It makes me sad that so many kids know the phrase “Give me money” which has to come from many visitors pulling money from their pockets and handing it out. So many ways to think of this and not enough time or energy to break it down now 😉 just one of those things that comes with being a Mzungu in Malawi.
Once we arrived at the National Park we were split into two groups and taken by boat across the Shire river. This river is fed from lake Malawi and eventually runs into the Indian Ocean. Right away both groups caught a glimpse of a hippo along the bank and the excitement started to grow. We all had a quick debrief about the rules of being in the park and then headed out to see where the group would sleep. There were tents already set up and the gang sorted out who would sleep where. We only had about 30 min. before the jeep would leave to take us on our night drive. Not much down time so we all hurried and met back at the main reception area and loaded up in the jeep. We were lucky to have a jeep that could accommodate all 15 of us. The game drive was amazing! One of the best I have had here at Liwonde Park. We had an incredible sunset and saw so many animals. All the volunteers took some great pictures and I’m sure they will share them once they get home. Last night was also the first night that the stars were really out and beautiful. A few people have apps on their phones that you can hold up to the sky and get information about the constellations. Everyone seemed to enjoy that. There was a bonfire once we got back so we relaxed a bit around the fire and then went to sleep.

Erin