Friday 18 June – Dedza to Sedna

We left Peta and Rory and their beautiful little girls early on Friday morning. It was cold and raining and it was sad to leave the warmth of their home. They are doing a great job living so far from convenient doctors, shops and even pharmacies. Whilst we were chatting in the morning I called baby Maya sausage. Riley immediately piped up in her two year old voice and said, "She's not a sausage! She's Maya. The sausages are in the fridge!" So cute!

The border crossing was accompanied by the usual stress of finding out what works here. Every border seems to have a different set of systems. At the same time one has to be sure not to leave a passport or bag behind. There are also many people milling around waiting to make a quick buck. Once we had finished we sat it the car for a long time waiting for the border policeman to get back from tea. Such a waste of time! The Malawi side was small and crowded and dirty. We met some interesting people though. There was a group of 12 motorcyclists from Italy who were riding from Rome to Cape Town. They had a support vehicle with them. They were members of the police force and Interpol and they were called Moto for Peace. It was a very interesting group. I asked them if I could take a photo of them but of course photos at border crossings are outlawed and an official quickly came over and stopped me. Oops! I did get one of their vehicle.

Lilongwe was a busy place and we took a long time getting through traffic, shopping at Shoprite and going to get a sim card, air time and data. We finally worked our way through the traffic and took the road we thought would be taking us to Senga. Once again we were blessed by an angel in the form of a traffic cop who stopped us at a routine road block near the airport. He asked where we were going and when we told him he said we were on the wrong road and showed us a dirt road going off to the right that would be a short cut back ‘re our proper route. Whew! Once again, Thank you Lord.

One of the things that amused us on our trip to Sedna was seeing young boys on the side of the road selling rat kebabs. They collect rats, cook them and thread them onto a stick. They then stand on the side of the road and sell them.

It was getting dark by the time we found our campsite after getting lost once again. We managed to get the tent up and “eat out” (of cans of course!) We then wandered down to the pub on the beach – literally right at the water’s edge and met a couple who were enjoying a weekend break. We had a lovely chat. Now the electricity has gone off so it’s really time to hit the stretcher. It’s very windy right now but I think I’m so tired I’ll fall asleep quickly. Good night!