Blantyre, Malawi

The touts at Mangochi were particularly aggressive, grabbing my bag while I was still attached to it and the fighting with each other. Some touts wanted us to get on a small coach that was empty while others wanted us on a minibus that was almost full. It seems if they get you into the bus they will get some payment from the driver. The most confusing thing for us is that the buses don't have signs showing their destinations and often the touts lie that a bus is going directly to a destination and when we are on it or ask someone else when things have quietened down we discover the lie. Some of the locals seem scared of the touts so will shrug their shoulders or ignore us not wanting to get involved. It is always a relief when a local can speak to us in English or their own language and reassure us or redirect us. Unemployment is so high that this is often the only way the men can get money and of course it is much easier physically than working in the fields.

We did observe the food sellers hassling a local lady who wanted to buy some food. She ended up being surrounded by about 8 guys screaming at her, shoving their goods in her face, and pushing each other about. In the end she didn't buy anything from any of them and I was her biggest fan!

Arrived in Blantyre in the early afternoon and discovered that we were outside Blantyre at Limpe and would have to get a minivan into the city centre. The bus station was chaotic and we were in the intercity part and had to clamber over dirty drains and broken walls to get to the lower more chaotic city bus station.

With our map in our guide we were able to figure out where to get off the bus and then walk up to a lodge off the main commercial area. The staff at the lodge were not very friendly nor helpful but we found a room with twin beds and mosquito netting. We did have the address of a backpackers further up the same street but when we read that their bar was open to the public we decided we needed a calm place to sleep. We were the only westerners at the lodge and discovered the room next to us was a mosque for travellers.

We walked into town to get money from the ATM and buy some groceries. While in town we saw the Hindu temple and found a lovely vegetarian restaurant right next door to it. Our guide book told us not to walk into town at night under the railway bridge which was in our street because of muggers so we bought some vegetarian food to take away for dinner back in our room. We had a power cut and ate by candle light and had to get up at 4 AM again the next day to cross the Mozambique border.

Passed through some tropical areas on the way to the border and passed many tea plantations like this one as well as some factories.

The minibus stopped a short walk from the immigration office on the border at Muloza and in no time we were surrounded by bicycle taxi drivers grabbing at our bags. It was a relief to get out of the minivan that was loaded with huge sacks of dried fish from Lake Malawi but a hassle to deal with the touts again. We walked over the border and then had to wait on the Mozambique side to have a visa processed. Two of the bicycle drivers followed us over and waited for us while we had our lunch.

We negotiated a price for the 3km ride to Milange, Mozambique based on what the immigration guys told us but the cyclists were not happy. They wanted to charge us the tourist rate which was 6 times more than the local rate. There was absolutely no other way to get to Milange so the bicycle Mafia squeeze as much as they can from the travellers and on principle we go for a fair price for both. Even though it was only 3 kms it was far too hot to walk the distance and we could have waited for ever for a vehicle ride to take us. In the end we needed 3 bicycles as the third one carried our bags. The carrier was unpadded and was made of steel reinforcing rods welded together so it was not so comfortable. The road was busy with cyclists ferrying goods between Muloza and Milange but our guys didn't want to spend the whole day working and saw us as an easy target.

As we didn't have any Mozambique metacais to pay them and only Malawian kwacha they grizzled more even though they lived in Malawi. That meant that they had to introduce us to their friend who was a money changer and he would give us metacais at a very poor rate. We are always suspicious of money changers at border towns because we wouldn't know if we were getting counterfeit money or not. We do check the exchange rate online before we enter each country so we have an idea of the current rates. For the last half kilometre of our ride we had to stop at about half a dozen money changers as the cyclists tried to get us to change money with their friends and then they would make more money from the commission the moneychangers would give them. At one point the guy with our bags lagged behind and stopped, refusing to carry on if we didn't pay more. He had after all agreed to the rate at the beginning so was playing games with us. It is always better to chose a guy who doesn't speak English as then they can't explain things when they change their minds!

Once in Milange we were told the banks were closed, which we found to be a lie, and another chance to get us to use the moneychangers. We resisted. A guy in a 4x4 came to the junction point and they negotiated a ride with him for us to Mocuba and he gave them a commission for finding us. The driver was a Malawian guy called Wellington, who was working for an Italian construction company in Mocuba and he spoke excellent English. He needed to eat before we headed off and while we were at the restaurant waiting for him an Indian guy and his locally based cousin turned up looking for a ride too. News spread really quickly in the small town. We headed off on the unsealed potholed sandy road to Mocuba and it took us three and a half hours.

We passed many small villages where they were growing cassava, cashew nuts, maize and coconut palms. The fields were being hoed by hand to plant before the rains arrive next month.

Wellington dropped us at a brand new guesthouse in the main street of Mocuba where we ate what food we had and did some laundry. John had to try a couple of ATM machines to get some local money and we were able to pay Wellington with US dollars. So we had a restful night in an airconditioned room so we would be ready for an early morning the next day!