Day 170… Friday 8th September
A 5 hour drive today heading further north along Lake Malawi. Beautiful views and many rural villages. There were police or military officers stationed in every village along our route standing in high visibility jackets but not attempting to stop us. It became apparent that they were waiting for something or someone. After passing around 40 officers (one in each village), an officer asked us to pull off the road with no explanation. We soon realised why. Around 20 speeding vehicles flew past us (Toyota Land Cruisers/military trucks) carrying VIP’s. The police officer who had asked us to get off the road confirmed it was the President. Quite exhilarating! Arrived at Mayoka Village, Nkhata Bay. Right on the lake with beautiful views and flowers. My favourite place in Malawi. Shared of course with many other creatures (lizards with bright blue tails, ants, HUGE spiders, vervet monkeys and cats all wanting food.
Allen’s perspective…
A familiar route, since we had driven this way 10 years ago. A more lush and green area than elsewhere in Malawi so far. We drove through the rubber tree plantation which I fondly remember, with locals trying to sell balls of rubber, which I’m pretty sure they’re not allowed to do, but makes for a fun sight. It was nice returning to Mayoka Village, a familiar sight, with friendly staff, and a nice setting.
In Malawi I’ve been very cautious about speed, knowing they love to catch out foreign drivers here. So I purposefully keep to about 60kph / 35-40mph. It made for a slow drive but at least I could easily slow down to 50kph for each town and village. But we were surprised to see so many officers along the road, thinking that they must have some kind of initiative in place, or perhaps a sting, but it all made sense with the President driving through. I almost drove the car into a ditch when asked to park up, that made for a comical situation. As soon as the cavalcade has drove past we didn’t see anymore police, surprise surprise!