Day 131: Floja Foundation Lodge and Campsite – Mushroom Farm

The black market is currently offering dollars or euros at almost double the official exchange rate. How do we get cash? We hadn't really realized this the day before yesterday when we were passing through Karonga; the next option would be Mzuzu in a few days. Too late. So someone drives us by bus to Karonga (just under 40 km) and pays us USD 200.

So we have a morning to waste, cutting Wolle's hairs, and hearing a few nice stories from Bulle, the resort's security guard.

What looks like heavy rain over the lake are swarms of tiny insects (like newly hatched mosquitoes). People catch them with bamboo made raffia nets, form them into an artificial dough ball, wrap them in leaves, and cook or dry them. Then they're edible :-)

The fishermen of Malawi and Tansania meet on the lake from time to time to celebrate together – borders notwithstanding.

We finally set off around 12:30, fortunately, that we only have a short stretch of about 60 km ahead of us. But the last 9 km are quite challenging. Rocky with hairpin bends, a few washed-out sections, and a few narrow spots, for example, due to rubble or a fallen tree. A few bends are also paved or paved with concrete slabs. All in all, manageable, but snail-slow and a bit challenging.

Unfortunately, we have an unpleasant experience just before the Mushroom Farm.

A Land Rover appears behind us. It takes a while until we find a place where we can let him pull over. As we overtake, the Land Rover wobbles so much that its roof rack slams into our car, ripping open the awning cover. A blessing, no other damage, as we later discover.

And, as is the habit of some people who have made a mistake, the guy (a white guy with a beer belly) becomes aggressive. We hadn't let him pass for half an hour (we know for sure from our photos that it was more like 15 minutes) and hadn't left him enough space to overtake (no reason to speed like crazy).

A few motorcycle stop, a man in plain clothes introduces himself as a police officer, who initially thought we were at fault, but then decided the other man was. A loud, unpleasant discussion.

We learned that the owner of the Land Rover runs the MASA Mountain Camp and his name is Ricus. Lucky we weren't going there!

At some point, Ricus simply drives off, and we assure the real or fake police officer that we would now move on and assess the damage later.

The Mushroom Farm is worth it. Very special toilets (outhouse) and showers (warm from the wood stove) with a view of the landscape, a parking space with some views of the mountains and valleys, a couple of terraces where you can sit comfortably. And a simple restaurant with a vegetarian dinner menu. Nice ending.