Day 143: Zomba (Casa Rossa) – Africa Wild Truck Camp and Lodge

In Blantyre, Becky gets fresh engine oil. And we treat ourselves to a wrap and, above all, a good coffee at Mugg&Bean On the Move

By the way, coffee: Malawi actually produces very good coffee and a lot of tea. But it seems there's a crisis. The tea harvest is poor because of water shortages and then a heatwave. In the afternoon, we drive through tea fields that are only green because they irrigate them. Many bushes are brown or even cut back to just 10 centimeters.

And there's no local coffee for sale anywhere at the moment.

We wanted to visit the Satemwa Tea and Coffee Estate. Aside from the fact that they don't offer a special tour for two people, the shop doesn't seem to have anything left either. So, no coffee souvenir. Unfortunately. Because we found the Satemwa espresso we were able to buy in Macondo quite tasty.

We read that the promotion of corn cultivation, for example, came at the expense of tea cultivation. And: Malawi has no port for the export of these goods. Overall, the industry is currently in decline. And then – we heard – Kenya is flooding the market with cheap goods.

The drive to Mulanje to Africa Wild Truck is wonderful. The views of the mountains rising from the plains are magnificent (up to 3,005 m). The atmosphere is pleasant, the climate mild, the trees and bushes are blooming, spring is coming.

We are happy to make this detour before we leave Malawi.

And in the evening, we are suddenly no longer in Africa: Italian guests in an Italian-run resort. A completely different and very familiar ambiance :-)