Day 146: Africa Wild Truck Camp and Lodge (Malawi) – Kukutana Campsite (Mozambique)

 

Up early, have a fast breakfast, pack up, and off we go. We have a long day ahead of us. Back to Blantyre, fill up the tank, grab a fresh coffee, and get some cookies. Then, unfortunately, the navigation system takes us onto a back road – we didn't notice right away, and we have to turn back. Oh well, a good half hour wasted.

Exiting Malawi near Mwanza is easy, maybe 20 minutes. Then it's a few kilometers further to the Zobue border of Mozambique.

We need:

  • 2 x 650 Meticals for the visa (approx. 10 USD).
  • A booking confirmation for the overnight stay (we got it from the Kukutana Campsite near Tete).
  • 10 USD for the road tax.
  • Separate insurance (we took out online for 14 euros through Hollard, linked to the "Drive-Zim" website).

The whole thing takes about 50 minutes. It's interesting to watch the formal madness again.

The car is photographed. And because there's only one official cell phone camera, the passport clerk has to wait. Then every passport page is photographed, even the blank ones. The accommodation booking is checked. Two payment receipts for the visa are filled out.

The slowness with which pages are turned and carbon copies inserted is years of practice.

The same goes for the customs officer's incredibly curvy signature. Remarkable!

But: We won't complain; we're through faster than others.

And with that, we're in Mozambique, even if only for a brief transit. And the circle closes, arriving back at the Zambezi River in the evening, which accompanied us for much of April and May.

We really liked Malawi. The landscape is diverse with manageable distances. The people are poor and lead a life of hard work. The atmosphere is friendly and relaxed; we encountered little begging and rarely encountered persistent sellers. The exclamation "Azungo" is simply the repeated observation that there are white people around.

Malawi quite rightly calls itself "The Warm Heart of Africa." That's exactly how we felt, and so did many other travelers.