Malawi – Zebra Crossing! Fore!

April 7-8

 

As part of the Great Malawian Golf Tour (also known as ‘We Had Nowhere To Leave The Dogs So Had To Bring Them With Us Holiday’), we visited arguably one of the stranger spots in the country. I don’t know anywhere else where you can almost accidentally hit a zebra with a golf shot…

 Game Haven Lodge is a relatively new location in Malawi, having only opened in 2006. The idea of it is to offer something completely different from Blantyre whilst being easily accessible from the big city.

 

Surrounded by farmland stretching for miles with yellowing maize when we arrived, it certainly is a world away from the traffic and noise of Blantyre. The residents are a bit different as well…

 

There are ten different species of large animal here, none of which are seen as particularly dangerous to humans. I wouldn’t want to get in the way of a wildebeest charge, mind…

 

If you stay at Game Haven, you can go on safari-style drives to find the different animals dotted around the grounds. You can also just sit in the restaurant and wait for some of them to come to you, like the giraffe did as the Sun dipped behind the acacias…

 

There are signs which suggest you can’t get too close to the animals. They don’t seem to make much sense when you can arguably get as close as you like when wielding a large metal club…

 

The reason we had come was to play golf. A bit different to your usual nine holes, what with kudu walking across fairways and greens which have with ropes or steel cages around them. If you hit the metal of the cage, you at least get to have another go.

 

 

Whether the greens actually need protecting from the antelopes is questionable. Putting was quite a lottery, with one attempt rolling along the floor and then inexplicably leaping up about six inches into the air, having hit a rather large divot.

 

The animals are clearly used to humans walking around in close proximity. They also seemed oblivious to golf balls flying around. One of my better shots careered towards two unsuspecting zebra, luckily bouncing up high off the hard ground and going over their striped bodies. Neither moved.

 

The animals seemed less used to two Jack Russells who were straining at the lead to introduce themselves. We had asked multiple times about whether bringing our two dogs was a sensible idea. Unexpectedly, we were told that it wouldn’t be a problem; the only issue might be that young male zebra may charge at them, at which point we simply pick up the dogs and move away.

 

This duly happened, of course. Did Mini and Maxi instigate it by desperately trying to run at them, panting wildly as if they were taking in all the oxygen in the air? Undoubtedly. Did they, for a lack of a better phrase which doesn’t have a swear word in it, ‘brick it’ when two young bulls lowered their heads and started getting a bit of a trot on towards them and their slightly concerned owners? Absolutely. Did it stop them from trying to say hi to other zebra we walked by? Of course not.

 

We ended up coming to play this course three times as we knew different people who were staying at the lodge. The place itself looked lovely and must be a wonderful place to stay. We were told of zebra putting on a synchronised tail swish as our friends ate their breakfast.

 

Playing golf here was also lots of fun. From clambering through chest-high grass in (many) fruitless attempts to find stray golf balls to hearing the braying of zebra as we hit our shots, it was constantly entertaining. A world away from the big city and an interesting day trip on our tour down south.

 

Love you all,

 

Matt

Malawi – Dogs on Tour

 April 6-13

 

Hello everyone!

 

The Easter holiday has seemed to come around pretty quickly. Partly this is because we’ve only been back teaching on site for four weeks. Partly this is because it’s been an intense, busy period of work. Malawi has few active Covid cases these days, meaning that travel around the country is pretty easy. Well, it is if it’s only humans in tow…

 

Emotions: contrasting

Tips on my technique are not appreciated

Our two socially anxious delightful Jack Russells, Mini and Maxi, used to be dropped off at friend’s houses whenever we would go on an adventure. Those friends are no longer in Lilongwe, meaning that we currently have nowhere to leave them. The safest thing to do…is bring them with us.

On alert in our Blantyre base

Enjoying the scenery at Limbe Country Club

This makes everything a little bit more stressful. I imagine it’s like taking kids on holiday. Apart from the fact that kids are allowed in safari parks as they’re less likely to run off and get eaten by a leopard. Well, most kids.

 

Very glad the police didn't see moments like this

Wanting to satisfy twin aims of having a break from Lilongwe and bringing our dogs with us, we settled on renting an AirBnB in Blantyre, Malawi’s other big city. We planned to use this place, which allowed pets, as a base from which to go on day trips to places in the south of the country which are usually too far away to reach from Lilongwe.

 

Constant police threat meant I had
to wear my mask for six hours

From Blantyre it is easy to reach popular
places such as Zomba, Majete and Mulanje

After a stressful, six-hour drive which passed through seventeen different potential police stops (we got stopped once and luckily the dogs didn’t want to chat to the officer at that point), we made it to our house. Basic is how I would describe it, with many of items not working or literally falling apart. I tried to microwave baked beans one lunchtime. Five minutes later, they seemed colder than they had when they went in.

 

Our method of barricading the door so the
dogs couldn't run out and say hi to strangers

The consequence of a long, stressful journey

If nothing else, this would get us out of the house. Exploring the crowded centre of a city with a population in excess of a million would be a bit stressful for our pups, so I did this on my own.

 

Soche Hill, to the south of Blantyre

We wouldn't leave our house until after
breakfast had been brought over!

Blantyre has the Museum of Malawi, which is possibly one of the most deficient museums I have ever visited. Its highlights seemed to be student drawings of proverbs about people getting AIDS and a fire truck used in the 1960s.

 

This. Is. A. Bus.

'A hungry man is an angry man.' See: hangry.

There isn’t much to see in terms of historical landmarks, even though this is one of the oldest cities in the region. My brief venture into the centre took me to the Old Boma (now a courthouse) and the Queen Victoria Memorial Hall (now the town hall). I apparently should have also stopped at Mandala House, which I drove past as I entered Blantyre’s CBD.

 

This became the town hall in 1933

The Boma was built in 1900

The names reflect a colonial era of British control. One of the main pastimes, and something we could do with the dogs, was also brought in by the Brits. Blantyre has two golf courses. To say they are a contrast would be a bit of an understatement.

 

Limbe Country Club (clean, lovely)

Blantyre Sports Club (umm...less clean)

We have played at Blantyre’s main course before. For various reasons, we didn’t make it there this time. Within the sprawling city, the course we visited was in the township of Limbe. This was a separate town in its own right for quite a long time before being swallowed up as part of greater Blantyre. It is busy, chaotic and full of vibrancy.

Limbe was incorporated into Blanture in 1956

The dogs loved Limbe!

Well, except the golf course at its country club. A haven of peace in an otherwise cacophonic town. Seeing the tin roofs of the nearby township of Dangwe as you’re striking a ball along pristine grass is quite a juxtaposition.

 

It is a 9 hole course but with 18 tee-off points

Dangwe is to the east of Limbe

I really enjoyed playing here, possibly because this was the first time for me to feel like I could actually play golf. It was a world away from courses like our local one in Lilongwe, where you get harangued by caddies before you’ve even exited the car. There seemed a bit more respect and decorum at Limbe.

 

Playing 9 holes with a caddy cost a whopping $8

Pristine

Outside of these walls, the place is simply mad. Whenever we ventured out, we had to pass through Limbe market, based in a deep valley and constantly choked by traffic, mainly from minibuses. The police traffic controllers certainly earnt there keep here. I saw one of them severely reprimanding a car for trying to pull out when it wasn’t our lane’s turn to go. The car was eventually instructed to turn right and pull over. It turned right…and then had to stop as another car was hurtling down the wrong side of the road to try and skip the long line. Which resulted in another reprimand from the same officer. As a spectator, it was an entertaining way of passing the time sat in traffic.

 

It's hard to reflect the craziness of the traffic...
and unlike Lilongwe, they have dual carriageways in Blantyre

We often had to pause to let minibuses
reverse into these parking spots

Though we ventured out from the city on most days, it was nice to spend some time exploring Malawi’s other major city and learning about its more storied history when compared to Lilongwe. Many people who have been to both prefer Blantyre and I can see some of its charm. From little things (pavements!) to the large mountains surrounding it, Malawi’s southern metropolis has an attraction. Particularly if you like golf…

Eating at Blantyre's 21 Grill steakhouse

I think they had time to relax...

Love you all,

 

Matt