It took ages to take our leave of all of the people we had met at Makuzi Beach, we gave our wok to Agnes and a small folding seat to Patric, then left for Mzuzu. The road took us through forest and rubber plantations and almost 1000m up the rift valley escarpment. Passing through the rubber plantations people were running into the road bouncing rubber balls - probably made from stolen rubber - and definitely for sale!
Mzuzu turned out to be a surprise with a two-lane road in the middle of town with flowering purple jacaranda(?) trees in the central reservation - reminding us somewhat of Tsumeb in Northern Namibia. We found banks and a coffee shop (Mzuzu is famous for its coffee), so we stopped and had a light lunch of omelette, coffee and ice cream! There's a bookshop at the Sunbird hotel in town, we wanted to get a more detailed guide to Tanzania and knew that they stocked them - but the hotel entrance was swamped with people as there seemed to be a big wedding going on. We drove back towards where we had come from to get to Pinetree Lodge where we negotiated with Paul the owner from Gloucestershire in England to camp in his parking lot right in front of the lodge (there is no campsite around Mzuzu). That evening we met Catherine and Lewis - Catherine is a trustee of the Nyika and Vwaza Trust - she felt that we could drive up to Nyika and most importantly walk there, so we decided to think carefully about it as we had decided to discount going there as the South Africans at Makuzi Beach had been very disappointed by the new rules banning anyone from walking anywhere without a guide.
Just as dinner was being served, Lewis got a phone call and told us all to dash outside to see what was happening. In the night sky there was a strange, large, glowing cloud - we initially thought that it must be the moon behind some vapour - but the moon wan't uop and wouldn't be up for some hours. It then slowly changed shape and drifted out of sight whilst dissipating. Most odd.
A large green praying mantis had been "harassing" me all evening - landing on my shirt even though I kept taking it gently away - it even followed us inside when we went for dinner - and came back in when I took it outside again! Lewis told us that the local name for it means "the one who licks the spoon" - very appropriate!
Mzuzu turned out to be a surprise with a two-lane road in the middle of town with flowering purple jacaranda(?) trees in the central reservation - reminding us somewhat of Tsumeb in Northern Namibia. We found banks and a coffee shop (Mzuzu is famous for its coffee), so we stopped and had a light lunch of omelette, coffee and ice cream! There's a bookshop at the Sunbird hotel in town, we wanted to get a more detailed guide to Tanzania and knew that they stocked them - but the hotel entrance was swamped with people as there seemed to be a big wedding going on. We drove back towards where we had come from to get to Pinetree Lodge where we negotiated with Paul the owner from Gloucestershire in England to camp in his parking lot right in front of the lodge (there is no campsite around Mzuzu). That evening we met Catherine and Lewis - Catherine is a trustee of the Nyika and Vwaza Trust - she felt that we could drive up to Nyika and most importantly walk there, so we decided to think carefully about it as we had decided to discount going there as the South Africans at Makuzi Beach had been very disappointed by the new rules banning anyone from walking anywhere without a guide.
Just as dinner was being served, Lewis got a phone call and told us all to dash outside to see what was happening. In the night sky there was a strange, large, glowing cloud - we initially thought that it must be the moon behind some vapour - but the moon wan't uop and wouldn't be up for some hours. It then slowly changed shape and drifted out of sight whilst dissipating. Most odd.
A large green praying mantis had been "harassing" me all evening - landing on my shirt even though I kept taking it gently away - it even followed us inside when we went for dinner - and came back in when I took it outside again! Lewis told us that the local name for it means "the one who licks the spoon" - very appropriate!