Impromptu Liwonde National Park Weekend

I’m not usually one to make big last-minute plans, but my second weekend I decided to be a bit spontaneous and ‘plan’ a trip to one of Malawi’s national parks during lunch on Friday with Sarah - a coworker. Essentially, we secured a rental car, I invited 2 other people via email and we decided to make up the rest as we went along. There were a few calls made to the lodge we were interested in staying at, but between accents, poor connections, and not knowing the exact number of people we’d be arriving with, we decided to figure things out when we arrived at the lodge the next day. (For anyone who knows me, this is NOT how I usually operate.)
Lauren and Jeff arrived in Zomba Saturday morning after getting on a matola at some ungodly hour from Blantyre and we set off directly in our 4-wheel drive SUV rented for the amazing price of $60 total. There were 5 of us but Lauren and Jeff weren’t yet sure if they wanted to spend the money to stay the night. Also, it turns out that, due to a miscommunication, they thought we were going hiking, not on a safari.
Once we arrived, saw the accommodations – including a swimming pool! –, and listened to our options, everyone decided to spend the night and fully enjoy the weekend. This decision was conveniently aided by the fact that the lodge accepted credit cards and it is almost impossible to get back out to the main road without one’s own car, which Sarah and Amber were keeping because they definitely were spending the night. So, you might say we were held hostage, but really it was just the gentle push we all needed to allow ourselves to have some fun and enjoy being in Malawi, despite our meager budgets and the fact that none of us GHC fellows will be getting paid until the end of August.
A delicious dip in the pool commenced immediately upon being instated in our rooms. Rooms, I might add, that Lauren, Jeff, and I got seriously upgraded due to a random lack of bedding in the tent accommodation we paid for. Instead, we got placed in a beautiful 4 person ‘chalet’ for the same price of a camping tent.

 

Post-pool, we went on the evening game drive, watched the sunset with glasses of Malawian G&T, and then returned after dark with the aid of a red light to spot any nocturnal creatures that came our way (or rather, ran frantically away from us).

We were all famished and excited about dinner but, unfortunately, had to sit through a drum and dance performance before being fed. Under circumstances involving less gastric distress, the performance would have been enjoyable. Instead, we all wanted to take a bite out the drum players, both to satiate our hunger and to get them to stop beating those damn drums and feed us!

Everyone passed out right after dinner and slept relatively well, except for the occasional hippo grunt disturbance throughout the night. After a delicious breakfast of veggie omelets (or eggs scrambled or fried – your choice) in the morning, we set out on our 2-hour boat safari to get up close with hippos, crocs, and various other river life. The trip didn’t hold any surprises but was beautiful and relaxing.

 

We headed out soon after returning from the boat. It is a short drive from the camp dock to the outer gate of the park and there is a big sign and a curio shop right on the outside of this gate. I asked to stop so as to get a picture of the sign and check out the curio (souvenir) stand, which turned out to be a horrible idea, because the car refused to start up again when we were done. After a hilarious few attempts at pushing-starting the vehicle both forward and backward with the help of the curio stall guys, we cleaned off the battery clamp and got it running again.

 Jeff bought a drum as a thank-you for the guys’ help. Needless to say, we did NOT stop the car again for the rest of the ride in to Zomba. After a delicious, authentic Italian meal at Casa Rosa’s in Zomba, Sarah and Amber dropped Jeff and Lauren off at my place to wait a mere 6 hours for their driver to show up and we all went along our merry ways.
What made this weekend a smashing success was the fast friendship we all made. Amber and Sarah have known each other for a while, but I only met them 2 weeks ago and Lauren, Jeff, and I only met each other a month ago. The Aussies and GHCers didn’t meet until everyone got in the car to set off. This could have been a recipe for disaster, but it was amazingly fun, instead. I look forward to many more new insta-friendships and great memories in unexpected places this year.