First letter from Africa
Greetings from Karonga, Malawi,
At last we have access to internet - in fact technicians have just connected the office to wireless broadband today. We had a good flight to Johannesburg and each managed to get about 4hrs aleep then we had 5hrs in the airport before our 2hr flight to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. We were delayed there overnight and half of next day waiting for a new vehicle to be released and finally came up to Karonga with Ed (our head geologist travelling companion) in a hired vehicle.We overnighted in a guesthouse in Mzuzu and arrived for lunch at the Karonga house/office. We put our luggage into a donga (workers' ensuite room) and left for the minesite with an overnight bag - extremely rough road - delightful exploration camp all made of bush materials, (Saltbush Bill style!) no nails, hard packed mud floors, bucket showers in thatch open air cubicles and a similar arrangement for toilets with choice of squat or cement throne!! Hand basins are buckets with taps atbottom on tables over plastic tubs.
We slept in a nice tent on a foam mattress on a proper bed frame. A generator provides electricity from 5am to 10pm. All cooking is done over open fires in cement structures. Meals are simple but tasty eg beef stew, boiled potatoes coleslaw; chicken/tomato stew, greens and rice; boiled eggs, sausages, steamed platains and toast for breakfast, sausages and mash for tea last night back here at the Karonga office.
We drove a brand new toyota twin cab back from camp yesterday (The one we'd been waiting for the day before - they had to get a driver to bring it up to the camp from the capital!)- it's not ours - we're getting one of the two new ones being driven up from Lilongwe today! Bit flash but sure takes the edge off all the nasty bumps!
We met with Chief Kayalekera and did a trip around his area incl. the coal mine which employs 230 people and an irrigation system he has going - exciting for us as we can eaily modify the system to have it irrigate a much bigger area for dry season gardening. He's a nice guy and seems very keen for any assistance we can give. All the people both expats and Malawians are v. friendly and have made us feel most welcome.
Because of our time in Irian Jaya this new culture has probably had a lot less impact on us than it might have - some of the terrain is a lot like coastal IJ, the smiling, national faces seem familiar and there's even something vaguely comforting about the familiarity of bucket showers and long drop toilets!! (We have western toilets here in Karonga just in case you were concerned! :)
We are grateful to have missed out on jet lag, in fact we have felt very well since we arrived. Word is we will be shifting out of the little, hot Donga tomorrow to share a spacious house with a young WA couple until something becomes available for us. We met them at the camp and get on well together.
We'd love to hear from you.
Until our next update,
Love from Chris and Anne
Greetings from Karonga, Malawi,
At last we have access to internet - in fact technicians have just connected the office to wireless broadband today. We had a good flight to Johannesburg and each managed to get about 4hrs aleep then we had 5hrs in the airport before our 2hr flight to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. We were delayed there overnight and half of next day waiting for a new vehicle to be released and finally came up to Karonga with Ed (our head geologist travelling companion) in a hired vehicle.We overnighted in a guesthouse in Mzuzu and arrived for lunch at the Karonga house/office. We put our luggage into a donga (workers' ensuite room) and left for the minesite with an overnight bag - extremely rough road - delightful exploration camp all made of bush materials, (Saltbush Bill style!) no nails, hard packed mud floors, bucket showers in thatch open air cubicles and a similar arrangement for toilets with choice of squat or cement throne!! Hand basins are buckets with taps atbottom on tables over plastic tubs.
We slept in a nice tent on a foam mattress on a proper bed frame. A generator provides electricity from 5am to 10pm. All cooking is done over open fires in cement structures. Meals are simple but tasty eg beef stew, boiled potatoes coleslaw; chicken/tomato stew, greens and rice; boiled eggs, sausages, steamed platains and toast for breakfast, sausages and mash for tea last night back here at the Karonga office.
We drove a brand new toyota twin cab back from camp yesterday (The one we'd been waiting for the day before - they had to get a driver to bring it up to the camp from the capital!)- it's not ours - we're getting one of the two new ones being driven up from Lilongwe today! Bit flash but sure takes the edge off all the nasty bumps!
We met with Chief Kayalekera and did a trip around his area incl. the coal mine which employs 230 people and an irrigation system he has going - exciting for us as we can eaily modify the system to have it irrigate a much bigger area for dry season gardening. He's a nice guy and seems very keen for any assistance we can give. All the people both expats and Malawians are v. friendly and have made us feel most welcome.
Because of our time in Irian Jaya this new culture has probably had a lot less impact on us than it might have - some of the terrain is a lot like coastal IJ, the smiling, national faces seem familiar and there's even something vaguely comforting about the familiarity of bucket showers and long drop toilets!! (We have western toilets here in Karonga just in case you were concerned! :)
We are grateful to have missed out on jet lag, in fact we have felt very well since we arrived. Word is we will be shifting out of the little, hot Donga tomorrow to share a spacious house with a young WA couple until something becomes available for us. We met them at the camp and get on well together.
We'd love to hear from you.
Until our next update,
Love from Chris and Anne
posted by Chris & Anne Mattinson @ 2:48 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home