ROAD TRIP!!!!!

Inspired by last Saturday's wonderful-ness and given that Hannah has only 3 weekends left, the 'crew' (Hannah, Chelsea, Kathleen, Liz and I) decided to make the most of the recent beautiful weather and headed to Lake Malawi for the weekend. The events that ensued amounted to about the most fun I've had in many, many weeks.

On Friday afternoon, we planned to head out with sleeping bags and tents to an area of the lake called Cape Maclear. Our plan was to leave by 1pm, given that it is a 5 hour drive to get up there. But of course, we instead left after 3, mistake number one. We piled all our stuff into the car, picked Liz up in Zomba (a city one hour north of Blantyre) and continued north well past sunset. It was getting late and the road was exceptionally horrendous so we decided to find a backpacker's place off the road rather than try to make it all the way to the Cape (and then have to pitch tents in the dark). Our first attempt to find a lodge put us in the middle of a very quiet, dark village with absolutely nothing remotely resembling a guest house. We drove past mud hut after mud hut until a young woman came out of her house, standing in her door way lit just by candles and the moon. In perfect English (what a surprise) she told us that we had come much too far and that we had to head back to the main road towards Monkey Bay. We turned back, and at the next sign (Venice Beach Backpacker Lodge) we again turned off the road. We came to the first fork (Two roads diverged in a road?), took the right side...and promptly turned back. We headed to the left side, and came to another unmarked fork. Left again. Continued down this dirt road for a while and found ourselves at an all boys boarding school - mind you it was after 9pm. Quickly got out of there. Back to the dirt road...down, down, down. We next came upon a huge gathering of school children dancing and singing and clapping. Their whole village is built on the sand of the lake so they were doing gymnastics underneath the stars - how fun. They quickly helped us find our way to the Venice Beach lodge and we thought we had finally succeeded. But, lets be real, what would a trip be without getting stuck? So as I pull in, my tires spun deeper and deeper into the sand. It took all the staff members of the lodge to lift the car up enough to push it forward. (Pictures will be posted on Facebook in time). By now, it was after 9:30pm and these very wonderful guys made us dinner and Malawi gin and tonics. A perfect ending to a very long journey. We were put up in a room with 5 beds and fell asleep with the sounds of hippo cries echoing off the lake.

That was just day one. Day two was WAY more fun. We woke up, had breakfast, and headed out for Cape Maclear. In the daylight, the driving was much easier. We made it to the place where we ended to set up tents, but found the place closed for construction. Instead, we went two resorts over and found an AWESOME place. It was incredibly beautiful. Though a bit more pricy (night one was $7/night, night two was $12ish...how luxurious!), the place was super clean, great staff, beautiful water front, perfectly manicured lawns and great food. We went on a boat ride, snorkeled with tons of tropical fish (and even learned to catch them with our hands), then fed these enormous eagles. After, Hannah and I did some strength training and gymnastics on top of this ridge that overlooked the lake.

In the evening, we met our roommates - 4 guys from Michigan State who are all medical students (4th years, minus one who was actually a 4th year resident). They were awesome and so much fun. One played for Michigan State football as an undergrad and it was hard to adjust to seeing 6'3" guys again (Malawians are super short). We had the most fun night - dancing, drinking, swimming after midnight! At around 3am we finally called it quits, but all got up by 8 and headed out for a run in the national park (the guys went out on their own - I can't keep up with 6'3" football players...)

Unfortunately, the weekend had to end around noon or so in order for us to get back to Blantyre at a decent hour to prepare for work today. In any event, it was really fun.

Looking forward to many more fun adventures in the coming weekends. I could get used to the work for a week, fun for a weekend routine...

-dkm