June 14 - Malawi: Steps Campsite on Lake Malawi to Northern Lake Malawi
Attack of the Killer Ants
Yesterday I did some laundry and hung them on a line on the tree near our tent. A half hour later, I went to check on them and noticed that the laundry was covered with ants. The ants were all over the tree, too. But we didn't have any problems the night before, so I wasn't concerned about it. At about 1:00AM this morning, Jon flipped on the flashlight. There were ants everywhere and they were crawling all over his head. He shined the light in his corner of the tent and saw that they had covered it. They hadn't made it to my side of the tent yet, but they were on their way. We were completely freaked out. We spent a few minutes discussing our options for where else to sleep for the rest of the night: we could sleep on the ground in the camp "common area" where we had dinner, but the ants would probably find us there. We could sleep on the beach, but there are hippos there at night (and I can't decide which would be worse: ants or hippos). We could sleep in the truck, but that's where Brendan and Vanessa (our guides) sleep. So we settled for sleeping in chairs in the "common area" instead.
Piece by piece, we took everything out of the tent: sleeping bags, mattresses, backpacks, daypacks, water bottles, sheets, fleeces, etc. Each item had to be shaken violently to make sure there were no more ants on anything. Then we moved the tent away from the trees and spread some insect repellent around the tent to try and get rid of them. Then I looked at Jon and said "shower?". He was still a little dazed by the whole experience which is understandable since there were ants crawling on his head. So he had to think for a minute before he said "Yeah". We showered and went back to the campsite. By this time, it was 2:30AM and we actually debated staying up since we had to get up at 4:30 anyway. One last look at the tent showed that most of the ants had disappeared, so we curled up under the stars and tried to sleep. We got up at 4:30 when everyone woke up to pack up.
The Drive to Northern Lake Malawi
Another long drive ahead of us today. We went to Lilongwe to try and get Didier's Visa straightened out, so they dropped us off at the market corner and told us to be back in an hour. Jon and I made a beeline for the Internet Cafe and managed to get a few pages uploaded. These connections were so slow that it took 10 minutes just to log in - and then the power went out for 15 minutes. But they eventually got it back up and we were on our way. Unfortunately for Didier, today is "Freedom Day" - a national holiday in Malawi - and the Immigration Office was closed. So we headed to the airport, where we knew the immigration office would be open 24 hours a day. He got his visa, and we hit the road again.
Uno: the greatest game ever invented!
I slept on and off for most of the ride. We arrived at northern Lake Malawi at 7:00PM and put up our tents on the beach. It's a very nice campsite, with a very cool bar area run by some Germans. We had a delicious dinner and went to hang out in the bar for a while. Met some British kids who had been on the road for over a year. They were all under 18 and we all felt very old. Then we went to bed.
Thoughts for the Day