Makutsi

What a way to spend the last week of what has already been a fabulous trip!

Makutsi is a family owned and run game park, which also supports a research base for the breeding and conservation of white Rhino and Cheetah. It is situated adjacent to The Krueger National Park in South Africa.

Quaint white-washed thatched Rondavels are placed sporadically around an oasis of multi-tiered canopy of trees- acacia, eucalyptus, various types of palm trees ,bougainvillia, jacaranda and numerous native bushes. The animals have free reign of the area surrounding the accommodation, therefore strict guidelines are adhered to regarding NOT walking at night!! Between 6pm and 6.30 am there is a curfew in place. The only way to get around between this time is to be driven. One night the lions were very playful and tore up the lounge cushions outside a Rondavel!! guests have had them roaming outside close to the huts and they've even woken to the sound of their bellowing in the wee early hours of the morning!

The amenities are simple and enjoyable..there a couple of thermal springs on the property which have been channeled into an outdoor pool and an indoor Roman bath complex...the weather has been hot and sunny , food simple,home grown vegies and meat; no TV or Internet but a great little curio shop to make up for it!!

We have seen elephants, rhino, lions,hippo,all kinds of Bok, impala, monkeys, giraffe, zebra, water buffalo......ridden in open 4WD..a great finish.

The time away has been awesome, filled with many experiences, immersed in numerous cultures, mingling and getting to know a variety of people and the thing which sticks in my mind the most is how kind, friendly and helpful people are to the visitors in their countries. We had countless occasions when the locals went beyond the call of duty to help out.

It has gone quite quickly and easily ( due to, I think, the well used mantra- "we travel well together"!!) and Tony and I have survived each other and had fun. Hallelujah!!!

Blending in!!

Malawi RCI

We were able to catch up with Pastor Nelson on the Thursday after we arrived....tentative arrangements were made to pick up a 4WD from a hire car firm so we could travel to a few of the remote assemblies..

There is a Moslem community within Malawi and Thursday or Friday marked the end of Ramadan ...apparently the timing was reliant upon which phase the moon was in( a little like Easter) and it needed to be in the newest stage. On the Thursday night we were still waiting to hear if Friday was to be a public holiday( to mark the end of Ramadan). Saudia Arabia was to be able to spot the moon before Malawi, so we were depending on the communication network set up by the Moslems, to spread the word around!!! At around ten PM Paola sent someone over to the neighbors to find that, yes indeed ,it was to be a public holiday, the following day!! Needless to say that we were now Jack's guests for at least another two nights! and in fact it turned out to be three as we were only able to use the Mastercard at Avis and they didn't have a vehicle available till Tuesday!!

Jack very kindly leant us his vehicle on the Friday and we were able to travel with five others, out to a local assembly which was about 2 hrs drive from Blantyre. We were welcomed by the local choir who sang their hearts out. children everywhere, all gathered around and in a small mudbrick hall they built themselves. Malawi RCI time is even slower (if it can possibly be believed!!!) than Malawi time...at this particular assembly we were over three hours behind the scheduled! In some cases, because we were late in getting a vehicle , we were a day behind!! Communication is difficult as villages are very far apart, transport is minimal and mobiles scarce. So getting the message out regarding changes, are hard to guarantee.

At each of the assemblies we visited, seven in all, we were always welcomed by singing and drums; surrounded by children all wanting their photos taken; Tony talked, we heard and gave testimonies; items were given; and each meeting went for a couple of hours , or more , at a stretch. It was a great time, we traveled to the Central Assemblies in a 4WD with 4 others...they were pretty keen for Tony and I to learn some local lingo (we managed a few basics, Tony much earlier than I did) and when he got up and used greetings he had learnt, there was often much amusement and hilarity, the locals having a good laugh at his expense:). Some of the young school-aged children spoke a little English (at one assembly we were able to teach them a chorus), mainly a lot of miming was played out on both sides in our efforts to talk.

Places we visited

Chikuli

The Choir

Being welcomed



Thyolo

Outside the hall





Mulanje

On the way


Welcoming committee!!





The band - a 3 stringed guitar!

Blantyre

Village where hall is


Chorus leader


One of 23 baptisms!

Assembly outside the hall

Yesaya

Village where hall is

Assembly outside the hall
Tony and Pastor Grandpa

Lilongwe

Pastors and their wives

Loading up for the meeting

It's all in the body Language!

Chimbiya

Outside the hall


The gals

Outsidethe Pastor's house

Malawi

We arrived in Blantyre greeted by a blistering heat, unyielding in intensity. The luggage is transferred from the plane by a trailer towed by a motorized cart and dumped unceremoniously on the tarmac, adjacent to a token bit of greenery planted outside what proved to be customs and passport control. I wait in the shade, while Tony(hatless and therefore vulnerable!!) scrutinizes the four or five sweeps made by the trailer...to no avail, yet again we have a piece of luggage missing!

We are the last to join a queue lined up at the baggage claim counter (obviously this seems to be a regular occurrence!) and by the time we filled out forms etc, we were the last to leave the area. By this time whatever authority to hand in custom forms and to have passports stamped had moved on, so we walked out into the arrivals area, unsanctioned as far as procedure went!.

We are met by the childhood friend of John and Gilbert Nayna, Jacques Marriott aka Jack, his daughter Paola and grandson Sean. Pastor Nelson"s son, Innocent, was also there to welcome us. We were to stay with Jack and family until Pastor Nelson arrived back from PNG Rally, in a couple of days time.

Jack, Sean and Paola

Jack and Paola are the most hospitable people, pretty much along the lines of the Nayna families, so therefore it didn't take long to feel at home, particularly myself who promptly fell asleep , on and off , for the next two days. ( I was happy to be able to share the secret of sleep with Jack, who came down with whatever it was, a couple of days later:).

Jack is a great story teller...and over, what turned amounted to be five days!!, we heard some fascinating, and enlightening tales.

• On the Saturday before our arrival, a friend of Jack's had been killed and mauled to death by his six Rottweilers. Not only mauled but dismembered and eaten, so that only 20% of his body remained identifiable. This obviously DID NOT endear me to Jack's Rottweiler, even though it was small and appeared friendly, who was I to determine the terms of friendship?
  
• While we were there Paola, who works at a local private school, told us that on an excursion to a local wildlife reserve that week, a water buffalo had wandered onto the path that the children were walking on. A parent realized that the buffalo was readying itself to charge and he told the children to run. He also ran, but tripped over....lucky apparently, as the buffalo only managed to gore and tear down the backs of his legs, damaging muscle and tissue.!! If he had been upright the animal would have gone through his back into his lungs and chest and maybe heart!! Public liability indemnity for school excursions takes on a whole different perspective in Malawi:)

Malawi is a Third World country which only achieved Independence in the 1960's. Poverty here is endemic as you would expect. There is little work for those who are uneducated and education has no immediate value to the family. It has a cash economy(very hard to get use to when we are so geared into a credit system), and is a subsistent lifestyle. Trading Centres are widespread, crammed with stalls of produce eg eggs, live meat,veggies and fruit; locally made goods eg sauce-pans,knitwear,fabric; coal made from burning wood; sticks, reeds for thatching; anything that is not used for living is sold for cash to buy more useful goods.

Malawi landscape
Village
Trading Centre

The main modes of transport are walking and cycling..the sides of the roads support a heavy stream of pedestrians carrying produce on their heads, babies on their backs;and cyclists with loads of wood and coal piled high, on their way to the Centres. We even saw a live kid (goat not child!!) strapped to the handlebars, hanging upside down, on it's way to someone's dinner table!!

As we drove around we saw billboards advertising the prevention and treatment of HIV and Aids; in just about every community, whether large or small, there is a clinic to provide services for families and victims; billboards also publicize the government drive to encourage parents to register their children, in an effort to have a formal record for schooling. It is law for children under 14 to attend school, though lifestyle and distances from schools, make it impractical for the majority of villagers.

Buildings which are not surrounded by walls topped with shards of glass embedded in them, razor wire atop, spikes or other deterrents are the VERY RARE EXCEPTION! Everything is gated with guards, some with weapons; there are armed police and military everywhere you look. Paola says that , when you build in Malawi, you build the wall and gate first, and guard it, then build the house!!! Jacks house has, within it's own compound, wire on the top, gated with a guard; the bottom verandah surrounded by a grille which is padlocked, to protect the main entrance to the house; inside ,upstairs where the bedrooms are, there is a metal gate across the stairs, which is also padlocked! Apparently living conditions are so dreadful that violence is on the increase.We met people from South Africa, Malawi and other places...all saying the same thing...violence is rife, be careful - a bleak picture indeed.

Jack's verandah

Even though conditions were challenging...the heat, communication, adapting to"Malawi Time" ( ten times slower than Fiji Time!!), maintaining a cash flow -as Visa was the preferred option and we have Mastercard- overall I enjoyed our visit there. The cultural differences are enormous; living conditions cannot be compared - poverty is everywhere, yet people are so industrious in their endeavors - no such thing as the dole here!!!- you work to eat and to have shelter. Families are everything- any income buys the necessities which are shared amongst all; work is distributed between all members, even young ones often mind the babies while mums out in the fields, and grannies do their bit as well. It certainly was enlightening and enriching trip which I wouldn't have missed for anything, though at the time aspects were very confronting.

Marrakech to Casablanca

We were told by the tour company to be ready at eleven to make our way to Casablanca. We've been pretty good in being punctual(no guys you DID NOT misread this!, but if we did slip up and run a bit late, guess who was the culprit..in fact let's run a poll and you can nominate by commenting: on the blog :) )

However this particular morning we were waiting in the foyer of the Riad...our luggage had grown somewhat due to the spree in the souks; we had bought two more cases ( one cabin size for Tony, so not so big ! and a slightly bigger one for me!) and we had the original ones we traveled with, and Andrew and Cathy had the most humungous cases which were now bulging at the seams...so all in all 6 cases and 3 backpacks..hardly a challenge!!!

We were expecting the van we had been using...however the driver turned up in a 4WD.....pretty cozy but more than manageable for 5 people, though a bit of a challenge for the 6 suitcases!

Negotiation is second nature to both Andrew and Tony...so let the fun begin...the poor driver didn't have chance, it didn't help that no matter what configuration he came up with, those cases weren't going to fit. A short phone call later to the boss we were promised an eight seater van, and assured it would only be 20 minutes.

One hour later ( it is now 12.30! and we have been sitting on a ledge alongside a wall in the semi-shade!) a 5 seater leisurely pulls up alongside the 4WD....there is absolutely no way that everything will fit...and by now Tony is building up a head of steam!!! Nevertheless it is Andrew who confers with the driver and the boss himself is on his way!!

Thirty minutes later sees Tony and the Boss counting out the FIVE seats( not the eight the boss declares!) and the space in the rear for maybe 2 of the cases...Tony swings his arms at us and towards the 4WD and tells us to get in...always an obedient wife..I led the way. Now, to me all 4WD look pretty much the same..so when we passed Tony, the Boss and driver (all in a heated debate), we walked to the 4WD close to them and sat in it, shut the doors and waited! Minutes later I turned to get the pack from the back and .......all our luggage was gone. Oh Great! the three of us look at each other and think the worse...then actually see the vehicle we were in, is a 4WD roughly the same as ours...but not :). Man we got out of there quickly, Tony hurrying us along like a mother hen!! Luckily enough it proved to be the Bosses!!! and it most likely added value to our side of the "negotiation" process with the Boss spotting squatters in his car!!

In the end an agreement was reached..a car for each couple and the cases (bar one ) to travel in the original vehicle...also a peaceable arrangement to drive straight to Casablanca, without stopping at any points of interest.

Now you would think that all would end well..unfortunately not. When the convoy pulled in at a gas station soon after taking off, only ONE of the cars filled...not ours !!! so 40km out of Casablanca we ran out of petrol UNBELEIVABLE!!....we piled into the other vehicle with all but one case and on we go...stopping at the next petrol station to send a container back.

So in the end it was almost how it should have been in the beginning.. One 4WD, 4 passengers plus driver, and 5 cases and 3 back packs...the offending suitcase which caused the trouble in the first place( by not fitting into the car)got to be driven in it's own 4WD, to Casablanca !!!

Things we did

Mosque -the largest outside of Mecca

Ricks Cafe from "Casablanca"

Mosque

Marrakech

We arrived in Marrakech, by climbing up the High Atlas mountains and winding down over the other side. The earth is a very rusty red and the buildings take on the same color, blending intothe background. The land is dry,awesomely dry, cropping is limited, occasionally there is a dribble of water in a river bed and in the plains alongside there is an oasis providing vegetation and shade. The "river" then becomes the hub of the village, used for washing clothes, bathing and a watering-hole, for whatever livestock is around.

We spent some time at a village, on the side of a steep rocky hill. The villagers had decided to re-locate on the other side of the river and during the period of transition they would build their new home, while still living in the soon to be vacated one. Everyone banded together...a real community effort. It is here that the outside stadium scenes for Gladiator were shot!

Start of climb to new village

UNESCO has since provided the funds for the old village to be restored..and now people are slowly trickling back. The restoration provides work and income for the locals, boosting a flagging economy, tourist trade providing the major source of revenue. The work to rebuild is slow - gradient is steep, the tools are basic and it's relentlessly hot, with minimal shade.

Giant pestle and mortars Part of old village
View from old village

I found Marrakech a much harder city compared to Fez...Lonely Planet regarded it very highly as a must-see city, particularly the square, I think it's overrated. It is much more cosmopolitan, a very strong European influence though the inner Medina is very much Moroccan. The city is expanding rapidly through foreign investments, the consequence being lots of new modern resorts, new suburbs and shopping malls...we lucky enough to stay in a beautiful Riad in the Medina, a short ten minutes from the souks (markets). The square is the entertainment area- snake charmers, acrobats, local musicians jamming, donkey carts going every-which way,peddlers,beggars, monkeys..it comes alive at dusk and is in full swing by 8pm...it's very much a carnival-like atmosphere.

Market Square and Mayhem!!!

In it's favor..the expression "shop until you drop" was coined (a pretty good Boutcherism I think!) for just for Marrakech...we bought up big time here, lots of little gifts for family and a lovely carpet-bag for me :)