On Friday, December 4th, 2008, after months of looking, weeks of bureaucratic nightmares and an entire day of registration, insurance, vehicle checks and more bureaucratic fun, Elene and I finally got a car on the road. Oh, and it is an SUV, albeit a little one. Yes, everyone can now make fun of us hypocrites (I do really miss my bike!). I'll send out a picture of our mini RAV4 soon.
And so on Friday we also went on our first road trip - yahoooooo. Mangochi is about 3 hours South of Lilongwe and is on Lake Malawi - yes, another beach weekend! Here is a bit of a dorky picture of me in Mangochi.
And we weren't alone - our little RAV barely fit 5 of us, but we made it. Here are our friends Janna, Jules and their daughter Regan. Jules works with me at the Farmers Union, but is leaving back to Canada in January.
These are the "tents" we were staying in, which included electricity and beds. The main lodge cost about 120 CAD a night. These tents are usually where the "drivers" sleep, but at the right price, us Canadians will sleep anywhere!
Pretty amazing scenery!
Rough day on the beach.
Someone asked if we'd seen any animals yet, and this was the first big one. This "bug" was bigger than the size of my hand. There are a lot of interesting and scary critters in Malawi!
But we actually saw a few other more friendly creatures.
It was a great weekend and was really nice to get out of the Lilongwe. Hope everyone isn't freezing too badly in Canada (not trying to rub it in or anything)! Will send out another note before Xmas soon. Miss you all!
