Today we head to the capital of Malawi. As we have a long drive ahead of us, we are up early and are away shortly after 8 AM. As a bridge is out on the road that we plan to take, we need to back track a bit to Mzuzu and then head south from there. Because of the heavy rainfall from the night before, on our wau out we run into some trouble - mud.
We get stuck in a mud patch for over half an hour - we need to dig out the wheels, use sand mats to get a decent traction and give a big push for that little extra power. It takes some work, but we are able to do it.
We get to Mzuzu, where we spent about 25 minutes shopping for food and then head on. Lunch is on the roadside. Our drive today is not a lucky one. On the drive in the afternoon, we see two accidents on the road. In the first one, a dead man was still laying in the middle of the road, with a truck on the side. In the second one, we saw a bunch of people standing around a burnt out mini bus.
The final accident we saw up close - it involved us. We had almost reached out campsite in Lilongwe and were driving along the two lane road. In front of us, there us a Coca Cola truck that was on the dirt shoulder that was trying to drive onto the paved road. He seemed to be having some trouble getting it up on the pavement and when he did, he was going to fast and his wheels were turned to far - he came into our lane.
Gina, our driver, had quick reactions and swerved to the left. We were very lucky - the Coca Cola truck hit the side of our truck right up near the front and ran along the whole right hand side (where we were sitting). The rear view mirror was pushed into the cab through the open window and the plastic mirror popped out. We were able to come to a stop in the dirt shoulder - we were just very fortunate that there were no other cars, cyclists or pedestrians in our way. That would have been a disaster.
The damage to our truck was not too bad - the right hand side of the truck was quite banged up, with some locks torn off, along with one of the steps. But we could keep on going. After about 15 minutes of exchanging information with the other truck, we were on our way. By this point, it has started to rain heavily.
We get to the campsite shortly after 6 PM and set up camp. As the rain is very heavy, Jacqui and Lars get one of the tented rooms to stay in for the night. We then hang out in the campsite's bar trying to stay dry. After dinner, the rain slows down and then stops. After a cold shower, we are off to bed around 10 PM, glad to be safe and sound.