Another day, another road trip

After breakfast, Lawrence picked me up and we set off en route to the Lake.  He was insistent that I needed to see it, and who am I to argue?  It was great just to drive through the countryside and see the different sights along the way.

Apologies if the pics are a bit blurred due to the motion of the car.

The roads are "interesting" from a driving viewpoint - the quality of the surface is good, but the obstacles along the way are something to behold - cattle, goats, people, ramshackle mini-buses, overladen lorries, and more all contributing to the experience always being an interesting one.  It's not like Sawbridgeworth, that's for sure.

Anyway, we eventually arrived at the Sunbird Livingstonia Hotel on the lake.  Wow.  The lake was so beautiful, with extraordinarily clear water, a nice sandy beach, and breathtaking views across the water towards Mozambique.

In the end it was all too much for me, so I had to sit down on the terrace by the pool and drink a cold beer!

We then headed back towards Lilongwe so I could catch my flight south to Blantyre.

Alas along the way, a young goat decided to commit heavy-duty suicide by leaping out in front of the car.  This apparently happens quite a lot, but unfortunately it damaged the car so that we had to complete the journey slowly - stopping at every opportunity to replenish the water in the radiator.  Never a dull moment.

In the end I caught the flight without any problems, and am now ensconced in my new home for the next 3 months having enjoyed  an excellent roast chicken dinner, courtesy of Abraham the cook. I also found out that I will be attending a meeting in the morning with a client about a project that I'll be taking over from Rick, who will be returning to the UK next week.  So it's hitting the ground running for me, but I suspect there aren't too many people feeling all that sorry for me right now.  So it's off to bed and ready to be up bright and breezy in the morning.

For those of you interested in where I'm staying, it's very nice, but I'll be doing a post on the house and area tomorrow, all being well.

Oh yes, and I'm so chuffed that Jan got Skype working at home, so we had a lovely chat this evening.

By the way, a full set of pictures from the day are available on Flickr - select "Show Info" to see what each image is depicting.