It's Getting Real...

Yesterday I headed off to the Travel Clinic at my GP's surgery to embark on my programme of vaccinations.  Not being a huge fan of needles, having four stabs was a little unnerving, but nurse Tina was gentleness personified (thanks Tina), and I've had no discomfort at all. Back next week for stage 2!

I've also just loaded up the credit card online with various items which will hopefully allow me to (a) repel insects; (b) deal with being bitten by insects; (c) handle minor surgical procedures; and (d) recover from any erm.... gastric upsets!

So Where Is Blantyre Then?

Blantyre is a city of around 750,000 people in the southern region of Malawi.  It is Malawi's largest city, and the major financial & commercial centre, with the political capital being in Lilongwe, some 370 kms to the north.  Here's a map, here's the Blantyre page on Wikipedia, and here's the Malawi page.

The Great Rift Valley runs through the country from north to south, and to the east of the valley lies Lake Malawi (also called Lake Nyasa), making up over three-quarters of Malawi's eastern boundary. Lake Malawi is sometimes called the Calendar Lake as it is about 365 miles (587 km) long and 52 miles (84 km) wide.