Day 22. Sat 12th October
Lilongwe
We reach Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, about lunch time. This is another
city very like Lusaka, with a distinctly western atmosphere, and we feel,
with some sadness, that we are returning to "civilisation". We have lunch
in a proper burger bar in a proper shopping centre, and then drive on to
the Korean Garden Lodge, our final stop.
We spend the afternoon pottering about the town, and those who still
have local currency and room in their bags buy souvenirs.
Then we return to the hotel for a swim in the pool.
Lusaka had the typical Irish Pub, and Lilongwe has the typical restaurant
run by an ex-pat Brit - Don Brioni's is a smart and obviously popular restaurant
run by Brian from Swansea and his lovely African wife, and serves an excellent
variety of food. I have kalamari to start, and ostrich for main course.
Certainly beats beef and rice! Sadly Ken's wife and son cannot join us
as they are down with the 'flu, and Pete has to shoot off as he has had
a bereavement. Auxies joins us, however, and we have a damn good end-of-holiday
beano.
Ken drives us back to the hotel. He will not be coming with us to the
airport tomorrow, so this is where we take our leave. We say an emotional
farewell and he drives off to spend a week or two with his family before
doing the whole thing again with another bunch of grockles.
After he has gone we discover to our horror that the hotel bar has
closed. We kick ourselves for not staying at Don Brioni's and getting properly
drunk there, but we have been warned about the dangers of wandering around
at night, so there is nothing for it but to get an early night.