Tue 22 Jul
By the morning we had reached Likomo Island near the Mozambique side of the lake. Barry and I climbed into a lifeboat before they lowered it expecting others to join us but instead we "cabin class" passengers were whisked ashore first. It was 7:45am and we walked up to see the enormous Anglican church, according to the guidebook, the size of Winchester Cathedral. Bathed in early morning sunlight and draped in bougainvillea it looked so fine. It was beautifully made and well kept. I took lots of pictures and a gardener kindly took us up to the top of the tower from where we got an excellent view back to the lake and on to Mozambique.

Being on the east side of the lake, the Malawi shore too far to see, the sun dropped into the water. It was beautiful.

The Mozambique Immigration officers came on board and before long I realised there was a chance of getting a "Metangula" stamp in the passport and a quick foray into Mozambique for a quick "cerveja" (beer)

I climbed into the lifeboat with a couple of westerners and we were rushed into the blackness; there were only a few lights on the shore. We could not see a thing; it was a little bit scary. Then, we were on the beach. We climbed out on to the sand taking heed that the boat would depart in 30 minutes.

There were a few other passengers disembarking here. No one spoke English or Swahili; even Portuguese was not widely spoken. We followed them along the sandy paths. It was strangely dark, no moon and no streetlights. We were almost feeling our way not wanting to stumble over the person in front, but not wanting to lose them either. The sandy path turned onto a sandy lane and at the end was a stall with fairy lights powered from a car battery. We bought three beers and sat on the plastic garden furniture arranged in front of the stall. It was fun. It felt wicked.

Wed 23 Jul
On the final day I used a mobile phone to call one of the car-hire companies in Lilongwe with whom we had had email correspondence and told them we would like a car delivered to Monkey Bay (400km from Lilongwe). We would return it to Lilongwe airport at the end of the week. Everything seemed to be possible so we told them to go ahead, no credit card deposit or anything.