Our next destination was Malawi, the first country in southern Africa after spending 7 months in East Africa. From Rwanda, we “had to” pass through Tanzania again, the country where we already have spent 2 months when we climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and went on a family and friends holiday to Zanzibar back in Fabruary and March. Since this country is huge, we still only had seen very little of it. We discussed different options, which route we should take to Malawi. We considered driving all the way to the beach again in a big loop in the south of Tanzania, we also debated whether we should go back to visit some people we met along our travels but in the end, we decided to skip the extra miles and just drive straight from Rwanda to Malawi along Lake Tanganyika, the second deepest lake in the world. We figured, instead of making many short stops along the route, it would be nice for a change to drive straight to a camping spot midway, and spend more time at one place and then continue the trip straight to Malawi. After stocking up on some very nice cheese from “La Fromagerie” and meat from “the German butchery” in Kigali, we headed off and we were both very sad to be leaving Rwanda. It took some time until our mood lifted again. A lot of times it is hard to leave a beautiful place behind, but this time it felt even worse after we made some new friends and had to say goodbye to them as well. It took us 2,5 days of full driving to reach from Kigali to the Lakeshore Lodge in Kipili, the lodge we chose for our travel-vacation. We spent the two nights in basic guesthouses along the way to save time and money.
After this very long drive, mostly on gravel and dirt roads, we finally reached Lakeshore Lodge and couldn’t have asked for a better welcome. The place was absolutely stunning. There was a big open restaurant overlooking the lake and the owners, Lou, Chris and Thomas warmly welcomed us. Thomas, a guy from Germany and an overlander himself, just recently joined and helped Lou and Chris, the founders of Lakeshore Lodge, to run the place. He showed us around the place and asked some staff members to clean our car (it really needed a wash after driving on these dirt roads, the dust was EVERYWHERE) while we could enjoy an tasty lunch (fish from the lake and veggies from their garden - I was amazed how they prepared such a delicious dish out in nowhere since this place was very remote, the closest town is two driving hours away).
The next big surprise was waiting, when we met the only other campers, Karin and Daniel from Sweden, who we met back in October last year when we had just started the trip and spent some days in Austria. They were our neighbors on a campsite in Styria, where the weather was horrible, and we barely spent time outside and just quickly talked in the morning while cleaning our dishes and trying to hide from the rain and wind. Their route went up to the UK, from where they shipped their car to Capetown, and they were doing the exact opposite route from ours, driving from south up north to Kenya. We didn’t exchange contact details back then, and we couldn’t believe that our paths crossed just like that at Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania - what are the odds?! It was so lovely to have company on the campground since, for the previous months, we’ve mostly been the only campers wherever we would stop. We spent some amazing days together and barbecued at each other’s campsites; even Chris, Lou, and Thomas joined us for some nights (they told us in 14 years it was only the second time for them to have dinner at the campsite instead of the restaurant). We truly had a blast. Tom went on a dive in Lake Tanganyika, and Karin and I joined him on the boat and went snorkeling. In the morning, we could take the kayaks from the lodge and paddle around the bay; Thomas (the owner) joined us and brought some coffee which we enjoyed on one of the islands. The campsite was quite busy too, some Overlanders from South Africa came and joined in on our nightly barbecues (they really do know how to braai) and every night we had a beautiful bonfire and watched the sunset, one night the owners even invited us to a sunset cruise on their boat - there was one highlight after the other.
Unfortunately, after a few days, Karin and Daniel had to continue their trip; we had to say goodbye but not before exchanging all the top secret spots along the route since we literally just came from the opposite parts of Africa. Tom and I were in no rush and decided to spend some more nights. Our new camping neighbors were a family from Switzerland who had lived in Africa for years so we had again some nice company.
After our rather unhealthy lifestyle in Rwanda (all the dinners and drinks minus the skipped workouts, lol), we wanted to get back in shape. The beautiful yoga platform Lou and Chris built was perfect for that. It almost felt like having a new routine after walking to the platform in the morning, doing a workout or yoga session, and walking back to our campsite to make a nice breakfast. I could have stayed there forever. But to top everything up, Lou and Chris invited us to stay two nights in one of their beautiful bungalows. Tom took the drone with him on the boat tour during the diving trip, and since he started to like making short movies during our travels, he made a short clip for the Lakeshore Lodge, which they could use on their channels and, in return, we got to spend two nights in paradise. I’m afraid we cannot top this stay even for our honeymoon, the bungalow was built into the water with a private little beach and the most giant and most comfortable bed I have ever slept in - it was heaven!
For our planned last night (after ten days!) at Lakeshore Lodge, we had one last barbecue with Chris, Lou and Thomas on our campsite and we planned to have a movie night with our beamer, but it got too late, so they invited us to stay another night in their bandas so we could make a movie night there and leave very early the next day. Yes, it indeed was hard (once again) to leave this little paradise.
On our way to Malawi, we planned to stop at Utengule Coffee Lodge, a coffee farm and lodge run by Swiss. The farm was huge, and we met the manager, the owner’s son Lui, who offered to give us a tour the following day. After walking through the coffee plantations and buying some coffee, he introduced us to “cupping” the tasting of coffee, which was a lot of fun.
We continued our trip to Mbeya, where Chris and Lou insisted that we should go and visit their friend Paul, a guy from the UK who has lived in Tanzania for years and started a butchery. We met him, and he immediately offered us to stay at his place in the guest room. We were treated to amazing burgers and hospitality; he is a true legend! We stayed for two nights and climbed up to Ngozi Crater Lake, a short hike up a mountain nearby. Paul introduced us to many of his friends, and everyone advised us to drive down to Matema, a place at Lake Malawi but on the Tanzanian side. We took their advice, and after filling up our fridge with the most excellent meat (1.4kg of beef filet, burger patties, and five chicken legs), we continued to the lake and stayed again at a place called Lakeshore Lodge, but this time at another lake. The drive was very scenic, and the lodge was beautiful, too; we enjoyed two last nights in Tanzania reading books, keeping up with our workouts, and enjoying delicious barbecues at night. What a great time we had “transitting” through Tanzania :)
