We rose early and struggle to make the kettle work without help from Jane (housekeeping).
Birdlife at Hueglin’s Lodge is stunning – we sat out before breakfast and took it all in. Chatted with Marianne briefly.
To breakfast – saw Becca briefly (not talkative in the morning!) Then arranged a brief tour with Mike.
He showed us the Capitol Hill, with many government buildings, the parliament building and a huge memorial to Hastings Banda. We discussed his track record and legacy.
Then in search of Trysh’s (Chip’s daughter’s) coffee shop. Mike erroneously takes us to Land and Lakes Safari, where they have a coffee shop, but actually the place we want is part of Ulendo [Ulendo Airlink is an internal airline] and we have had a more extensive tour of Lilongwe than planned.
We see markets and malls as we drive around – nothing much of note.
Trysh is not at her coffee shop, but we do meet her daughter Jeanie who is feeling poorly and goes off for a malaria test. One of our pilots and some of the other Ulendo crew are taking coffee there.
Later, Julie (Chip’s other daughter) appeared – she gave us some of the family low down and showed us a picture of the extended family. She also gave us some travel tips e.g. for negotiating Johannesburg airport.
We returned to Heuglin’s to collect our things, said goodbye to Pam and all and then off to the airport.
Despite our best efforts to downscale our luggage, Scarface tried quite hard to refuse my big bag, although the two together are within weight. We say goodbye to Mike after leaving our other baggage with Wilderness at the airport.
Soon we board the little plane and sit up close and personal with the pilots. The flight only takes 35 or so minutes and is very smooth.
We were met by Becky at the airport, who transported us in a couple of jeeps – 10 of us arriving at Kaya Mawa simultaneously – very unusual.
The weather was glorious – they had a couple of cloudy days on the back of our chiperoni but that’s all gone now, hopefully.
We are oriented by Michelle (one of Hippity’s cousins [Irish] and wife of chef Richard) then taken to our room and brought a light lunch of salad.
We oriented ourselves a bit after unpacking and speak with Josh who is a bit of a bouncy livewire.
Then we bath/shower ready for dinner – a pear with parmesan and pancetta starter, chicken in bacon sauce, mash and veg, a cheesecakey thing (least interesting but nice base) first two would have had walnuts but for us alerting them on orientation.
Early night.
