I was beginning to like Lukwe Campsite with the nice shower besides the fact that it was a steep climb to get to it, its eco toilets and the fantastic view it offered. But all good things must come to an end and we had to say farewell to Bruce. John and Lauren was going to make a quick visit to Livingstonia before proceeding south and we said goodbye to them too.

We decided to take the road we came up through Chitimba, not wanting to take the risk on any new road unknown to us unless we had no choice. Going down the hilll was relatively quicker than going up but it still took us 50 minutes to go the 12 kms with the thought of what action to take should the brakes failed lingering on my mind the who;e time. I sighed with relief and thank God, when we finally reached the turning to Chitimba.

It was just past 1200hrs when we got to Mzuzu some 130kms from the junction, where there was an ATM we could use to withdraw cash for diesel and provision. The next ATM would be in Lilongwe a long way away. Alison had read that we should take fuel wherever and whenever we can and not wait till we are desperate as sometimes the petrol stations run out of fuel or otherwise there is no power for the pumps.

While Alison went to the supermarket, I filled up the car with my new found wealth of thousands of Kwachai. Being landlocked fuel in Malawi is rather more expensive than its neighbouring countries. I would hate to think how much it would cost in Zambia or even worse Zimbabwe, if we get there that is. The tout who was trying to sell me the Malawi sticker while Alison was at the bank had folllowed me to the supermarket and eventually agreed on my offer price of 400Mk from the asking price of 1500Mk.

As we got out of town a truck had skidded and blocked the whole road. Fortunately for us there was sufficient room on the side table for us to get through. Thereafter we stopped for lunch and a young guy tried to be funny approaching Alison with "what have you got for me" and got a mothful from her.

The rest of the journey to Flame Tree was uneventful and we got there early enough for Alison to try and get some laundry done. She cooked beef curry and I tried boiling the tapioca we bought on the way and tis time to my relief it was tapioca that I had bought.