It's a long way home.

If we had driven from Llandudno for seven and half hours, we could have reached France! The journey from Nkhata Bay to Lilongwe is a long, tiring one and we've just completed the first leg of our journey home. PC Meirion Williams left early to the regional capital, Mzuzu. There he met the assistant commissioner and the commissioner. They had a long chat about policing in both our country and theirs. He returned two hours later to pick us up and off we went on our journey. Through bouts of sleepiness caused by an exhausting but satisfactory week, many sights could be seen along the way. There are few cars on the roads, just small crammed buses, pick-up trucks jam packed with people and large American type juggernauts carrying timber, tobacco or fuel. There are no curbs, cats eyes or pavements just one long tarmac road joining the north and south. This road is a lifeline to society. Bikes, carts being driven by cattle, and walkers. People walking everywhere, some north, some south, carrying allsorts. Timber, Water, fruit and vegetables carried on their heads, balanced perfectly ; it has to be seen to be believed. Huge bales of hay balanced on bicycles, 15ft towers of logs sitting on the back with the person pushing the bike to get to their destination. All along the route people were sat at the roadside selling their fruit, vegetables, charcoal or timber in the hope that someone stops. This really is etching out a living, making a few kwacha to raise their families. There are so few passers by in the remoter areas that I wonder how they survive, surely they must go day after day without making a penny. We stopped to buy some fruit. The joy and surprise of the two boys was evident as we pulled over, rushing over with beaming faces. A big bowl of small crab apple type fruit for 50 kwacha, that's about 17p in our money. The scenery was magnificent, huge boulder like mountains raising from the plains. Rolling hills covered by woodland, lowland plains farmed by the people and bush covered hillsides, home to Baboons and Monkeys. Where the countryside was natural, we marvelled, where it was not we were shocked. Miles and miles of bare hillsides where loggers had cut down the trees for timber. De-forestation is something we read about in the newspaper, but here it is real. Hundreds of men live in small huts, using their hands and primitive tools the make planks and logs. The bare hillsides stretch for miles adding to global warming. I can't help wondering if these areas will ever recover, or will they now be useless for everyone and everything. You can't blame the loggers as they are getting a pitance of a wage for their work and without this job how would they feed their families. It's the big companies that are at fault, exporting the timber for inflated prices and also the buyers like us who don't check where the timber we buy comes from. How little these people earn was brought home to us when the driver of the vehicle carrying the South African teachers was stopped for speeding. Not only was this unlucky due to the fact that it was probably the only speed camera in Malawi, he ended up with an on the spot 5000 kwacha fine. This is money he didn't have and had to use the money saved for our meals to pay the charge. 5000 kwacha is around £20 to us, not much I hear you say. However this is almost a month's wages to our driver, money he doesn't have and certainly he can't afford. We finally arrived in Lilongwe at 9.30pm and settled into our lodge. We are all tired and ready for bed. The mood has changed tonight with the smiles and friendliness not as evident. I think the 3 day journey home is on everyone's minds. Tomorrow we say goodbye to our friends and take the short journey to the airport. This has been an amazing trip, a real eye opener to another part of the world, another culture and people. We have hundreds of photos to show, stories to tell and experiences to share. However, something tells me we will not be able to convey what we have seen here; the magnificent scenery, the genuine friendliness of everyone we have met and the poverty and conditions the Malawian people live in. It's an experience none of us will forget.
Deforestation in Malawi - a big problem.