done some paintings for us we set out with Isaac. I always enjoy driving out into the wide open spaces. I love the faces if all the people along the way and the countryside is always so beautiful. We made a short drive through a village once we got outside of town. The team wanted to see how it would differ from the urban villages that we see everyday while walking and working near Lilongwe. We were surprised as we drive out to see a large group of Gollywonkulus (sp). Men dressed in traditional costumes, wearing masks and banging sticks. They all ran towards out car so we stopped to let everyone take some pictures. Isaac and I rolled down the front windows and I handed out some money. Before we knew it it looked like 100 hands reaching in the car. It quickly became quite a scene so we took of down the road to continue our journey. It wasn’t much longer down the road before we were pulled over at a police check point. Most of  the time this is just normal and we go in our way very quickly. This time that wasn’t the case. Isaac was questioned from the car and then I was questioned from the car. After that Isaac was asked to get out of the car, I quickly followed. There we stood on the side of the road being sternly questioned in both Chichewa ( to Isaac) and English (to me). This was confusing because I couldn’t understand what he was asking Isaac therefore I couldn’t figure out how to “tweak” my response to jive with his. Seems one of my answers was wrong and the other was better….we were given a stern look and then sent on our way 🙂 the team sat quietly in the car eyes big and whispering. We were on our way though so in my eyes everything was great! It didn’t even cost  is anything!! Haha 🙂

Warm Malawi wind in my hair and headed for three days of safari adventure in Zambia! What could be better 🙂

The 2 border crossings were next. Pretty uneventful. Isaac exchanged money for each of us and I filled out everyone’s paperwork. All the team had to do was smile and get their stamps. Now we were in Zambia!!

Out next quick stop was along the side of the road near a big baboon that we saw as we were driving. There was a cluster of trees and a watering hole (this is why the baboon had stopped there). It was good enough for him so we figured why not us! We piled out handed out lunch, had Isaac say a prayer (at Dena’s request) and then dug in. We are a quick bite and then wanted to get back on the road. The road is much better than it was 2 years ago. The pavement stops only about an hour prior to our destination. In the past we have had 3 or 4 hours on a dirt road. We knew we were going to arrive shortly so we all just enjoyed the scenery.

After arriving at our camp we all piled out had a drink and got the run down of how to behave when your staying so close to the national park and headed to our rooms/tents.

We knew the wake up call would be 5am so we all turned in early. Falling asleep to the grunts of hippos and sounds of monkeys playing. Ahhhh.