Dear Tuesday Diary. Bang! Bang! Bang! We have blown three shocks. Had to limp into town. Found a place to stay and will sort out replacements tomorrow which should not take too long.

Dear Wednesday diary. Went to town today. Spent seven hours trying to get new shocks. They will arrive tomorrow morning at 8am.

Dear Thursday Diary. Arrived at Quick Fit at 8am. Shocks have not arrived. We waited in their workshop until the shocks arrived at 12:30pm. Bad news, they are the wrong shocks. Spent three hours confirming that they could not get OME shocks only Land Rover Originals that would not arrive until maybe Saturday. Realised that they are Quick Fit in name only.

Dear Friday Diary. Left for the boarder at 6am. Decided to head to Lilongwe in Malawi to see if we can get Old Man Emu (OME) shocks. Had a great boarder crossing. Roads were good and limped into Lilongwe to find out it was a religious holiday and shops are shut. After several hours found out that no one in town has OME shocks for our car. Phoned Johann from Cape Town who will organise to have shocks DHL expressed to us by Tuesday.

Dear Saturday and Sunday Diary. Waited in Lilongwe for shocks. They will be here soon.

Dear Monday Diary. Shocks will be here today or tomorrow.

Dear Tuesday Diary. Found out shocks only sent today from Cape Town. They were supposed to leave Johannesburg on Friday but some one didn’t tell Johan that they were not sent. He expressed them from Cape Town as soon as he found out.

Dear Wednesday Diary. No shocks. Lilongwe is grinding on us. There is not much to see and it is below average even for an African city.

Dear Thursday Diary. Hope shocks would arrive today. They did not. Maybe tomorrow.

Dear Friday Diary. Don’t know if shocks will arrive today. We could be here forever. Ring Ring Ring. "Your shocks are at the airport, you need to pick them up". Much arguing with Malawi customs and we have shocks.

Dear Saturday Diary. We have shocks and springs fitted. We are finally on the road.

Waiting for our shocks was a major drama. We decided that we would take the opportunity to fit the best shocks that we could get, and for me that meant ARB Old Man Emu shocks. We could have fitted standard land Rover, but we wanted something that would be heavy duty and handle the roads ahead. While our old shocks rode and handled well, it appears that they were unable to handle all the corrugations. The only way that we could get hold of OME was through our friend Johann from First Alignment Centre in Cape Town who had organised storage for us. He is incredible and totally reliable which is rare in Africa. If anyone reading this has car issues while in South Africa or anywhere close, he can sort you out.

We made the decision to get heavier duty OME springs for the back while we were at it to take the pressure off the shocks. They ended up being around 15% firmer that the king springs and meant that we gained some valuable clearance in the back. They are rated at 200kg, the King springs were variable rates at 380-420lb/inch which equates to around 170kg. Holding the OME shocks in the hand, you immediately notice how much more solid and robust they are over any other shocks on the market.

The following measurements (for those interested or having similar problems) are from the lowest point on the rim to the wheel arch.

Original Land Rover Unloaded 700mm

King Springs Semi-unloaded (LR Tank, Roof Tent, Roof Rack) 745mm (+45mm)

King Springs Fully Loaded (Storage, Fuel and all gear) 660mm (-40mm)

OME 200kg Springs Fully loaded 710mm (+10mm)

Dealing with the officials at Lilongwe airport was a typical African experience. We arrived at the freight terminal to find out that you had to have a clearing agent, who of course would help for a fee. We found our paperwork, which meant they had our parts, but the customs department was closed for lunch. We waited. They finally opened and then they had to try to find our package.

Once found they wanted to charge us import duty. I argued with them waiving my carnet very quickly and saying that I didn’t have to pay duty. They finally caved in but insisted I needed to fill in paperwork in town (Once again a win is really a loss – TIA). As it was late on Friday afternoon, this would mean that we would not get our parts until the following week. The down side was the possibility of spending yet more time stranded in Lilongwe.

Weighing up our options I told them that I would now elect to pay the duty. "What is the value of your goods?" I was asked. "200 Rand (AUD $35)" I replied. "They knew I was not making an accurate declaration. I decided the best form of defence was attack and went on the offensive rambling about not having to pay for goods and having ARB stickers entitled me to free parts. The ‘big guy’ and I exchanged blows for a while until finally they backed down and calculated duty on my nominal value, the duty ended up being more than my fictitious value.

We saved around AUD $500 but being creative with our declared value. Technically I could have avoided any charges but we needed our parts ASAP. We ended up having to pay 30% duty, VAT of 17%, an administration fee of around AUD $15, A ware house fee to release the goods and a fee for the clearing agent whose job I did for him.

We organised with a local mechanic to fit the shocks and springs (I didn’t have all the tools) on the next day being Saturday morning at 9am. In true "Africa Time" he didn’t turn up until 10:30. We all pitched in and had everything installed by 12:30 without the aid of a hoist or spring clamps. They were unable to remove the rear springs until I told them to disconnect the rear sway bars, brakes and drop the trailing arms. Total labour cost AUD $40.

We then had a long drive to Nkata Bay to meet Ana and Antonio who had been waiting there since the previous Wednesday. The roads are good although quite hilly and full of tight turns. We arrived at Njaya lodge after dark and were greeted with warm hugs and whole grilled fish. I had visited Njaya eight years ago and it has been run down a lot.

The next day we spent time on the beach. In usual African style we were hassled to buy tourist souvenirs. Jacinda bought a few items and I would only let her pay MK500 for the lot. The beach boys were not happy and started to complain. I told them that if they were not happy with the price that was ok and we wouldn’t buy them. No one was forcing them to sell to us for that price after all. Antonio told them that he had paid a similar price the previous day. One of the guys got aggressive and abused Antonio saying that Antonio was rich and deserved to get robbed and as he was poor it was his right to get as much money from rich people as he could, no matter how.

This raises a few interesting dilemmas about travel through Africa. Especially in Malawi, people often ask for money. Kids of around four or five years of age speak little English except for "give me money!"

There is a definite handout mentality. People often come up to us and talk but the subject invariably comes around to "can you give me money". The only variable is how long they want to beat about the bush before they get to the crux of their true motivation. The number of Malawians that we spoke to who did not ask for money but instead only wanted to talk to us, we can count on one hand. The western mentality of providing aid, handing out money and food, probably only promotes this handout mentality. You even begin to question the value of buying carvings and other tourist trinkets. Most of these items are only made for the tourist industry, serve no practical purpose and teach people to be reliant on tourists. It is a kind of de-facto aid or charity. We have figured out that these people selling the carvings make more money than the police, nurses or the like. It does not encourage them to learn a skill that could better their fellow countrymen. Instead they just wait around for the tourists.

It is a difficult thing to reason and it raises many ethical and moral questions. While we all want to help people in Africa, I sometimes question the true value of our help. While there are so many poor people on the continent, probably the only way that things will change is when they help themselves. One thing you notice is the absence of ‘black’ aid organizations. There are many rich ‘black’ people, but the only ones providing aid or assistance seem to be western NGO’s or missionaries.

From Nkata Bay we followed the shores of lake Malawi south towards Salima and Senga Bay. We stayed at the Wheel House Marina, one of the better places that we have stayed at for a while. It was here that we picked up two German tourists, Helen and Ulle who would hitch with us for the next week, making our travelling party now six. Our departure the next day was delayed by a few hours as we had to attend the Blanquito’s (the name of Ana and Antomio’s white Toyota, which means little white one in Spanish) rear brakes which had locked up and were overheating. Removal of grease and much West African road dirt fixed the problem. Another Toyota saved from the scrap heap by a Land Rover driver; that’s real charity for you.

The road to Salima is a good one with very few potholes to test the new OME suspension. The road to Monkey bay if good tar at first but then changes to corrugated dirt from the turnoff. There are road works along the way suggesting that this road might be tar in the near future. The strange thing is that when I was here eight years ago, this road was un-signposted, rarely used and very rough. In true Malawi style it now has the only sign post in the whole country with a massive sign some several metres across, making missing the turnoff pretty much impossible. No other roads in the rest of the country rate a sign more than the size of a beer can.

Just before the turnoff to Cape Maclear, we saw an example of local entrepreneurial talent at its finest. We came across our first Toys R Us store in Africa, which consisted of a lean-to displaying wooden cars for sale. All the cars were either Land Rovers or back end loaders, although they would insist to Antonio and Ana that they were Toyotas. We were so impressed (and temporarily forgetting the dilemma of not buying any more tourist trinkets) that we now have Truckasaurus JR proudly riding on the front dash of big Truckasaurus, ready to help recover stranded Toyotas along the way.

We arrived in Cape Maclear by late afternoon and settled into a few cold beers at fat Monkeys. Cape Maclear is very Caribbean in feel and a good place to relax for a few days or so. A boat trip to one of the islands for a morning of snorkelling is a must do activity. It is like swimming in the ocean, there are hundreds of colourful fish, except it is fresh water that extends north for some several hundred kilometres or so. There are so many fish that at times you think you are in a giant aquarium. We organised our trip through one of the beach boys named Simon. The starting price was MK3000 each for the day that included the boat, gear and lunch. Antonio and I negotiated the price down to MK1000 each person (or around AUD $8 per person). While Simon seems to exist in a semi permanent state of being stoned as a result of the local ‘Malawi-cabbage’ he is a good guy who gave us a great trip.

From Cape Maclear we had a solid days driving as we made our way through Mangochi, Liwonde, Zomba and Blantyre before heading to Milange, where we arrived at Likhubula Forest Lodge in the dark and through heavy rain, past road works and around detours. There was no camping so we parked our cars in the car park and set up on the front porch as lightning lit up the night sky around us with a wonderful display of natural pyrotechnics. We were eager to get into Mozambique and head for the ocean to do some diving, and hoped to make good progress the following day. Mozambique roads however were conspiring against us as we slept our last night in Malawi…

Malawi is a cheep country to travel through. Most accommodation is only a few dollars a night to camp and if you buy fruit and vege at roadside markets, eating is very inexpensive. Mangos worked out to around AUD $0.05 each and bananas not much more.

Fuel is AUD $1.43/L and total distance travelled as of leaving Malawi is 10,226km. Best fuel economy is 8.54km/L to date, which was achieved from Nkata Bay to Blantyre. Total cost spent on Fuel to date is AUD $1,937.00 from Cape Town.