The flight from Vienna on 22nd was fine - Austrian to Frankfurt, Lufthansa to Johannesburg and then South African to Lilongwe. The LH flight was full and as usual the transfer at Frankfurt was the usual tale of long walks, a train ride, poor signposting and then the longest queues, slowest, rudest and laziest security checks before just making it onto the plane. It is a shame that so much of my travelg oes through such an awful place.
JNB was a faster place to get through as a transit passenger and the new lounge has finally opened and it is pretty good; the floor in front of the bar feels like it is suspended on foam rubber under the parquet but it does look good.
Lilongwe was little changed from my last visit in November apart from some traffic problems caused by new road works. We were checked into the Sunbird Lilongwe Hotel which I have stayed at before. This is one of the odst hotels in town and treally needs a bit of a serious facelift and upgrade. The power kept going off which did not help my colleague and I as we tried to lecture!The menu is a bit limited and much of the structure is tired and tatty; in my bathroom the shaving light fitting was falling apart and did not work and I had to try 3 rooms before I found one where the balcony doors would close properly (important to keep mossies and thieves out!).
After four and a half days of lectures we have driven by bus out to Mzuzu, 5 hours to the north on our way to visist the mine at Kayelekerra. We are staying in another Sunbird Hotel but this is a rip off joint - a beer costs three times what it does in the same company's hotel bar in Lilongwe!!
The drive is OK with a good chance to see the rolling countryside with impressive rock outcrops, a great series of forestry plantations with small road side sawmills and a beautiful rainbow. Tomorrow we will drive out to the mine paqssing by lake Malawi on the way, and then back here before an early morning dash to the Lilongwe airport on Sunday morning to get the lunchtime flight home.
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