2 November - A new mine

When I was in Malawi previously it had been on a fact finding mission  in relation to a new mine proposal. Ths time it was to visit the project and see how thngs were now that the mine had officially opened.
The town of Karonga has grown and is busier since 2007, one impact of the new project which has been a major economic boost for the region.  The road from Karonga to the mine is still being upgraded and about half of it is stil  a gravel surface in poor condition. The local tucks are not well mantained and there seems to be one broken down around every other corner, usually in the centre of the road.......

There is also the matter of two way traffic; when these trucks meet it is often in a narrow section so somebody has to pull over, and these guys do not like to stop..........

.......still our driver was pretty cool and never pushed his luck so we had a slow but safe journey.

The mine tour was fascinating and the  transition over two years was amazing. These two pictures say it all...............

November 2009

Same view in July 2007!

We had a great visit with plenty to discuss and a lot of topics for the follow up meetings planned for the next day.

As we needed to be off the gravel road and  back into Karonga before dark, for road safety reasons, we could not hang around too long but the visit was comprehensive. 

 Back in Karonga there was chance to  take another loook at the incredible room I has been  given at the hotel...............

The bedroom with mosquito net................

and the semi-imperial bathroom; sadly the water pressure was so low the basin taps did not run!

The next day began with a few meetings before starting the return journey to Lilongwe.  We also checked out a couple of places aspossible venues fro afuture training course. This place was in an idyllic location on  the beach.........

....but sadly they are still building and have along way to go before they could deal with  30 people for a one week residential course!

.............see the unfinished structures at the back!

The daylight drive along the shore of Lake Malawi was very scenic .

and unlike my previous trip we did see some wild life.............................

 there are monkeys in the picture if you look closely!

The journey  was uneventful  and  we saw plenty of typical african scenes on the way....................

small shop with girls carying loads on their heads,

tomatoes for sale at the roadside,

new shops being built ,

roadside charcoal sales...............

and Malawi fast food - the guy is holding up a couple of kebabs made of whole field mice!

There was also a chance to photograph the shadow of our truck  as the sun started to set near Lilongwe......

Back in Lilongwe I was installed at the Lilongwe Hotel, a good place with  a reasonable restaurant; my two nights there were fine.

The next day and a half were spent in meetings before catching the  plane out of Lilongwe back to Johannesburg and Frankfurt before finally landing back in Vienna on Friday morning.