Assorted highlights -Malawi and Tanzania

• Nkharta Bay, on Lake Malawi, Malawi. Sitting on the verandah of a small restaurant on the main strip in town on the last day of the year, with the stifling heat and oppressive humidity making the air thick enough to slice with a knife. Mere sitting left everyone covered in a dripping layer of sweat, so there was nothing else to do but drink the local brew - Kuche Kuche - yes that is the real name, in large quantities. Later we were lead off by the head waiter to a nearby barbers to have my monthly shave. When we arrived there was a few guys waiting and when the barber wanted us to jump the queue the next guy in line piped up, and we supported him with a first in, first served refrain. Eventually we got our shave, and then proceeded to buy our drinks for the evening - we got some Malawi Gin - what else can one drink in the colonies. Alas we discovered that Nkarta Bay was suffering a great lemonade shortage - there was not a drop of lemonade to be had in the whole town - coke a plenty but no lemonade. So we were forced to drink gin with a fluorescent orange liquid claiming to be juice.
• We eventually sobered up enough to leave Nkarta Bay on the 2nd of January and caught a bus up north. The ride was otherwise uneventful except for the serious of attempted religious conversions that were thrust upon us. At one point there was two simultaneous heated discussions going on about the existence of God, one guy sitting next to Damo was bashing his ear, and another guy standing next to me just wouldn't let up. He was adamant that if Europeans brought Christianity to Africa then we as Europeans should be Christians. He didn't buy my some colonialists told lies line.
• Sitting in a campsite in Catimba in the north of Malawi watching the rain fall it looked like we weren't going anywhere for the day, until an empty overland truck rolled in to camp. Damo chatted up the driver and scored us a lift to Tanzania. (For those who don't know overland trucks are basically big trucks modified to be buses, they carry around 20-30 people who are on all included trips across Africa. They are very common in Africa, but apparently there are plenty of them in South America as well, although I never saw one when I was there. They exist in a world of their own, travelling from camp site to camp site, and hanging out with other overlanders) Damo and I had the truck to ourselves, as the driver and tour leader sat up the front in the cab. The sweetest part of the deal was that the truck had a bridge, a part just behind the cab where you call roll back the roof and sit on a mattress or stand and feel the wind blowing in your hair. We ended up spending three days in the truck as the guys decided to go the back way to Arusha - way up in the north of Tanzania. We saw some incredible country, the forested hills of southern Tanzania giving way to the open plains through the centre of Tanzania, past the sleepy little village Dodoma that is the capital of Tanzania, over some smaller hills and on to the edge of the Serengeti Plain.
• Not long after leaving Dodoma we were stopped at a police check point just as it was getting dark and advised that we were not permitted to carry on as there were bandits in the nearby hills and we needed a military escort. We decided to spend the night at the checkpoint and carry on in the morning. We had a cookup behind the truck and then sat around the fire enjoying some of the local brew. All of the local cops joined us, and were engrossed by a conversation with Damien about what Australia was like. The corporal sat next to me, out of uniform in a white singlet, insisting that he be allowed to buy us drinks. He had already polished off a few beers and was on the spirits when one of his juniors came and spoke to him. He order the junior off on some task, so the junior handed the corporal his AK47 and disappeared. At the same time a fresh beer was handed to the corporal, so he proceeded to use the gun to open his beer - I couldn't see exactly which part but it looked awfully like the trigger. When I stood up to take a close look and pulled out my headlight he immediately got jumpy and said sternly "No photos, no photos". When I showed him that I only had a torch he grew a little more relaxed but there was no chance I was going to be able to even touch the Chinese made bottle opener.