My camera (No! Henks camera – kindly borrowed from and entrusted with) has been stolen out of my backpack. Don’t ask, i persevere, from hereon the cellphone will have to do, i will push murky images through filters so they look different. Another place and time. Old pictures found in an attic.
Beyond that internet access is harder to come by heading west towards Lake Malawi. Here in Lichinga though, there are two excellent facilities, one run out of a pretty free standing building along Ave Samora Machel that, the other just down the road (diagonally opposite Residencial 2 in 1 where i slept last night), the upstairs of a restaurant, a proper internet cafe, six shiny black terminal workstations complete with headphones for skyping and serving excellent espresso. So this impromptu post while i wait for the 10h00 chapa to take me back down to Metangula on the lake. What? Back down? Yes, there are major gaps in this narrative. i have travelled west from Ihla to Nampula by chapa (where the camera was stolen), then a ten hour journey by train the following day to Cuamba, then immediately onto another chapa that takes me onto Lichinga, a very bumpy crowded journey, arriving after 21h30. Then the next day to Metangula on Lake Malawi where i discover that cell phone reception is clear, but no more ATMs, forcing me to return to Lichinga yesterday late afternoon to tank up on meticals. This last journey a lift with Roman Catholic missionary workers (Kenya Daniel and two mission sisters) down by the lake for a leisurely Sunday lunch, visit to the local mission station and purchase along the way back of staples galore, two 50kg bags of beans, around 60kg of potatoes…
