Have just arrived in Blantyre, southern Malawi having just spent 5 nights travelling south along the shore of Lake Malawi at Karonga, Kande Beach and then Monkey Bay. It was as if we stepped out of Africa and into Bali. Beautiful. You can swim in the lake but not near the reeds because of some liver infesting worm (bilharzia?) and you don’t swim at night because of hunting crocodiles (someone spotted 4 this morning a bit after 5am). Apart from that it’s as safe as houses.

We have visited permaculture sights at four ‘normal’ schools and an orphans school. The first school we went to had 1057 students “AGAINST” 8 teachers – CRAZY. The other schools had a similar ratio of at least 100 students per teacher. As you can imagine the kids were totally out of control. They behaved like a school of fish – if you stay still they gradually came closer to investigate you but any quick movement sent them scrambling and falling over each other. They were none the less gorgeous though and I got some great photos. It was a pretty amazing experience. And it was impressive to see what the schools were achieving in such crappy circumstances.

We have also seen a permaculture garden at a hotel and at a home in Monkey Bay, where we stayed the night. The people on the trip are awesome – a really mixed bag that functions beautifully as a unit.

Tomorrow (Monday) we head for Chipata on the border between Zambia and Malawi then onto South Luangwa National Park where we (apparently) have a good chance of seeing a leopard. Should be arriving in Livingstone on Thursday with a bit of luck.