Lifupa

                Friday night we went to Lifupa Lodge at the Kasungu National Park. It was seriously one of the most fun things we have done here in Malawi. This park is awesome because all about keeping the animals safe and all of the profit the lodge makes goes towards stopping poachers.

                While we were there we went on the walking safari and went to see some cave paintings and had lunch on top of Black Rock. It was beautiful.

                On our walking safari we didn’t actually see anything crazy in the way of animals but since we were on foot and totally vulnerable it was a good thing. We saw some bugs though and hippos from afar. It was estimated to be an hour and a half but we took our time and it lasted about three hours. Dr. Johnston was able to come with us which is really good because for a while I was afraid he’d be sitting at the lodge the whole time while the rest of us were out and about. We has a lot of fun and saw lots of beautiful scenery and took tons of beautiful pictures. Since the park just lets the animals do as they will and there’re no fences to keep them in a certain place, sometimes you see lots of animals and sometimes you don’t see any but you still see beautiful things. Since we started later in the afternoon and we took our time we got back in the dark and had to pick up the pace towards the end but that’s okay because there wasn’t enough light to take pictures anyway and we made it back safely.

There were so many ants. It was weird

This pretty much sums up the kind of antics we were up to

It's a Hippo!

                That night after a wonderful dinner we spent time together just Whitney, Emily and me in our room. We all took a nice warm shower in the candle light and then had a hair braiding party. It wasn’t exactly a glamorous night but it was still really fun.

                In the morning it was really cold but that’s probably because we left the windows open. Oops. Somehow we managed to get up and brave the cold to have breakfast and get ready for our trip to Black Rock and the cave paintings. We went with these two guys who served in the French military and came to the park to catch poachers. Their names were Kevin and Mat. Kevin didn’t speak much English but Mat did and was really fun to talk to. We all loved learning about how they catch poachers and what they were working on. We picked up a guide at a camp on the way to the cave paintings so we would actually find them. When we got there we had to hike a bit to get to the two caves. In the first one, some of the paintings were damaged because poachers don’t want tourists roaming around the park too much and they light fires in the cave to destroy them. The second cave was more preserved but it was a harder hike. It was well worth it though. We were bushed when we got back to the land rover.

The land Rover definitely wasn't comfortable but it was still awesome

So excited! A real adventure!

Cave painting

                After dropping off our guide, we went to Black Rock. The hike to the top of Black Rock was much shorter but it was also super steep. It’s a good thing I didn’t wear flip flops. The view from the top though was one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. We had falafel for lunch and it was delicious as was all the food at Lifupa but I’ll get to that later. While we were eating lunch, we talked to Mat some more and Kevin would join in once in a while if he could. It was just nice to sit on top of Black Rock and take in the view and rest. We all got some nice pictures, especially Emily. After lunch we climbed back down and got a picture with Kevin and Mat. I think it’s a funny picture because we’re all smiling and happy and they are just standing their holding still so we don’t have to retake any pictures. Not that they complained or anything. They just weren’t as excited as we were.

Lunch was packed in a medic bag. Mat and Kevin thought it was funny

The view from Black Rock

                                You can see the difference between us and the boys

              On the way back we got attacked by flies! Usually flies don’t bother me too much but these flies were evil. They were out to eat us! If you didn’t get them off of you fast enough, they would bite you. I have like three bites on my neck from them. It’s stupid. So naturally we also went on the offense because the best defense is a good offense right? So we started attacking them and freaking out a little. Mat and Kevin thought it was funny but at this point I’m pretty sure we’re all used to people thinking we’re weirdoes.

Ok so the food at Lifupa, was, awesome! For lunch we had pasta salad and some Shepard’s pie. Dinner was oriental chicken and beef stew. Breakfast the next morning was all kinds of goodness. There was homemade bread that I could have eaten all day. I also got some French toast that was made with the homemade bread. I’m not a big French toast person but I loved this stuff. There was also a sampling of different jams we tried out. There was tomato and banana jam and some peanut butter. Whitney really liked the peanut butter with the banana jam and told Emily to try it. She doesn’t like peanuts and for some reason we keep forgetting so we keep asking her if she wants to try some. She takes it well though. She just says she’ll have to try it sometime, meaning never.

After we came back from Black Rock it was time for us to check out. We had so much fun! Whitney and I waited in the lobby for Emily and Dr. Johnston to get payment all figured out. While we waited, we wrote in the guest book and one of the people that work there asked if we were sisters. It was funny because that has never happened to us because we don’t look even remotely related. We had a good laugh. We are very tempted to go back before we leave in August. They want to start a new thing where they take people to the top of black rock and they sleep on top under the stars and then they can see the sunrise in the morning. They’ve done it once before and the people they took loved it. I think it would be fun. It was just a really awesome place to just see Africa. For anybody thinking about going to Malawi, go to Lifupa.