Malawi 15: Farewell Malawi

There is a road toll gate on the road to Liwonde where we paid a toll heading south and I naively expected the pot-holed road to become a smooth new motorway. Hahaha joke.
Returning north after a lovely stay at Mvuu, we were required to pay the toll again. To my eye, there was no evidence of the Government of Malawi Department of Roads doing any road building or maintenance. Sure the Chinese are building roads, but it is the Government of Malawi building toll gates - good business model.
The road actually improved once we got off the tollway.
The fun bit for me was crossing into Mozambique - the border runs through the villages and parallel to the road with no fence or border control. So, took the opportunity to sprint across for a quick selfie, much to the amusement of our driver.
Is it customary to reflect on such a travel experience - I suppose it is, but I don’t feel like doing that perhaps because the feelings conflict. It irks me to see such charming, kind and courteous and smart people struggling to find hope in a beautiful country wracked with poverty and administrative incompetence and corruption. But somehow the people just carry on, many of them subsisting: growing their own food and little troubled by the fuel crisis or the quality of the roads. The state does nothing for them so they are little affected. All work is done by hand; transport is by foot; if there is a hole in the road, walk around it.
Customs and Immigration have taken up the first 4 pages of my new passport, damn it. Hope the flight to South Africa is on schedule.Read more