INLAND WATERWAYS EXPEDITION PART TWO: Southern Frontiers

We woke up to a blissful campsite on the Nyika Plateau in northern Malawi, knowing that our schedule for the day was, as usual, a shambles. When we’ve driven for up to 12 hours the day before, charting a route will always come second best to meal-times or sleep.

As we studied our map in the morning sun, we realised that there were two options: either backtrack 250km through Malawi to reach the Lundazi border into Zambia, or take the ‘short cut’ through the tiny Katumbi immigration facility border, just 64km away on the gravel track. The GPS working on Tracks4Africa said that this would be a terrible idea, as did Google Maps. Obviously, we did the sensible thing: ignored the maps, and winged it.

We were on a mission. Ticking off a new country every few days had become a sport to us, and our lust for adventure told us to take the risk – what was the worst that could happen?

No man’s land

We followed the main road to the border, before the road fell to bits and split into countless smaller tracks. We asked for