Chalet 4

RS: The remaining stretch to Chelinda was long, dark, and rugged. There was no chance we would have made it with the little gas we had left. We had to drive excruciatingly slow to negotiate the gaping holes in the road.

Eventually we made it to camp. It was hard to follow the sign posts at night and we ended up knocking on the wrong door to check in. Luckily, we knocked on the door of the pilot whom Prince Daniel suggested could pick up a tire for us in Mzuzu.

The pilot was a Canadian ex-pat named Christian. We told Christian we were trying to check in to the chalet we had reserved but that we couldn't seem to figure out where to go. Christian was very accomodating. He spoke in a calm, soothing voice and patiently pointed us in the right direction.

We also explained to Christian the trying circumstances that brought us to camp so late and apologized for bothering him. He empathized with our plight and told us it was not uncommon for people to experience car problems on the road to Nyika. He also told us that he was not making the run to Mzuzu the next day but instead was heading to an island in the middle of Lake Malawi. However, he told us the camp had its own mechanic yard that could probably patch our tire.

Very sadly, about two weeks after having this conversation with Christian, we read this article in the news.

With Christian's help, we found the main lodge at camp where a British ex-pat who runs the Nyika Safaris tour company that operates the Chelinda camp got us sorted and into the self-catering chalet we reserved.

JP:
While pulling up to the lodge, we drove by the chalets and joked that we didn't want to get Chalet 4 because it was off on it's own and looked a bit scary in the middle of the woods (you have to understand, we had quite an evening already and besides the road, we had absolutely no idea where we were ... DY: plus Nyika has giant turtles that run like Carl Lewis). Guess which chalet we got? That's right, Chalet 4. But when we got up in the morning, it turns out Chalet 4 isn't so scary after all.

2 bedroom, 1 bath and a fireplace, it was much more than we expected. We even had the help of Dominic, who was essentially a butler, to keep the fires going (the fireplace as well as the fire for hot water) and cook our meals.

Here's the fireplace:



Here's the wood burning water heater:



And wood burning stove:



RS: This place was about as cozy as they come. I think all of our expectations were low after a roommate of Squeezy's in Lilongwe had pooh poohed the place and suggested it was overpriced. We were all really excited to discover the place was so nice.