Not a Real Car Issue! – Macondo Camp

I’ve started joking with Ross that whatever time he tells me we are going to arrive somewhere, I’m going to just add two hours to it. Something always seems to happen and we get delayed. It could be a GPS error, or a driver error, or some kind of unforeseen circumstance, but even when we are aiming to arrive with plenty of time to spare, we seem to be cutting it close. No one wants to be driving around in the dark in Africa, especially with so many people choosing to wear dark colors and walk on or next to the road. The main road. The little road. The highway. Seriously, people are everywhere! And there’s no lights either. Driving late at night is just asking for trouble. But here we were, arriving at Luwawa Forest Lodge much later than anticipated. Oops.

We only had one target, Bertram’s Weaver and we were more or less just using this as a convenient stopover point on our way further north to the town of Mzuzu. Unfortunately the ailment that had hit Ross in Dzalanyama had now hit me and I simply couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed to go search for a forest weaver. Except I did get out of bed to go search for the darn thing and then it started raining but I was feeling too nauseated to even stand up straight so I went back to bed. Ross, unable to quit, birded in the rain and did connect with a pair of Bertram’s Weavers along with Moustached Grass-warbler, Black Sparrowhawk, Lesser & Scaley-throated Honeyguides, and Forest Double-collared Sunbird, among others. Somehow the only bird I missed despite not birding for very long was the weaver. Oh well. You need to rest when you are sick, trust me. But my own husband won’t listen to that advice so, agree with me or don’t. I don’t care.

We then hit the road and on the way out, through some very lovely miombo forest, connected with arguably the best bird of the morning, Reichard’s Seedeater. At around the same time we were having an issue starting our car that became very concerning. So concerning that we weren’t sure our car would start again, so once we got it running, we left it on. We wanted to be sure to have it looked at ASAP so instead of going straight on to our next birding spot, we went straight to Mzuzu to find a mechanic. Long story short, we bought floor mats when we arrived to keep the mud/dust at bay and the floor mat was getting jammed under the clutch, preventing the car from sensing the clutch was down! OOPS! Who knew?! But while the mechanic had our car, we at least got some work done/much needed rest at the nearby Macondo Camp and what we thought might be a serious issue, really wasn’t an issue at all! It only cost us 13USD to learn that our floor mats were to blame! The only real issue was I still was feeling sick, but at least I had a decent place to relax!

The following morning we ducked out of Macondo Camp, the quaint tourist campsite, very early so we could be sure to try for East Coast Akalat right at dawn when it is most vocal. We’d searched for this bird in Mozambique but missed it, but we weren’t dipping African endemics so we just had to get it in Malawi. We didn’t have too much information to go on, but we turned up at Nkwadzi Forest (it’s okay if you can’t pronounce that, I can’t either) and took a game trail in after a singing bird. Easy. East Coast Akalat was vocal and cooperative. It was back to Mzuzu and back to the mechanic so we could have our oil changed and miscellaneous maintenance fine-tuned. The hilux had a clean bill of health and was ready to go! Good thing too, because Malawi got some rain and getting to Vwaza National Park, our next destination, turned into a real challenge! Stay tuned!