Days 38-43: Kande Beach and Luwawa Forest, Malawi

On a trip like this, you meet and talk to a lot more people than you do in, say, Europe. Partly, this is because a lot of people aren't doing anything and are just sitting around- sitting on the street, leaning on a fence, propping up storefronts. This means they have the time and the inclination to talk.

It's also because of the inherent friendliness of most Africans, and the people in Malawi are about the friendliest of the bunch. As you travel and meet the people- the children, beggars, vendors, general chit-chatters and the downcast, you are constantly torn between despairing at humanity at one turn, and having your faith fully restored at the next:

• thieving and cheating staff at hotels and camp grounds who steal money and alcohol at any opportunity, and attempt to overcharge guests for laundry and pocket the change
• playing with local kids in a village and throwing them around like a helicopter or chasing them down the street. At first they freeze, scared, but then laugh, and you realise their initial reticence was because they've never had an adult chase them as a game, rather than trying to cuff them round the ears.
• seeing a severely mentally and physically handicapped man, whose lot is sit, alone, at a service station forecourt asking for change, his bare scraps of clothes and dirt encrusted legs showing that there's no welfare state here

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Another day, another epic sunset. This time it's from the highest point of Luwawa Forest. I climb to the top of an unfenced fire tower (health and safety precautions don't exist in this part of the world), scaling a small ladder to get an even better view. Halfway up, the tower begins to sway appreciably in the breeze. At the top, the platform is so small that I can't even turn around without having to lean, unsupported, off the top of the peak. It wasn't easy, and halfway up I was more than a little scared. But totally worth it.

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Spiders, freakin everywhere. And they are massive.