29-May-2018 -- This is the last of three confluences visited during a 6 week job in Malawi - it follows (16S 35E). The previous week we had some work to do in Balaka and I had tried to visit the point but when I came to the bridge that Rainer Mautz had also been stopped by, I knew I did not have time to walk the 1 km each way to the point and still get to our destination in Mangochi that evening without creating a riot from my companions in the car.
I thought I had missed the chance but on the 29th we drove back along the same road and had a little more time so I decided to look for a better bridge to cross the river. Despite picking up a local guide we ended up at the same bridge and I spent about 40 mins walking to the point and back.
The point lies a few hundred metres south of a small village and it was not easy to make it clear that I wanted to go 200 m in "that" direction - given that there was not much common language. After a few false trails, and helped by a group of small children I got to the point. Having been attacked by blackjack seeds at the previous 2 points I decided not to go right into the undergrowth so did not quite get all the zeroes lined up. The point lies in the fork near where two footpaths meet - so I was probably only a few metres away at the closest point.
Photos taken, including Rainer's "sausage tree", then back to the car and on to Mangochi again. One sour note is that our guide - having been given a small payment for taking us to the bridge and hanging around for an hour proceeded to pickpocket one of my colleague's wallet. Fortunately my colleague was already almost broke but he still had to replace his driving licence and bank cards.
While on the subject of sausages - a local delicacy is known as African Sausage - in fact it is field mice - not to everyone's taste!