Vwaza Marsh - Dickson's Jungle Cookies

Our journey into the National Parks of Malawi have been quite something.

The day we set off from Nkhata Baya there was a diesel shortage in the country. A nice chap from a servo called around and found a place near the Tanzania boarder that had fuel.  We had to do a 220km detour to get diesel, needless to say we filled both tanks right up!

The road into Vwaza Game Park was quite bad, and a good 50km of car breaking corrugations.

We arrived at the park quite late and tired, and to find out we were the only visitors!

There was a lovely chap, Dickson, who offered to do all of our cooking. At fist I was sceptical, but he turned out to be a wiz on the camp fire. We just gave him all of our food and left him to it.

His specialty was ‘Jungle cookies’ which he baked in a clay oven….. they were delicious, and kept us going for days.

The recipe is attached, and if you like them, you can send him a donation to put his kids through school (there’s no free education in this country!)

After we had our dinner cooked for us, I offered to drive the cook and his helper home as it was raining…which they were happy to accept. In most parks you are forbidden to drive at night, and I know why, on my back from the staff settlement, I turned a corner to come face to face with a very surprised hippo! Clearly my bright spot lights dazzled him, and he took off into the bush…it is true when they say an angry hippo can run at 40km/hr!

We went through the same scenario after dinner on the second night, it wasn’t raining, but they were both very keen for a lift home (only about a 1km). Once I started driving I figured out why, as it wasn’t raining, the visibility was much better, and all my headlights picked up were different coloured eyes peering out of the bush at us! I don’t think I would have been keen on walking the track at night!

The park was nice and rangers we very kind to us…but the reality was there was not much wildlife to be seen during the day. The Elephants had moved on, and apart from baboons and impala, it was a dud. They do say during the dry, the elephants are always near the lodge lake.

The drive out of the park caused our first real show stopper mechanical failure. The constant vibration and huge thumps tore our thermo fan out of the radiator, damaging the core on the way. We spent the night at Kaponga doing a bodgie repair to cross the boarder in the morning.

The border crossing  into Tanzania was un eventful, except that they weren’t going to let me in without permission from my government… apparently all Tanzania Police officers must have ‘orders’ to leave the country. I assured immigration it was all OK, and we were in!

Country number 5 - Tanzania here we come

Recipe for Dickson's Jungle Oat Cinnamon Cookies

Ingredients
2 and a half cups of self raising flour
2 cups of jungle oats
1 cup of brown sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons golden syrup
4 tablespoons of milk
3 tablespoons of margarine
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Rub margarine and flour together with jungle oats. Add sugar, mix well. Make a hole in the flour and oat mixture. break in egg, milk and golden syrup. Mix all in and make a stiff dough.

Grease a baking sheet pan. Roll in a ball and place on baking pan about 2 inches apart. Bake in a moderate oven for 15 minutes till brown and then turn on wire rack to cool. makes 36 to 40 cookies (surely I didn't eat that many!!!).

By Dickson Chawinga, Vwaza Ecolodge Box 170 Rumphi, Malawi