For someone who does what I do, having an aversion to borders is unfortunate. As I like to visit different countries on bikes, borders are unavoidable but that doesn't mean I get any less stressed. In Africa they vary in stress levels from the SA - Botswana border which was very easy, to the Mauritania - Senegal 'Rosso' border which is off the scale and I hope never to go through that one again.
There are a lot of things common with African borders. As you draw up you'll be met and maybe surrounded by helpers/fixers/money changers. Again their attitude varies from polite enquiry to outright threats.
Getting out of the country is generally easy, hand in passport and get it stamped. Next is a visit to customs and hand in your Temperary Import Procedure(TIP) document and confirm the vehicle is being removed from the country.
Then you ride through the border, often over a river, to the new country border. Again the helpers aporoach and sometimes here they can be useful. The Malawi border post was all contained in one building, which is a plus. In some borders you have to sriss-cross and go different places in a system apparently designed to confuse. So again passport is first and in this case a visa is necessary. The officials were very polite but busy and the counter officials would take your passport and forms and these would be processed by backroom staff. This took a while and while waiting I was approached quietly by a guy and handed a customs form and he suggested I could fill it in and save time. He also dealt with any queries I had on the form. Once my visa was ready, including having a photo taken, we moved to the customs.
Again the form was passed back to be processed. This took a while and I clarified with the guy, who said his name was Welad, what needed to be paid and in what currency. There were 3 payments, one on dollar for the TIP, and 2 others in local currency, a road tax and a carbon tax. I had already changed some dollars for local currency but not enough. Welad then went out and changed more for me. It was about this time I heard a familiar noise and saw the rain beating down and water overflowing the gutters. So once thd form came back approved we could move to the payments desk, then return with the receipt and get the final printed documents, which is what happened. These documents were handled formally, accompanied with a smile and welcome to Malawi. I gave Welad a few dollars for his help and explained what a "wee lad" was in Scotland and we had a laugh.
Below are the scenes facing me after the downpour. The bike had been left in the dry and was now nearly in a river. The rain had eased by the time I left and I had a dry ride into Lilongwe where I was staying.
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