I would say the last flight before I got to Malawi was reasonably dodgy. It looked like a Boing "outofdate". I was flying Ethiopian Airways, and luckily I arrived safe and sound in Lilongwe, Malawi. I then joined an overland truck and set of on a 7 week long bumpy road to Cape Town. 
My route: Lilongwe-Cape Town.
Here you can see our truck. All our luggage, food, tents and so on were locked away in the compartments that you see on the side of the truck. Tokoloshi was the "name" of the truck. It was named after a Zambian forest spirit as far as I can remember. I did this trip in July, luckily for the "polar bear" (me) from the north. I am sure I would have melted away if I went to Africa during their summer.
Sorry for the bad quality of the photos but this was before I got my hands on a better camera. This was the first night in Malawi, in the middle of nowhere. The camp had a fence and guards patrolling the area at night. So we were officially in the bush. I think we were about 28 people mostly from the English speaking corners of the world. I had obviusly picked up some nice whisky in the tax free shop before leaving Europe, and made new friends straight away.
I am a little bit ashamed to say I still complain about the potholes on Norwegian roads even after having been to Africa. Most of the roads I would compare to tractor roads in Norway. But hey you do not go to Africa for a comfortable vacation, you go there for adventures. 
And now a quiz question. Can you tell who the "Kiwis" are?
As you can see on the map, Malawi is not that big. So my the first post is neither that big :-p
I still hope it peaked your interest.
Hava a nice day :-)