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Published: June 29th 2010
(M) Paradise is a different place for everyone. For us, it’s a place called Likoma Island on Lake Malawi. It took us a while to get there, but when we did, we stayed. The early mornings are best, drinking strong locally brewed coffee looking out over the mirrored lake across the bay at the collection of Baobab trees jutting out into the bright blue African sky. Mesmerising.
It’s hard to believe we set off a little over two weeks ago. So much has happened in that time that it feels like twice that at least. Having survived some pretty hairy journeys to get here we already classify ourselves as hardened travellers, but it makes the lazy days on the lake-side beach that much more satisfying!
Having stopped briefly in Nairobi we arrived in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi pretty knackered only to have to spend two hours painstakingly negotiating with Air Malawi to get our flight out of the country secured, severly hampered by the lack of internet, which seems to be more the rule than the exception... With our hand-written paper tickets in hand, we then made our way to Mufasa lodge, a backpackers in the centre of
town run by hippie rockspiders (staunch Afrikaner South Africans for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term) who relayed endless amusing stories about crocodile attacks and bush drinking games involving lots of vodka and slapping elephants... If you hadn’t go the measure of these people yet, you hopefully do now! Regardless, it was great being back on African soil.
The long journey up to Nkhata Bay on the mainland of Lake Malawi began early the next morning after a bowl of corn flakes and sour milk. After frantic negotiations with the hoardes of locals at the central bus station all trying to get us on their bus, we scrummed to get us and our packs on the already crowded first bus to Mzuzu, settling into the only two remaining tiny and barely covered seats. The rest were less fortunate and stood most of the way and thankfully we were spared having to share the bus with any livestock! Five gruelling hours later we arrived, having amongst other potential set-backs skillfully negotiated some serious off-road terrain to get round a still smouldering burned out truck in the road, avoiding the hoardes of locals who were revelling in nicking
Fishermen on Lake Malawi
View from Butterfly chaletits contents.
Mzuzu central bus station was slightly less chaotic but still pretty frenetic, and we managed to get ourselves on to a twelve seater minibus taxi down to Nkhata Bay, crammed into two tiny spaces along with twenty other adults and four children... to make it all work, valiantly Nina twice carried different Malawian babies on her lap, one of which was already damp and was desparately looking for her nipple for comfort! The journey itself was pretty hairy and again we had to negotiate our way around an eighteen wheeler truck which had near-overturned on the road but, as ever, this was a temporary setback which the locals simply consider part of everyday life. But arrive safely we did, having found time to marvel at the incredibly green and beautiful landscape all the way down towards the lake. Pretty special.
The next three nights we spent at Nkhata Bay at a place called Butterfly Space, a backpackers which runs a load of local development projects. Once we had settled into our chalet right on the edge of the lake, the arduous journey was long forgotten and we spent three glorious days swimming, soaking up the spectacular
Football training
how to make 40 instant friends! scenery and taking it extremely easy. We did however also make time to coach some local kids football (having donated an outrageously expensive football we bought in Lilongwe) and to take an incredible boat trip out to feed the Fish Eagles, which swept down a meter and a half from the boat to catch their prey. Majestic!
Our next adventure was to take a lake taxi up to the beautifully isolated and electricity free Zulunkhuni River lodge in Ruarwe, north along the lake. By the time the 10am taxi boat was fully loaded and dieseled up, it was 4.45pm and we were on our way. But at that point we had absolutely no idea of the journey that we were about to undertake. The experience was quite something else, and I’ll leave it to Nina to relay our story...
“It’s a long way from Lilongwe”
(N) Well, 60 kms on the map, but as Frances, one half of Zukunkhuni management informed us in advance, 60 kms that can take 6-12 hours. That is, without waiting time. We thought we had been street smart in acquiring up to the minute travel information sourced straight to the Captain, arrived
shortly before our SDT 1400 but spent a good three hours waiting for more passengers to arrive so the crew could take the fees and go buy Diesel with it. Around 3pm, a man as drunk as a Chinaman at the Oktoberfest fell into the boat, and proceeded to consume approximately 10 Kuche Kuche beers at a rate of 1 bottle/30 sec with his mate, repeatedly handing over large wads of Malawi Kwacha, which I suspect to be half his month’s wages. Although he later claimed it was his birthday, I doubt his wife would have approved.
When the boat started its engine - a procedure which involved opening a hatch and holding together a red and a black wire, I observed - I felt slightly apprehensive about the impending journey - I’m all up for adventures but have to admit to trust issues regarding our fishing boat and the dingy towed at the back (used to ferry passengers to shore), which had such a big leak that one unfortunate employee spent the entire journey bucketing water out back into the lake.
Many beers produce much urine, so it wasn’t long before the village drunkard staggered/climbed/fell on us
to relieve himself from the edge of the boat, but unfortunately all the lovely stuff went where we were sitting. We were given the option to sit on the roof (flat, no railings, lake rather choppy) but after pondering the options we climbed up with a fellow Israeli backpacker who looked like he’d seen it all before. Once reassured that one does not fall off the roof if one lies flat enough, we had an amazing two hours up there, sipping Malawi Vodka with Lemon Fanta (not bad!) under a magnificent full moon. My bladder briefly interrupted the romance; there was no toilet (Malawian men piss of the edge, Malawian women don’t go, apparently), so I was handed a bucket half filled with lake water, and did a wee up on the roof of the boat. See photographic evidence on the left...
Then, much to our inconvenience, a rainstorm arrived, and we had no choice but to climb back down, sit down between puddles of wee and two cockroaches and bear it. These storms can be quite violent, and it was not long before heavy rain was lashing onto ourselves and packs - luckily we didn’t skimp on equipment
Stone House
Zulunkhuni River Lodge, Ruarwe and and had invested in rain covers - and waves were violently shaking our boat. Then the electricity went off, and as the boat kept stopping to drop off and ferry passengers to their villages (the explanation for the duration of the journey) we sat in the pitch black dark, feeling like illegal migrants.
At 2 am, we arrived in Ruarwe, and although the dinghy miraculously brought us to shore safe, even Or, the unfazed Israeli who spent 6months travelling south from Ethiopia with only a tent and a cooker, awarded the journey a Top Three Dodgy Travel Experiences in Africa category.
All that was left was a half hour barefoot hike through the bush (“a ten minute walk”, according to one of the lodge’s night watchmen who had come to meet us), a couple of minor panic-inducing bites by African soldiers (those massive ants that Bear Grylls uses to “stitch up” wounds; you pull their butt off and they stick), and then finally we sat at Zulunkhuni bar, sipping beers and feeling slightly smug about having a decent story to tell fellow travellers.
(M) We woke up the next morning in our chalet called the the
Stone House and the perils of the previous days seemed a long distant memory! Apart from Or and Matt, the chilled manager, we were the only people there and spent five care- and electricity-free days interspercing extreme chilling with jumps off an 8-metre chalet balcony, snorkelling, some lethal backgammon sessions and a semi life-threatening hike up the river - there had been so much rain that some parts required us to clutch on to thick vines along the river edge to avoid being swept down the cascade of waterfalls below. But as always with these things, the harder the journey, the more beautiful the reward...
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Momska
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Adventurers
You're both amazing. The way you're able to adapt from 'comfortable affable living' to travel conditions just described is commendable and extremely creditable - even more so to you Nina. Afraid I couldn't have done it. But what an indelible experience of our wonderful planet and life (in a real world).