Malawian Lake Beaches

After months spent in countries bordering South Africa, wearing hoodies and thermals to combat the cold weather, we were ready for the beach. Leaving Zimbabwe was tough as it's been our favourite country so far, but with it getting harder to buy Zim dollars and inflation breaking records even for here we felt like it was time to go. It's a geographical necessity to transit Mozambique on the way from Zim to Malawi, so our first experience was the Mozambiquean Tete corridor. According to the Lonely Planet, "even the missionaries call it (Tete) hell," but we loved it! Didn't have to sleep in our thermals for the first time in ages, and the Portugese influence gave Tete a festive atmosphere. That's saying a lot about Zimbabwe considering how much Mozambique still suffers from the effects of civil war after civil war; plenty of buildings look bombed out and the only other mzungus (white people) we met were working for aid agencies or overseas businesses. Aside from the obvious change in language and atmosphere, I noticed 3 things about Mozambique in the 2 days we spent there: baobabs, loads of people on bikes, and colourfully dressed women. We decided to make an effort to come back to the country since we had planned on bypassing Mozambique by going directly from Malawi to Tanzania.

We made it from Mozambique to Malawi without encountering any of the fabled corrupt cop scams or sand roads we had been warned about, so it was quick getting to the border and we headed straight for Monkey Bay on the bottom edge of Lake Malawi. However, Malawian roads are blessed with a plethora of free roaming livestock and people on bikes, causing us to slow down every minute to avoid collision. It's definitely one of the most densely populated countries in Africa- there are no gaps between villages and there's always a crowd to wave at from the back of the bike. My arm actually got a cramp from all the flailing. The arrival into Monkey Bay was late, where we had to contend with a couple kilometres of deep sand in the dark to get out to the place we were staying, and then the mob of young, drunk African men running the place. Our first impression was pretty grim, but waking up the next morning on a golden sand beach and crystal clear, beautiful blue lake made up for it. The lake is huge and easily mistaken for the ocean, Nick and I both accidentally referred to "the sea" a number of times, but jumping into fresh water is pretty unbeatable (ok, it's subjective, but not having gritty, salty hair and skin after a day on the beach is pretty choice). It's hard to fully explain just how excited we were about hot weather after the cold we'd been enduring; as soon as we hit the lake our travel pace slowed to a crawl and time ceased to exist. We spent nearly a week in Monkey Bay, mostly out on the lake, but when we could tear ourselves away we discovered an odd little town. Loads of businesses call themselves cafes, restaraunts and the like, but all they sell is beer. Suprisingly few actually have "bar" somewhere in the name, but not even the basics like rice, beans or tea, just beer. Other than cooking ourselves or eating in the hostel there just wasn't any other way to get a meal.

Interestingly, like Botswana, the only Malawian beer, called Kuche Kuche, is lacking in alcoholic content-4.2%. Not quite a light beer, but not as strong as the Western alternative they brew under license here, Carlsberg. Kuche Kuche means something like "until sunrise," and the ongoing tourist joke is that it's called that because you can drink it til sunrise without getting drunk. The fact that it sounds like something you would coo at a baby doesn't help. On the ferry from Monkey Bay to Likoma Island there was abundant time to discuss African beer with other travellers- the trip took over 30 hours- and it was good to hear that other people were curious as to why Africans brew such weak beer since they devote so much time and enthusiasm to drinking it. The ferry, called the Ilala, runs up and down Lake Malawi (the whole circuit around the lake takes 5 days African time- usually 6) to some islands and towns that can only be reached by boat. Not all, but most of the stops it makes services places that do not have any other way of importing and exporting goods, which is part of the reason why the trip takes so long. There also aren't any proper ports after Monkey Bay that we saw, so everything is loaded and unloaded by shoreboats. People pile on in, flinging massive and generally heavy bags of produce, blankets, furniture and anything you could imagine. There's no one managing the situation so it's a bit of a free-for-all, and if you get caught in the crossfire trying to get on or off it can be pretty intense. Just to get to the ladder on the Ilala to climb onto the shoreboat, you first have to clamber over stacked up bags of cargo and the people sitting down in economy, push past those who have just gotten on with their cargo, and squeeze through the scrum at the top of the ladder where three other people are trying to shimmy down to the boat, a person's halfway up the ladder trying to get himself and his bags on the boat, and some woman is passing her 50kg sack of cassava root over all of you to her friend on the shoreboat. Larger cargo, like an old Landrover Defender we saw, is lifted onto barges by a crane on the front of the Ilala, and the whole trip is a photographer's dream come true. During the night we crossed the middle of the lake where it gets pretty rough, and saw the swell at over 2 metres. That's big enough for nearly everyone on board to be wretchedly seasick (not us, luckily), and one wave even soaked us on the top deck. There are three decks, plus the belly of the boat, so it was a pretty big wave. Most of us slept on the top deck as it's quite a bit cheaper than getting a cabin, and a few people were forced to get up in the middle of the night due to the drenching.

We got to Likoma Island after dark, navigated our way onto a shoreboat and then a fishing boat with a couple guys who were to take us to Mango Drift. The moon was full and we had an awesome 45 minute ride around the back of the island in the moonlight- all quite surreal after not really sleeping on the ferry. Our campsite was about a metre from the water, and the only amenities were a couple toilets, a water spout under a baobab that served as the shower (everyone used the lake though), and a sunset bar/restaurant- perfect. Miles from the village and little urchins screeching "mzungu! give me my money!" We spent quite a few days rediscovering the sun, swimming, snorkelling, and wandering around the island (it's a few kilometres by about 1 kilometre with a big hill in the middle). I don't know why, but we had this crazy notion that we were going to catch the Ilala when it came back down the lake, which would have meant only spending 2 days on Likoma before going back to Monkey Bay- I think it took us about a day to realize that it wasn't going to happen, and decide to spend longer on Likoma before catching a dhow (small sailboat) to Chizumulu Island- Chizi- a couple hours away. There were 4 other people staying at Mango Drift who had come from there and recommended it, so that was all the encouragement we needed.

The only dhow from Likoma to Chizi leaves around 5am due to the wind, and comes back to Likoma around 10am. This means it's far more realistic to get off the Ilala at Chizumulu and after a few days get the dhow to Likoma, but that was unfortunately not an option. We could have chartered a motorboat for a couple hundred dollars, but resigned ourselves to the middle of the night public transport mission. The bay that the dhow leaves from was about an hour's walk from Mango Drift, and we'd been told the dhow could leave as early as 4am. After just missing a couple buses in Zimbabwe that left at ridiculous times, we were not going to make that mistake again. We had been given varying accounts of when it was likely to leave and didn't know who to believe- it was one of those times that made us really appreciate the bike. So, we got up at 2am, packed and started walking in the direction that had vaguely been pointed out to us. The moon was still quite bright, but we were walking up and down rocky hills with our heavy, awkward bags and no idea if we were even headed the right way. After 45 minutes or so the footpath we'd been following branched in 3 different directions and we had no idea which was the right way. At this point it was around 3.30am and the situation was looking dire. Eventually along comes these 2 kids, not even teenagers, each with 2 massive housing bricks balanced on their head. Wide awake, friendly and cheerful as, they were happy to show us the way to the bay, which, as it turns out, would have been nearly impossible to find on our own. It was one of the very few times we have given people money. A small crowd had already gathered, sitting in the moonlight with their bags waiting to get on the dhow, and we were pretty proud of ourselves for making it by 4am. Of course the boat didn't leave until 6, but that was all part of the experience.

Chizumulu is an awesome island, well worth the pain. The place we stayed, Wakwenda, is very well set up for backpackers and has more of a party atmosphere than Mango Drift. The sunset bar there is definitely the best we've come across, the hammocks are legendary, and we met some wicked people. I don't know where the time went, but we spent nearly a week lazing around, swimming, drinking gin and tonics, and doing as little as possible. It was a vacation within a vacation- I think the pictures tell the Lake Malawi story. But, the next time the Ilala came around we needed to be on it as we'd left our bike in Monkey Bay and it was time to move on. It got to Chizi around 2am, so that night we spent dozing on couches until it arrived and we got what sleep we could on the upper deck. There is no "waking up" on the Ilala since no one properly falls asleep, but when the sun rose and it was warm enough to get out of the sleeping bags, we realized we were in for a long trip. The ferry hadn't left Chizi yet, and when it finally did around 7am or so it was only to sail to Likoma, about an hour away, where we spent the entire day unloading goods. The ferry was now about 11 hours behind schedule, the lake was very rough, and it was windy and cold. Not a pleasant trip, and we ended up spending 3 nights on the ferry compared to 1 on the way out. Without question one of the most adventerous parts of being in Africa so far has been getting from point A to point B, especially when using public transportation. If it's not people telling you different times it will leave and places it will leave from, or intentionally misinforming you as to where the bus is headed, it's breakdowns and delays along the way. And I want to know why buses, boats, etc always leave around 2/3/4am? My 2 embarrasingly frivolous yet burning questions about Africa so far have been this and why local commercially brewed beer is low in alcohol.

Back in Monkey Bay we were ready to leave the lake and heat to go down into southern Malawi. We got off the ferry around 6am to pick up our bike, pack our gear and drive to Blantyre a couple hundred kilometres south. We weren't at our most alert, but the ferry trip had jolted us back into reality enough to be ready to move on again. In Blantyre we caught up with a friend from Chizi, Paul, who has been living and teaching there and showed us around. Oddly enough, most of the other mzungus we meet are volunteering or working in Africa, and it's been quite rare to see tourists. We occassionally meet another couple travelling overland, usually by 4wd, but not people on short trips. In Blantyre the hostel we stayed at was full of medical students working at the hospital, and of course there are loads of volunteers and aid workers everywhere. We had a good time exploring the hinterlands of Blantyre with Paul, even though it had gotten cold again. Out hiking one day I saw a hyena maybe a hundred metres away staring at me- my first encounter with a large predator in Africa. We also had breakfast one morning at a restaurant a few houses down from the adoption centre where Madonna controversially adopted a boy. Blantyre is quite a chilled out city, and we didn't get as many people yelling at us to give them money like we've had in the rest of Malawi. Malawians are generally friendly people, but a lot of them have odd ideas about mzungus- one person said that he hoped we learned something while we were here, and did we really think Africans lived in trees? A girl who's doing work for her PhD here said that a lot of locals she's met think that all mzungus have a mansion with a fleet of cars and yacht parked out the front, and wherever we go kids will swarm us chanting "mzungu, mzungu, mzungu" and follow us until we get to where we're going. In that way Malawi is quite different from other southern African countries we've been to, but East Africa is apparently more like Malawi. Apparently the reference books in Malawian schools are generally quite outdated, like encyclopedias from the 1910s. People in the North donate books to African schools through aid agencies with the impression that something is better than nothing, and they all get shipped over (which costs tons) to various schools. But, outdated books means outdated ideas and teachers end up teaching their students ridiculous things like that white people in the United States call black people "monkeys" and chase them around beating them with sticks. There are also Malawians who have learned English from the King James bible, and say things like "How art thou?" Those are both true stories Paul told us from his experiences teaching.

Leaving Blantrye we went to Mt. Munanje even further south, where we wandered through tea plantations and happened upon a massive gathering of schoolkids celebrating Education Day. Essentially there was some really cool drumming and dancing and loads of kids running around, and it was probably the highlight of Mulanje. Our visa was running out and we hadn't completely decided if we wanted to go to Mozambique for a while before going up to northern Malawi, or if we wanted to extend our visa and start working our way back up the country. At the last minute we decided on a quick mission out to the legendary northern Mozambiquean coast. The plan is to drive out to Ihla de Mozambique on the coast, a 3 day ride mostly on earth roads, and then come back to Malawi. I guess we were really craving seafood and the Portugese atmosphere, and wanted to see what the rest of the country was like if Tete was "hell," so we set off through back roads on the far side of nowhere in Mozambique on a quest for big, juicy prawns.

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