Blogs from Mangochi, Southern, Malawi, Africa

Back to Mangochi. After settling in Saturday afternoon, we headed to the bar for some much needed food and drink. As most of you know, I’m not a G&T girl. But Malawi gin mixed with Malawi tonic is actually quite nice. Equally nice, and therefore preferred, is Malawi vodka. To buy familiar liquors is too expensive, but you can get a Malawian G&T or VT for about K420 ($2.80). Saturday night’s 9pm dinner came with entertainment. A group of performers from a nearby village had been selected to perform a traditional dance. While 2-3 men banged on the drums and 3 women clapped and sang, one or two other men would come out dressed in all sorts of costumes, most of which represented an animal. They would then dance around. Emma told us it was an ... read more

Continuing with my weekend tours of Malawi, I decided to go to the Sun ‘n’ Sand resort between Monkey Bay and Mangochi (yes I do realize that my trips so far have been to places I’ve already gone). I decided to go mostly because come last Friday I still wasn’t sure where I wanted to visit, so an ad in the paper and the fact I knew where the buses left from convinced me I should take a trip to the lake. So after wasting an hour and a half of my Saturday morning sitting on a bus in Limbe station, it finally filled and we could set off. In case you don’t know the journey from Blantyre to Mangochi probably takes 4 hours if your driving yourself. In a bus, because of stops, refilling and ... read more

After a brief, boozy farewell at Doogles on Thursday night, we leave Blantyre in high spirits - me, ready after ten weeks in Malawi to move on to wider and wilder pastures; and the others - Marie and Eline from the Kabula Lodge; Richard and Melise, two ex-pat friends - at the start of a ten-day holiday to the Mozambican coast. Spend enough time as a freelancer and you begin to forget what it’s like to live a life of early-morning commutes, workplace politics, nine-to-fives. In short, you forget how much of the world lives. But now, with the others giddy at the prospect of a ten-day jailbreak, and the girls free from the hospital’s headaches, even I’m infected by the holiday mood. Ten days! Imagine the luxury, after daily wake-up calls at half-past four; after ... read more