A nightly encounter in Monkey Bay

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Blantyre--Monkey Bay, Thursday 17 November 2005

We caught a minibus from Blantyre to Monkey Bay, from which the 54-year-old famous ferry Ilala will take us all the way to Nkhata Bay up north. From there we plan to make our way to Mzuzu, and then Karonga, which is situated around 120 km from the Tanzanian border. After staying the night, we will cross the border the next day and go to Mbeya, a village through which most freight transport passes on its way from Dar Es Salaam to Zambia (west) or Malawi (south). From Mbeya we will catch the train on the classic railway Tazara (Tanzania Zambia Railway) to Dar.

Monkey Bay by night
Leaving Blantyre early seemed sensible. We would arrive early in Monkey Bay, thus avoiding the dangers of the night. However, we miscalculated the inevitable delay of our bus. Buses never leave until they are over-overfull. Choosing a slightly bigger bus for comfort thus ended up being a big mistake. When we finally left hours late, the bus was just as full as the common minibuses, with five people sitting on each row. My 185 cm body was not happy. Our overfull bus then proceeded being unable to climb a steep road and eventually turned around and drove downhill instead. After filling petrol, the car actually managed to scale the little hill and we were underway. We had started realising that we would never arrive at Monkey Bay before sunset. When we finally did arrive, it was around 9pm after changing to another minibus. The first bus suddenly refused to drive us all the way because it wasn't economical with only three passengers left at that stage. They did pay the next bus for us though. Arriving in Monkey Bay it was nearly pitch dark. A few lightbulbs lit up some houses in addition to the occasional fire here and there. We were met by the usual aggressive touts trying to "help" us and also a local drunk. This was the exact situation we wanted to avoid by arriving in daylight. Luckily we had Lonely Planet and looked up a phone number for the only hostel in town. You don't want to jump into the first taxi in a place like this because you never know if they will take you to the hostel or just drive you into the sand dunes, slash your throat and rob you. Well, those were the thoughts flying through our minds, anyway.
The drunk tried to pick a fight. I tried to smile him off while Helene desperately called the hostel. Some of the other touts calmed down the drunk but the situation was clearly not pleasant. I'm not going down without giving him everything I got, I thought to myself. Luckily it never came to this. The owner of the hostel arrived in about 5 minutes and we jumped on board his 4WD. Driving through massive sand dunes towards the hostel, the car broke down. It was all quiet except for the whissing of the wind stirring the leafs of sporadic bushes. Being a bit paranoid for a second, I thought the driver and his partner (we found out later they drive with a partner for protection in case of troublemakers) faked the breakdown and were not the actual owners of the hostel, but rather criminals ready to hack us down for a lovely night meals for the hyenas, stealing all our valuables. As a matter of fact, our money and valuables were probably worth tens of yearly salaries for these people. However, they drove a car with the name of the hostel printed on it, so I soon relaxed. Lighting up the engine with my torch, it turned out the battery connection was bad. Improvising with a bent binder eventually got it working and we finally arrived at the beach house, dead tired but at least not dead.

The next day we had a lovely breakfast 50 meters from the water. The hostel is wonderfully located on soft sand dunes, surrounded by trees and bushes. Crystal clear water lazily breaks on the beach. A place truly made for relaxation, in other words. We had to leave the idyllic surroundings early though to catch the Ilala to Nkhata Bay. Driving through Monkey Bay, the village looked ridiculously safe and cozy. We stopped at the local petrol station and supermarket and bought some emergency snacks for the ferry, meeting friendly locals anywhere we turned. The difference from last night was --- literally --- as great as day and night!

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