Blogs from Malawi, Africa - page 14

Geo: -13.9808, 33.7721When we were in Switzerland last summer and thought we might visit some other places in Europe, Venice was one of the places we had considered going to. Once we looked at what it would cost to go, our plans quickly died in place.One night we were having dinner at a friend of Stefan's and the talk turned to venice. Pappa(can't think of the name) said the only way to arrive in Venice is by train. "When you arrive by train and walk outside..............."Well, we did not arrive that way. A little backstory to our arrival. We spent two nights at Mabuya Camp in Zambia before we flew to Venice. We had some hassles at the Lilongwe Airport. We were going to be flying with Easy Jet, an inexpensive flight but you are limited ... read more

Geo: -13.2543, 34.3015We were picked up right on time by Siles and headed to Mabuya camp in Llongwe to get ready for our next adventure.We were camping and set up our tent in amongst many groups of young people who were doing various volunteer projects in Malawi. They also took time to enjoy some aspect of Malawi like going to Lake Malawi or doing some hardcore hiking.We did our usual ordering of the dinner served family style for lack of a better word. They usually have three choices on the board and you chose one of them. We also got them to make us a green salad to go along with it.Small crisis. We had emailed our reservations and request that they have red wine. Got there and there was no red wine but the managers ... read more

Geo: -14.0174, 34.851Very windy day when we got up and so decided to not paddle. It is a sure sign when you do not see the dugout canoes or motor boats going out that maybe you should also give it a rest. There were a couple of times when the wind would come up and there would be whitecaps on the water!Walked into town and got a few more vegetables, mustard greens, tomatoes, and papaya. Fixed lunch and dinner at our campsite and worked on our travel stories and had a generally low key day. Guess the big excitement was chasing the mosquito that managed to sneak in our tent! Lucky for us we had a fly swatter to make it easier to track down and eliminate. Finally were able to go to sleep... read more

Geo: -14.0174, 34.851Walked back to camp and set ourselves up two perimeter closelines complete with clothes to mark our area. Decided to do the sunset cruise around Thumbi island. The family from Blantyre was along as well. First we went to a very nice cove and the children fed the fish bread. The fish are all these brilliantly colored tropical fish like you would find in an aquarium. From there we sailed around the island and Jeff, the boatman would whistle and then throw a fish to the African fish eagle. They would swoop down and grab it in their talons and fly back and perch in the trees. It was a challenge to try and capture it with the camera. It was a lovely evening and we did sail part of the time and had ... read more

Geo: -14.0174, 34.851Day one on the kayakGot up and had our coffee on the rocks and then we were ready to try out the kayak. Not a very good start and we were ready to get out and take the kayak back and get one of the sit inside ones. Took a deep breath and set out again. This time we were a little calmer and decided to head over to Dombe Island. Not sure if we will be able to take the big camera with us on this boat because it still is tippy feeling and there is not much leg room for Robert because there is a rudder on this boat and the pedals do take up some of his space.While we were paddling over to Dombe island, we saw some monkey's in the ... read more