From Chitimba Beach to Kande Beach

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May 19th

I woke up from my first night of sleep in Malawi awake and ready to start the day. Of course there was the obligatory tea and toast routine to ensure the day starts off as best as possible.

Rumor in our camp was that there were some vendors outside the campsite in the market area looking for batteries for barter. Malawians are actually renowned for their bartering ways, they will trade just about anything for anything. So I headed out of the campsite and to the market area and met a couple of the local guys. I was able to buy some souvenirs in return for some AAA batteries I didn’t need any longer. I also scoped out a green mambo tree snake hanging around the top of the market structure, preying on a few of the small lizards hanging about. You can eventually see a video of that here.

I talked and chatted with the local guys a bit and they were happy to let me take some photos of them. After saying our goodbyes the Southbound Six loaded up into the truck and headed for Mzuzu en route to Kande Beach. We had picked up three English gap year students at the campsite and we gave them a lift to an intersection so that they could head towards Livingstonia. I was soo envious of them, they were travelling independently and doing the same trip I was, except three times as long, instead of 7 weeks they were doing it in 4 months!

So we headed for Mzuzu to get some grocery shopping done and grab some lunch. C-dawg and I headed for Graceland and had a great lunch of chicken curry and rice, yum yum! We also made a couple ATM withdrawals before we met some local guys sellting souvenirs and things. After being badgered for 20 minutes we bought a few things and then we kicked Mitch around with them and had a good laugh. They were also happy to let me take some photos of them, it’s nice to get shots of the local people.

After fillingour bellies with curry goodness we headed back on the road, south, towards Kande Beach. En route we stopped at another market area on the side of the road and I met some more local Malawians. I worked out a good deal to get a drum customized and paid a little bit of a deposit on it, Phillip, the vendor would bring the drum down to Kande Beach in the next day or so.

And off we were to Kande Beach, about 2 hours later we pulled into the campsite and were happy with our surroundings. The campsite and beach bungalows were right on the beach and infront of Kande Island. There were a ton of activities to take advantage of, swimming, surfing, wind surfing, snorkeling, diving, volleyball, seascooters, the list goes on and on. We all settled in nicely and got our tents setup and starting enjoying the beach as soon as that step was accomplished.

We had a great dinner planned for that night, we were going to cook a chicken curry stew on the fire in a South African pot called a potjie. It resembles, actually it is, something you would see on the set of a movie full of witch’s and broomsticks, ya know the kind of pot I’m talking about. The kind a witch throws a lizard tail, a fisheye and a dirty sock into. The dinner turned out phenomenal, and with the added dumplings it was amaaazing!

Anyways after dinner we were soo stuffed but we still made it over to the bar for our ritual beer and chat about the day. It was a nice ending to a great day full of more scenery and natural beauty. We met some other travelers from the Dragoman Overland tours company, (the ones that had a broken down truck from the day we crossed into Malawi). We got on well with them, they were in full party mode for a birthday in the group and were having a great time. We also met the scuba instructor (Elize) and divemaster-in-training (Karen) from Aqua Nuts and had arranged to do a dive in the next day or two. Many games of pool were played and adventures were told and smiles were shared and good times were had by all.

I went to bed shortly later and awaited another day in Malawi, expecting more time on the beach, in the sun, and enjoying my place on earth.

Hope you like the photos! Take care, until next time Pura Vida and Hakuna Matata!

-Brendan

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