Kande Beach

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"Let sleeping Mzungu's lie"

We woke up at 5:15am to catch the early morning (5:45am) pickup truck back to Monkey Bay (MK250). It was a bumpy, very uncomfortable hour drive back, but we chatted to some of the locals and each other, so time passed quickly enough. I reckon I am a little bit bruised from the trip.

In Monkey Bay, surprisingly the 7am AXA bus was on time and we hopped on for the trip to Salima (MK780). Most of the guys just slept for the trip (about 3hours). When the ticket man came around again to check our tickets he woke up all of them - they weren't impressed and Jenny said later (as a joke) that they need to "let sleeping Mzungu's lie" - I think that is my favourite quote of the week. I listened to music and worship and just was so happy and grateful for how things turn out. God keeps surprising me over and over. It's hard not having someone around to share those experiences with, but I know God is always there with me.

In Salima we said goodbye to David and Trix who were heading off to Lilongwe, and got off the bus. Jenny, Naomi and myself then went in search of a supermarket, a bank and a pharmacy. One bus arrived at 10:50 which is roughly the time ours should've arrived if it was on time but we were sure in which direction it was going. I had seen 2 Mzungu's on the bus so I went up to the window to talk to them. Turns out it was Tim and Matt (from Livingstone) on their way to Monkey Bay. It was cool to catch up with them and we said we would all meet up in Nkhata Bay. So random though to see them there - of all the Mzungu's on all the buses in all of Malawi...

Kande

Our bus arrived a few minutes later and we hopped on for Kande Beach (MK1040). I sat next to Jenny and we ended up speaking for most of the trip (4-5 hours). Arriving at Kande at about 3:30pm we headed off down the path to the beach (about 2-3km of walking). On the way we thought we met some nice locals who just wanted to chat. Turns out they just wanted to tell us about their specials, curios and tours they had on offer. We found out later that they aren't allowed on the Kande Beach resort so they try to catch the tourist on the way down. The first guy listened when I told him we were tired, and didn't want to think about this stuff now. The next 2 (one of whom was very drunk) did not. They walked with us the entire way and we all got very annoyed and eventually told them to just leave us alone. Luckily at that point we were very close to the gate.

Kande Beach is a world set apart from locals and is mainly a huge place for Overlanders (Africa's contiki) to stay and party, so its not really a backpackers as much. We had a lovely room though, with all single beds, open plan of course (as it is the dorm) but it is upstairs and it overlooks the beach front. You can hear the little waves all night and there is a nice breeze that flows through the room. Not bad for MK1250 (~R70) per night.

Valentine's Day Dinner

We headed to dinner at the resort restaurant. As it was Valentines Day and we had all dressed up and tried to look our best considering what we had to work with. So it was our 'date' - just us three girls. It was a good evening.

Kande to Nkhata Bay

The next day, we lay on the beach for a little while, reading - I tried to figure out my next move of where to go after Nkhata Bay. Then we packed up and decided to make a move. Jen didn't feel like walking all the way back up the road to the main road so we hired a taxi (MK1000!! Thanks Jen :P) to drive us 2km. He arrived at 11, and we hopped on the back of yet another bakkie. It didn't take long. Once on the main road we found a matola easy enough. The fares for matola are now posted inside on the door, so there should be bartering or lying about prices which is cool. I just need to remember to check it.

There is a serious fuel shortage in Malawi, so all the prices have pretty much doubled and no one drives very fast. The drive was very stop start and we weren't going very fast - if we stopped on a down hill, they would push it and just allow it to roll on its own before starting it when they needed more power. The 50km to Nkhata Bay was apparently going to take some time. We stopped in a small town and everyone got off the taxi. Next thing we know the conductor of our taxi walks off and another guy tells us to move taxis and all our stuff to another one - he doesn't explain that he has paid for us to continue with someone else. So after a little while and a lot of confusion we sat on another bus for a good hour waiting for it to full up. We tried casava - looks a bit like a potato and carrot mixed - its got brown skin and white inside.

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