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Published: August 27th 2010
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We have spent a relaxing week in beautiful Malawi. Malawi is a very poor country (GNP is less than US$250 and life expectancy only 43 years) but the landscape is magnificent and the people friendly and excitable, they are some of the friendliest people in Africa. Our first stop was Chitimba Beach in the Livingstonia region, a lovely camp site on the shores of the freshwater Lake Malawi, Africa's third largest lake with a pristine beach on our doorstep.
From Chitimba we headed on a long 22km walk up the mountains to Manchewe Falls which thunders 125m into the valley below. Walking through villages and cassava plantations, small subsistence farms and into the mountains, we caught a glimpse of traditional Malawian life with cassava drying outside the homes, children of all ages carrying their pots of water on their heads collected from the local well, women sitting on the side of the roads drying and selling tiny sardines and vendors frying up potatoes for a late afternoon snack.
At the falls our guide had to leave us with some local children to show us to the caves and swimming hole. His niece had been rushed to hospital with malaria.
When we say rushed, I mean she was carried for 3 hours across the mountains to the nearest mission hospital.
The little boys were more than happy to oblige. The view over the lake was sensational with the sun shimmering across the water. Behind the falls is a cave where, so the story goes, local people hid from slave traders 100 years ago. The boys spent most of the time throwing rocks at the monkeys, chasing the baboons and jumping from precarious heights into the relatively shallow swimming hole at the top of the falls.
From Chitimba we headed to Kandi Beach, another lovely spot on the edge of the lake. The lake was too rough for diving with visibility between 2-3m so I decided to try horse riding instead. We were picked up by the owner, an Englishman who had lived in Malawi for 9 years. He used to be an overland truck driver, fell in love with Africa and decided to stay. He took us to his stables which were gorgeous, an old farmhouse and stables for 28 horses and even an old Morris Minor parked at the front which he drove all the way from
the UK. My horse was called Emma, an old stalwart who they promised would not sense that I had never ridden before and would not throw me off.
It was a beautiful walk through the forests and villages. Children ran across the village to wave and say hello. Women pumped water with babies on their backs, and men lazed in the sun. We went through swamps filled with tiny fish that the young children caught and finished the ride on the beach passing the naked kids running up and down the beach and squealing once they got into the cold water. We rode the horses bareback into the lake (very uncomfortable!). The waves crashed over the horse as we waded deeper into the lake with the sun setting in the background. Having been cleaned and cooled down the horses then walked out of the water to roll in the sand. It was a wonderful couple of hours.
The rest of our time was spent playing beach volleyball against one of the other tour groups and playing table tennis. A traditional meal at this camp site is pork spit roast. The poor little pig was brought in from the
village and cooked for most of the afternoon while its former owner oversaw the cooking.
After all the time at the beach, we now head to Zambia for some more wildlife viewing.
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