Blogs from Lake Malawi, Malawi, Africa

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Africa » Malawi » Lake Malawi May 16th 2023

With an early morning departure, it’s off to Malawi. Being a Monday morning, we pass countless children in their clean pressed school uniform walking to school. It’s worth noting that in the villages, there are virtually no washing machines – that’s all handwashed. My clothes got the same treatment at South Luangwa – not by me obviously. Pretty impressive. At the town schools, it’s predominantly rectangle concrete buildings with clear dirt yards & lovely big trees providing shade. No fencing. I’ve also noticed locals wearing clothing with pictures of, what I assume are, politicians on them – is this a form of political advertising or do they revere their politicians? I forgot to ask the guides. There’s something about the place, driving through the country, seeing life everywhere. There’s lots of activity, people going about their ... read more
2023-05-15 Goats
2023-05-15 Potholes
2023-05-15 Roadside stalls

Africa » Malawi » Lake Malawi September 14th 2019

Diesen freien Tag verbrachten wir am wahrscheinich schönsten Platz der Welt - Chinteke Inn am Lake Malawi. Eine ruhige Anlage, schöne Zimmer ohne unnötigen Firlefanz, hervorragendes Essen, nette Besitzer, ein Personal, wie es besser nicht sein könnte, ein freundlicher Hund. Das Abendessen haben sie uns einmal direkt unten am See serviert, dazu Tische und Stühle hinunter getragen, alle Speisen, Feuer angezündet, damit es noch romantischer ist, den Vollmond haben sie wahrscheinich auch extra bestellt für uns. Es gab eine ganze Anzahl von Aktivitäten, die angeboten wurden, ich bin beim Vogelbeobachten mitgegangen, obwohl der Gipfel meiner Vogelkenntnisse ist, dass ich ein Huhn von einem Kanarienvogel unterscheiden kann. Aber der Spaziergang war schön, denn wr liefen durch ein nahe gelegenes Dorf, die Kinder sind herbei gesaust, und wir sahen das Leben der Einheimischen, das sich doch etwa... read more
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Africa » Malawi » Lake Malawi April 21st 2019

Colourful fish, rock paintings and more We continued our vacation in Malawi by going to Lake Malawi. Lake Malawi has clear water, lots of colourful fish and bilharzia. If you don't swim in the lake you miss out on a great experience, seeing thousands of Malawi cichlids in their right environment, and if you do swim you might get a nasty parasite infection. From what we understand, even if you swim in Lake Malawi the risk of catching bilharzia is actually quite small. Although it is a serious infection it can be treated and the treatment is safe and straightforward. So we decided to swim in the lake and make sure to take bilharzia pills afterwards just to be on the safe side. Swimming in Lake Malawi was one of the highlights of this trip. Without ... read more
Cape Maclear
Bird of pray
Lake Malawi

Africa » Malawi » Lake Malawi January 20th 2019

Ah, it all started off so well. Within minutes of getting on a minibus to Nkhotokota we were on our way. Hooray! Unfortunately our joy only lasted a few minutes. On the edge of Nkhata Bay the minibus stopped and we were trafficked onto another one. This rickety old thing was only going as far as Dwangwa which we had never heard of. Luckily there were no fish or chickens on board but it was a slow and painful journey. We didn’t even get to Dwangwa. A few kilometres we pulled up at the side of the road and the driver seemed to disappear into a bar. That had us worried. No need to fear drink driving though as we were unceremoniously transferred into yet another minibus. This one stopped and started dropping off and picking ... read more
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Africa » Malawi » Lake Malawi January 18th 2019

Nkhata Bay wasn’t quite the backpacker haven we had expected to find. Maybe once upon a time it was, but nowadays everyone heads to one of two waterfront places a few kilometres across the bay. A shared taxi from Mzuzu was an easy 45 minute ride on good roads and we were deposited in the heart of the bustling town centre alongside the cheerful fishmongers who seemed surprised that we didn’t want to buy their catch and drag it along with our luggage. We opted to stay in the town to see what it still had to offer, and the Ilala Bay hotelwas cheap and cheerful so we stayed there. Life in Malawi usually stops a couple of hours after the sun sets at 6pm. Sadly for us, that wasn’t the case at Nkhata Bay as ... read more
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Africa » Malawi » Lake Malawi » Chitimba Beach January 13th 2019

The majority of travellers head to Chitimba when visiting this part of Lake Malawi. We opted for a couple of nights at Maji Zuwainstead. We were attracted by the contribution they make to the local economy and the possibility of seeing some development work in progress. It didn’t quite work out that way. Our minibus dropped us off by the main road and we dragged our luggage along a rough track for about a mile to the entrance. Having booked on Booking.com we were disappointed to find that they were not expecting us but pleased because the walk-in rate is substantially lower than on the website. The downside of not being expected was that the rooms were not exactly in a welcoming condition, or at least we hope that was the situation. Although our “gold” room ... read more
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Africa » Malawi » Lake Malawi June 6th 2018

We have arrived from rainy Dar Es Salaam some weeks after the rainy season in Malawi has stopped and the winter has started with a perfect climate of clear skies and somewhat warm but most of the time not too hot temperatures. From the very first step on Malawian soil we see a beautiful country with beautiful people. Everywhere we are welcomed and greeted by the most friendly people. Especially in the small towns we cannot walk around without responding to a friendly ‘hello, how are you?’ every few minutes to all random strangers and even the official at the airport who provides us with our visa. Malawians are maybe the nicest and friendliest people we have met until so far during our whole trip and the Malawians treat us as equals rather than look up ... read more
Matolas (minibus) go everywhere
Street markets
Taxi bicycles

Africa » Malawi » Lake Malawi » Chitimba Beach April 28th 2018

Week 2 - Malawi Our first night camping Chitimba on Lake Malawi was....well....an experience. I was just getting settled into the tent, ground mat laid out, sleeping bag ready for its first night camping in Africa too, and pillow ready for head to hit......when all of a sudden Meg and I saw a flash of light...followed by an extremely loud thunder clap (Lindsey, Catherine and Meredith, as thunder storm specialists, you can envisage what was going through my mind.) It was coming to the end of rainy season in Malawi, so this was to be expected. But it rained and rained and rained for at least a couple of hours, with the odd sprinkling of more thunder and lightening. On one hand, it felt nice to be out in the open, listening to the rain, next ... read more
On the road
Chitimba beach, Lake Malawi
Typical house, Village

Africa » Malawi » Lake Malawi » Chitimba Beach December 1st 2017

Our next destination is Malawi, the warm heart of Africa! We are camping in the shores of lake Malawi, which involves a big drive from Tanzania! Very soon after crossing the border into Malawi we noticed that the people here are indeed very friendly, every child runs shouting hello and waving at the truck, and even some adults too. If we see them to wave back they often switch to a double handed extremely enthusiastic wave! On our first morning we had the opportunity to visit the local witch doctor. This was definitely worth the money simply for the entertainment factor! We had a short walk to the local village, accompanied by a group of villagers, where we were sat upon a bench hastily assembled from some planks of wood and locally made bricks. We were ... read more
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Carrying 40l of water on her head

Africa » Malawi » Lake Malawi October 29th 2017

First night (Wednesday 25th October) i felt queasy after the journey and didn't want to eat anything, which was a shame as Heather, the CEO of Landirani (African Vision, Malawi) had invited George (builder in charge of Sam's Training village) and Chikondi (the librarian) to dinner. Second night we had a frog in the bathroom, a cockroach on the living room wall and a spider who ran in under the door and hid among the skipping ropes I'd brought for the school. We found and killed that one, and chased another one out of the door. Later the cat caught and killed another one, and the dog caught two wind scorpions. It's getting towards the rainy season and the spiders want to get under cover. Luckily we sleep under mosquito nets which, if tucked under the ... read more




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