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Published: October 9th 2008
My tummy bug slowly cleared, and i took a lift in the back of a truck that a german family had hired to get to chipoka to meet the ferry on friday. The truck was 2 hours late arriving, leaving barely enough time to get to the port. It then ran out of petrol in the middle of lilongwe and we had to push it to a petrol station. Arrived at chipoka just before 4, when the boat was supposed to be leaving, and found that it was delayed by 4hrs. Sat in the waiting shed, having a couple of beers. The sun went down, and then the electricity failed, so one of the german guys got out his mini speakers and cd player and played disco tunes. Quite odd.
We went up on the 1st class deck but found there were no mattresses left for hire, so had a night on a wooden bench, not getting much sleep. On the second night i got hold of a mattress but found that it was infested with fleas, and we made several stops so i woke regularly. Chatted to a few of the travellers on board over the course of the trip, most of them doing a longer journey than me, throughout southern africa, cape to cairo, or one guy who'd been travelling for a year already and whose trip was open-ended. Going down to the 2nd class deck makes you realise how lucky you are - the smell of rotting food and no room to lie down as the passengers are packed in tight. Around midday sunday we docked at Nkhata bay and myself and about 8 others were picked-up by a small boat and taken across the bay to Mayoka lodge. It's a stunning place, lots of huts perched on the side of a hill that comes right down to the water. Due to a misbooking i got an en-suite room for the night, but was glad just to have a proper bed.
Monday morning i was intending to just go for a walk round town, get some ideas for some things to do. Went into Aqua Africa to get an idea of price, and ended up joining the Open Water Diver course that had started that morning. So for the the rest of the week i've been up early, diving, watching training videos, then coming back to the lodge in the afternoon to try to get through all the required reading for the next day. We finished the last dive this afternoon, having sat the written test earlier, so i'm now qualified.
The title is the irritating motto PADI use to convince you to carry on with diving once you complete this course.
Going to have a couple of days here to recover than see what's what.
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Ali
non-member comment
Thank you - belatedly!
Sorry I have been remiss and not posted any comments for a while. It sounds as if you've had a turbulent few weeks and got to know the toilet facilities in Malawi! Thank you so much for my gorgeous birthday present - it has already become a firm favourite! Really looking forward to seeing you very soon. Look after yourself and take care. Big Sis xxx