Blogs from Monkey Bay, Southern, Malawi, Africa

The drive to Monkey Bay was remarkably easy. We actually had a road most of the way! That was until we actually got there, and then it deteriorated badly. We were staying at the Monkey Bay Beach Lodge which is actually located through a Malawi Navy base checkpoint. The guys were only doing their job but they could have been a little friendlier. There was a stop sign and we stopped, but not right in front of the sign. It's not like we were blocking the traffic or anything. Later, when we walked through the gate we were told off for not using the pedestrian gate! That aside, what a great location. The lodge has nice, comfortable rooms with very friendly dogs and not-too-curious monkeys. The dogs often occupied the sofa outside our room, but the ... read more

The next leg of my rather meandering Malawian travel is dominated by a ferry down the length of Lake Malawi, from the northern town/gaggle of huts, Chilumba all the way to Monkey Bay close to the southern tip of the lake. The Ilala Ferry is about sixty years old and like all nautical colonial relics it was actually built back in Britain first (in this case Glasgow in 1949) before being taken apart, shipped to Africa, carried a few hundred kilometres overland piece by piece and finally reassembled. Since then the boat has barely changed at all - the state of the toilets certainly suggests so - but it’s in fairly good nick compared to some other elements of Africa's colonial heritage that I've encountered (i.e. it still floats). Cost being of greater importance than comfort ... read more

Lieve koulijers op het noordelijk halfrond! Ik zit hier nu al voor de derde dag niet van het zweet te druipen en dat is wel even lekker! Het leek allemaal heel mooi in Mangochi - wekelijkse updates vanaf gratis internet - maar dat ging dus even niet door. Nu schrijf ik jullie vanuit Zomba mijn volgende verhaal. En er is heel wat in te halen… Safari in Liwonde NP Na een weekje Mangochi ging ik met de drie andere Nederlandse meisjes - Anne Marie, Anna, Suzanne - op safari in Liwonde National Park. Het regenseizoen is niet het beste seizoen voor safari, omdat de dieren niet gedwongen naar een waterbron toe moeten als er overal plassen liggen. We hebben dan ook erg ons best zitten doen, maar geen olifant gezien. Wel waren er een hoop hippo’s ... read more

After a good night of sleep it was the last time to get up early to catch a bus in Mozambique. Apparently the buses in Malawi leave later. I like Malawi already. To complete the list of vehicles used in my trip the Mozambican decided to build the border 4km away from the closest Mozambican town (but strangely enough just at the outskirts of a Malawi town). to cross these last few km you have either the choice of using your own transport which we didn’t have, to walk which is no fun or to pick one of the very very persistent guys with a Chinese push bike which has a padded piece of wood attached to the back and some foot rests welded on. Lazy as I am I chose to let someone else sweat ... read more

Lots has happened in the past week. I have had good times (that have been extremely good) and bad times (that have been extremely bad). I first had my birthday. My 29th in Malawi. I had a wonderful day. It started with a soda on the Chancy Maples floating bar, watching baboons that were fighting on the rocks. I had a great Malawian lunch at a local pub next to the hospital, I swam and snorkeled in the lake & I even had homemade chocolate birthday cake. On Friday afternoon we went to an MTO attackers football game. They lost 5-3 (which was debated as much as usual) but we had a great time anyway. We taught the local kids how to do the Mexican wave. Saturday we headed to Cape Maclear with 5 new volunteers, ... read more