Advertisement
Published: March 13th 2006
Lake Malawi
Lake from our chalet in Nkhata Bay - Early morningAfter crossing the border from Tanzania, we spent a night in Mzuzu before heading to Nkhata Bay. Nkhata Bay is a small village on the Lake Malawi shores. We spent three relaxing days at Mayoka Lodge eating, reading and staring at the Lake. I read Chitra Divakaruni's Arranged Marraige stories. This chic definitely does not like men, as almost every story the woman is the victim/hero and man is the culprit ! But, she does write good stories.
Mayoka Village owners have built picturesque chalets constructed out of stone, bamboo and wood overlooking the bay. Gary, one of the owners of Mayoka, had a rambuctious birthday for himself and got the entire village to drink with him. At one point, he flashed on top of the bar ! We also met a bunch of Peace Corp volunteers teaching in Malawi - similar to what Paul Thereau did 40 years ago. It was raining most of the time we were there, as it is toward the end of the rainy season. The lake waters are ideal for snorkelling and diving, but we had done enough of it in Zanzibar that we stayed dry in our cottage overlooking the beautiful lake. One
Nyika Plateau - Chosi Point
Views from Chosi Point in Nyika. The Jeep is a 1979 Landrover that managed to get us here. day, Alison and I spent time buying some local handicrafts - ofcourse, there is plenty of bargaining to be done anywhere in East and Southern Africa. I tried the local staple - Nsima - maize flour goo , which definitely is an acquired taste.
We then headed to Nyika National Park. We decided to splurge a little and got ourselves a chalet tucked into the forest overlooking the green hills where the animals can be seen grazing. It was a luxury to have our own cook, Anwell, and a warm stone fire place. Nyika Park is Malawi's oldest National Park and the landscape is very unusual for Africa. The landscape is filled with green rolling hills with stream trickling everywhere. Most of the place is above 7000 ft and hiking through the hills with a guide looking at Zebras, Elands, Bush Bucks was cool. One day we had retreat half way through the hike since we saw many fresh Elephant foot prints and it is not advisable to be walking close to wild African elephants!
For Alison's birthday, the weather improved and it was a perfect sunny and pleasant day. We began the day with another hike in
the rolling hills. During the hike, we saw many animals over the 3 hours. In the afternoon, Alison went horse back riding in the hills. Alison had a phenomenal time as the Zebras allow the horses to get very close, thereby allowing Alison to get a good look at their stripes and feel one with nature. Did you know that every zebra has a unique pattern of stripes !
In the evening, Anwell cooked up a great meal. Even though we are at least 6 hours from any town, Alison got a nice chocolate birthday cake - thanks to the staff at the Lodge. As usual, trying to score some points with the missus, I got her a pair of Malawian wooden carvings as a Birthday gift. Overall, it was a fun filled, satisfying day in nature.
Because of the rains, it took us 8 hours to get back to town before we headed to Zambia. A friendly Malawian lawyer, Henry, who was staying at our hotel offered to give us a ride to Lilongwe - Malawi's capital. We had an excellent conversation with Henry. During our travels we have met several well educated locals and you go
away with the feeling the situation in these countries will improve - provided there is good governance and economic policies pursued. from Lilongwe, we caught a crowded minibus and taxi to get to Chipata, a border town in Zambia.
Looking back, Malawi is a beautiful, lush green country with beautiful lake and friendly people. In some ways, it is similar to Uganda.
We are now in Livingstone, Zambia - Tourism Capital of Zambia and gateway to Victoria Falls.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.185s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 12; qc: 71; dbt: 0.0746s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Alice
non-member comment
Happy Birthday
Hi Alison, Happy Birthday. I love the picture, Elands with Alison. What a great place / way to celebrate your BDay! Alice