Kickin' it in Kande Beach, Malawi

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May 20th

How do you think my morning started the next day? It’s an easy guess really, tea and toast with the group before deciding how to spend my day.

Wendy and I had decided the previous day that we would take a tour of the village. We said we would go at noon but by around 10am it was looking a doubt as we also wanted to paddle boat out to the island and do some snorkeling. We weren’t moving at a fast pace at all, why should we when we’re oon the beach?! It didn’t help matters when I had to settle my business with Phillip for the drum I had made for me. It turned out really nice, and at the moment I’m doing a good job of bothering my travel mates with it.

The lake turned out to be pretty choppy, due to the wind, so paddle boats was out of the question. We thought of hiring a motorboat to take us but they said it was too choppy for that too. So I made the only logical decision and inquired about renting a surf board to surf the lake waves. If I had any clue how to surf then I probably wouldn’t have even considered the idea, but to rent a board for half a day at $3.50 it’s an easy decision. I tried my luck for a bit but in the end didn’t even get stood up on the board. It didn’t help that there was hardly any wax on it (not an excuse I promise) so I took the board back to the shop to get it waxed. On exiting the lake a wave took the board from ahead of me and shoved the nose into the sand while the back of the board pummeled me in the chest. Painful (though getting headbutted on accident by Justin was more painful) but I survived the ordeal with a cool scar on my chest. The surfboard didn’t fair that well and the nose broke! It had been broken in the same pace before actually so I wasn’t surprised to pull the end of the board from the water and see it had snapped at the tip. I worked it out with the guy and in the end paid another $3.50 or 500 Malawi Kwacha and an agreement was reached. It’s the only place in the world where you can rent AND break a board and pay less than $10!!

Anyways after my failed attempt at surfing I went for some lunch. I still really wanted to make it to the island but time was running out and when our new friend Karen offered to get me a free lift to the island on the dive boat I jumped at the chance. The tour village would have to wait for another day. I ran into C-dawg on the way and he jumped on the boat with us to do some snorkeling at the island. On the way out to the island I realized that the video mask of mine was working again and so that means you will soon be able to see the videos of the snorkeling and rock jumping on the island, here. We had a blast on the island and the snorkeling was great, I was able to use my sling spear and get one fish on my first attempt actually. It was quite small though! Not pretty though I promise! It’s worth repeating, the snorkeling was great, but we were only there about an hour because that’s when Elize’s dive with Dave the Australian would be done.

After getting back to the mainland and the beach we just kinda hung around and enjoyed the afternoon. Wendy had bought some fish earlier in the afternoon before my snorkeling and hunting expedition, so in the early evening I got to cooking that. (My hunting skills with the sling spear are lacking and can’t be responsible to feed 6 people! FYI!!). Justin made an awesome potato salad and I prepared the fish. The meal was a big success and Freddy the Fish was tasty, even though there was about 5 bites of him.

Post dinner was the same ritual, sitting around the camp fire talking about the day before we meandered over to the bar to play pool and have a beer. We talked again with Karen and Elize that night and had a good time. We met their friend Peter, a Rhodesian that was in the Royal British Navy for twenty odd years. He kicked ass at pool and had some great stories to tell us about all his travels around the world. It was really encouraging to hear from him that I was doing the right thing and traveling at this age.

The night wore on and I wanted to get to bed early to try and make it out to the island in the morning, and spend the AM there snorkeling and hunting. This plan was made difficult as I was coaxed more and more to stay up and play pool with the Karen and a few of the Dragoman travelers. (To be fair it wasn’t hard to persuade me!). In the end I still went to sleep at a decent time to wake up in the morning. It was important because I had also arranged a dive with Nicio and Justin for the next afternoon, after Justin had finished his Open Water course.

Hope you like the photos! Until next time, Pura Vida and Hakuna Matata!

-Brendan

May 21st

I woke up in the morning and was ready to jump out of the tent and join justin and Elize on the boat and hitch a ride to the island, but my body wasn’t on the same page as my brain and it wanted to get back to sleep. I slept in a bit and then hung around the campsite and played my drum while my mind and body worked on getting on the same page.

I went to the beach after breakfast and met up with a Canuck named Erica. We went swimming for a while before I jumped on the internet to get in touch you, dear reader! The dive was arranged for 2:30pm so I had some time to kill and I got some photos uploaded on the blog.

Everything was going according to plan; I got to the dive center on time and started to get ready. Peter was there and was happy to be photographer for Nicio, Justin and I while we got our equipment sorted out. Everything was going according to plan and we transported our equipment to the dive boat. Everything was going according to plan until the boat started to sink on the way to the island. There were 8 people on the boat and we were taking on water without the engine pumping it out. We had to bail before it really did sink, Justin and I got got a ride back to shore while the others actually had to swim back. The dive was a bust.

It was too late in the afternoon to get another boat working and so Elize decided we wouldn’t be able to dive that day. It was a shame, a huge shame since the truck and us passengers were leaving the next day and it meant I really wouldn’t have a chance to dive in Lake Malawi, unless I was to wake up at 5am and join Justin on finishing his course. That was of course if the boat didn’t have problems again.

The silver lining to the aborted dive was that a few of us at the campsite were able to organize a good game of volleyball. We played till just about sun down and then we went to our separate camps for dinner. We were told over dinner conversation that we would be giving the Dragoman group a ride down to Lilongwe the next day. It meant that we would be adding 13 to our group, and the six of us looked forward to showing off our awesome truck!

Dinner was a basic one, beans on toast. But Farron did prepare a great desert, an apple crumble pie with custard. All cooked on an open fire too! A few of us had beers after dinner and said our goodbyes to the mainstayers of Kande Beach.

We had a long drive ahead of us the next day and we all got a good night’s sleep.

Hope you enjoy the photos! Pura Vida and Hakuna Matata!

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Comments

[Julia]

Great Pic
This is one to print and frame...Love it!