Juho
and I have spent many lazy days on Lake Malawi. Cape Maclear at the southern
end of the lake was filled with local life, and despite being “one of Africa’s
legendary backpacker hangouts”, we often felt like the only Muzungos (whities)
there. The lake plays such a pivotal role in everyday life for locals, it is
where their dinner comes from, where they wash their clothes, where their drinking,
cooking and washing water comes from, and where the kiddies spend endless hours
playing. Everywhere we went kids called out greetings, followed us, clutched our
hands and wanted to play. Malawians are notoriously friendlily, and evidently
this starts at a young age. Being the well worn travellers that we are it is
hard to get used to the fact that many Malawians just want to chat without a
catch, although if they are carrying a sheaf of paintings, it’s easier to
return the greeting and keep on walking.
Deciding
to break up our trip to the northern end of the lake, I picked a place at random
form the map ‘Nkhotakota’’, thinking there we would find another cosy lakeside
bungalow or lodge to stay a night or two. What we found was a dusty, market
town devoid of any other Muzungos. We stayed in an awesomely cheap and tacky roadside
motel with faded pink façade, and drank some beer in a local dive bar, much to
the delight of the drunken locals gathered there.
Transport
in Malawi, especially around the lake, is painfully slow, and we waited at
least 5 hours in the hot sun for our bus the following day, nobody knew when
the bus was due to arrive, like all transport, it just turns up when it does.
Nkhata
bay on the far north of the lake has a completely different feel to the
southern end, green and lush with deep water and rocky headlands. We are staying
in what is without a doubt the nicest place we have stayed on our entire trip
thus far. Mayoka Village, an eco-lodge complete with organic vegie garden and
composting toilet. Our bungalow sits on a rocky headland right on the water,
our four poster bed, draped with mosquito net, faces the lake and we catch a
glimpse of sunrise each morning before dozing off for a few more hours. The
lodge provides free boat trips, use of their canoes and snorkelling gear and we
are making the most of it. I feel this may be our holiday within our African
journey. Staying within this idyllic bubble it is easy to forget that Malawi
has a much bleaker side, the life expectancy here is a mere 43 years, largely
due to Aids (12%) and malaria. We visited an isolated beach yesterday and all
the kids from the local village swarmed onto the beach. Most of these kids had
bloated bellies, reflecting the statistics that around half the population are
chronically malnourished. They fought over the empty water bottles we had, a
scene not unlike that in “The Gods Must Be Crazy”. Many people argue that
foreign aid has done more to harm countries like Malawi that help, creating
dependency, apathy and a lack of self sufficiency. I am trying to keep an open
mind at this stage, but it is a topic I would like to research further during
our grand African Safari.[1]
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