Kande Beach, Malawi
Children in the village at Kande Beach - she's got a bowl full of very large cicadas
Fisherman at Kande Beach, Malawi
My local escorts at Kande Beach, Malawi
Jane, Amanda and I in the pickup truck on the day of the minibus strike - this is only about half the amount of people that we had on the truck at once.
Women carrying water at Kande Beach
Fisher boyz at Kande Beach, Malawi
All smiles in Lake Malawi!
The view from our deck at Mayoka Village in Nkhata Bay
I've covered some serious ground since the last time that I wrote and have experienced a lot more of the "real" Africa in the last few weeks. Since the overland tour ended in Vic Falls, we have now had to rely on public transport - which has been an adrenalin experience in itself. I am very used to using public transport in third world countries but Africa truly takes the cake as far as absolute fear in a moving vehicle goes. Our first mission after leaving Livingstone, Zambia was to make it to Lake Malawi. In order to get there - we first had to take an overnight bus from Livingstone to Lusaka. Thanks to both the darkness and my being overly tired - I didn't notice the driving too much. From Lusaka, we then hopped on another bus to Chipata - which is the city just before the Malawi border. It was a large, proper bus and it was completely full. Amanda and I were traveling with a friend whom we had met through our overland trip - Alex from Austria. About halfway into our trip, the bus driver starting going completely mad and driving like a lunatic on extremely curvy, mountainous roads and we honestly thought that we were going to die. Little kids were throwing up all over themselves and the other locals (we were the only white people on the bus) were also showing fear and saying that it was not normal to be driving so fast. We guessed that the driver was either drunk or on some sort of drugs and we contemplated just getting off of the bus and trying to hitch hike. This also didn't seem to be a safe alternative - considering that we were in the middle of nowhere in Zambia. We resorted to begging Alex to go and ask the driver to slow down. Being the nice guy that he is, he went up and told the driver that people were puking all over the place but it didn't seem to help - he noticed that the speedomter was at 130 km/ and the driver seemed to be completely spaced out. Thankfully, soon after that, the roads turned to crap and he had no choice but to slow down. I've never been so happy in my entire life for bad roads but I think it may have saved our lives in this case. After that, it was several taxi rides, minibus taxis and finally, a short boat ride to a place called Nkhata Bay on Lake Malawi. After 2 1/2 days of hair raising bus rides, taxis and minibus taxis (they literally pack up to 25 people and sometimes more into a minivan), we were on cloud 9 when we reached this place. We stayed at an amazing placed called Mayoka which is built all along the side of the cliff going down into the lake. As soon as we arrived, we knew that we made the right choice - Amanda and I got a great little cottage with its own balcony overlooking the cliff and took some serious time for relaxing. We stayed there for 3 nights and gorged ourselves on the all u can eat buffets that they offered every night - and joined up with a few friends from our overland trip. We took some trips into the village which was always entertaining - the people of Malawi are the friendliest people that I've ever met. Every single person says hello and shakes your hand - they want to know your name and they want you to know theirs and they always have a huge smile on their face. It was so refreshing to be there. There are always those few special places when you are traveling that stand out and shine amongst the others - for me, that was Malawi. Thus far, it is my favorite country in Africa. The lake is absolutely gorgeous - it's so gigantic that when you're staring out over it, you are convinced that you're sitting on the sea. You can only barely make out the mountains of Mozambique and Tanzania on the other side. They also have quite a sense of humour - they make up names for themselves that the travelers will remember them by - during the course of a week, I met: Mel Gibson, Julius Caesar, Cheese & Toast, Giraffe, Tom Cruise, and Precious - just to name a few. After our 3 days of relaxing by the lake, we decided to take an adventure to a beach town just a few hours south of Nkhata Bay - called Kande Beach. It had been recommended to us by several people. It was a bit of a challenge to get there with our backpacks - requiring a 2 mile walk along a dirt road in the midday heat but it was well worth the effort. As we walked along the road to the beach, we were escorted by an entire entourage of children who insisted on holding our hands while we walked and sung African songs for us. In Kande Beach, this was the norm. Kande Beach was much more mellow than Nkhata Bay and had a beautiful beach, which Nkhata Bay lacked. We spent our days there eating fresh mangos from the trees, drinking Malawi Gin, swimming and mingling with the locals. One day, we ventured out to an island that sat just a little ways out from the beach - on a blow up raft. And then one night, we ate dinner in the village - at the house of Julius Caesar. They cooked us a proper Malawian meal and had some kids from the village come to sing and dance for us - very entertaining. After a few days there, we felt quite relaxed and ready to move on and our mission was to head north and into the mountains of Malawi - to a placed called Livingstonia. On the day of departure, we (along with 3 other friends that we've been traveling with) hitched a ride up to the junction where the minibus taxis run. When we got there, the street was bustling with activity and there were LOTS of people around - presumably waiting for the minibus taxis also. After about an hour, we started to wonder what was going on - I jokingly said to Amanda, "What, are the minibus taxis on strike?" Well, don't you know - the minibus taxis were indeed on strike. The government is trying to enforce a law that doesn't allow the drivers to jam so many people into the buses because it's very unsafe and accidents are very common. So, they went on strike. Initially, we didn't believe it and we refused to get on the back of the pickup trucks that were pulling up to the roadside - filled with close to 20 people in them. However, after watching a few pull away, we realized that we had very little choice in the matter and reluctantly, we loaded ourselves and all of our gear into the back of a pickup. Our highest head count during that trip was 30 people - you wouldn't believe that way that we were piled on top of each other - at one point, i lost complete feeling of the left hand side of my body from my waist down. Every single leg of this journey that we make - we can't believe that we're still alive. After enduring close to two hours of traveling like that - we decided that heading north wasn't in our cards. There was no way that we could drive another several hours in that position - not to mention the extreme safety hazard. So, we ended up back in Nkhata Bay - which is probably one of the best places to get stuck. We spent one more night there - which didn't come without another African element. It's the beginning of the rainy season in Malawi and every single day, it rains - accompanied by lots of thunder and lightning. One night in Mayoka, it just sat over us for hours and both Amanda and I agreed - it was the loudest, most intense thunder we've ever heard. I thoroughly enjoyed the storms. However, on this particular night - the rain came down intensly in the middle of the night and both Amanda and I, along with our other dorm mate - all got woken up simultaneously when all of a sudden, it was raining cats and dogs on us. The grass roof was not leak proof and in an instant, everything was soaked. We pulled our beds across the room where it seemed that at least one half of the roof was working. I then slept with my feet getting slightly sprinkled with rain and the sound of rain hitting puddles on the floor. There is NEVER a dull moment here in Africa. Okay, so finally - the next day - we decided that we needed to try to move on and we weren't sure if the minibus taxis were running. We got a taxi ride to the city of Mzuzu and from there, we hopped on a minibus with 2 other people and headed up towards the border of Tanzania. We decided to skip out on going to Livingstonia and stick with the 2 other people who were heading up to Dar es Salaam and try to catch the train from Mbeya. After another intense minibus taxi - where we repeatedly asked the driver to slow down - we arrived in a town just before the Malawi border at 5 p.m. The border closed at 6 p.m. and we jumped into a taxi and headed to the border. We just made it through as it was getting dark and realized that there were no taxis to be found anywhere. The customs official advised us not to go anywhere during the night and that to arrive in Mbeya at dark was unsafe. So, he shuttled us to a place called the Immigration Social Club which is where all of the immigration officials stay. It turned out to be great and a perfect place for us to spend the night. No worries - there was a bit of adventure involved here as well. The owner of the hotel walked with us to the restaurant because we were all absolutely starving and it was dark, and on the way, he suddenly yelled at all of us to stop. We had almost stepped on a snake. After arriving at the restaurant, I asked him what the name of the snake was and he calmly said "Cobra." We clarified that it was the same kind of cobra that we were thinking - and sure enough, it was. Then, as we sat waiting for dinner, some sort of crazy bug landed on my hand and stung me - just to add another element of excitement. The next morning, we awoke at 4 a.m. and made our way up the road to try and catch the minibus taxi to Mbeya - which is where we were planning to catch the train to Dar es Salaam. Thankfully, we had a reasonably safe bus ride to Mbeya and arrived at the train station just before it opened. It was highly recommended to have reservations for the train and none of us had. Amanda and I were dead set against going on another bus - we were ready to stay in Mbeya - as dodgy as it was - for several days if we needed to wait for the next train. We lucked out and got ourselves a first class ticket on the train which was leaving in the afternoon. There were four of us so we got our own compartment which had four beds and a small table. The ride was close to 24 hours and very delightful. We saw wild buffalo and impala right from our room on the train and never once did I have to think that I might not make it alive. Just when i was feeling good about things however, we went to the dining cart to escape the breathtaking heat in our room and I was trying to get the window open next to our table. The screen was stuck and I was working to get it up, the glass window came slamming down and I barely got my hand out in time - it got my thumb and my first two fingers. The good news is that I got my hand out and nothing is broken but at the moment, my thumb is getting quite swollen and I can't really use it. Just some more excitement on a typical African day. We are now in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and have bought our tickets to take the ferry over to the island of Zanzibar tommorrow morning. I am really looking forward to it because it's supposed to be very beautiful and I'm excited to take a dip in the Indian ocean. We are a few days earlier than we originally expected which is good considering that the Christmas holiday is just around the corner. We want to make sure that we have a place to stay during that time. At the moment, it looks like we'll be spending Christmas on Zanzibar but we'll have to see how expensive it is and if there's availability. After Zanzibar, we will make our way to Arusha, which is the gateway to the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengetti. It's hard to believe that my time in Africa is quickly coming to an end. I hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year! Love to all!
No comments:
Post a Comment