It's a long way to Lilongwe

Sunday, November 24

Well if you know us, you know that if we are near a lake, our go to recreation is to canoe or kayak. So of course, we had to kayak Lake Malawi. We made plans to be out for the whole day  and explore the near by islands. We woke in the night to some fierce winds, but by morning things had calmed and there were a few fishermen out in their little dugout canoes, so we decided to go. We rented a well used, but functional double kayak, and headed out to circle the closest island, about a mile away. It was a little rough, but mostly just gentle rollers to push us along.

We rounded the island and found a protected cove to rest and eat a snack. Most of the islands are ringed with boulders, so safe landing points were limited. We then had long crossing of the bay to check out the other island. It was getting increasingly choppy as we went, but as we neared shore fierce winds really started to blow and shifted directions directly into our faces. The gusts would nearly rip the paddle right out off your hands. Tammara confidently kept us on course and did her best to keep me from freaking out, and we safely made it to a sheltered little beach.

We took cover from the wind under some jumbled boulders, keeping a close lookout for snakes and scorpions. I peaked my head out to see if conditions were improving and realized that the western sky was black and you could hear thunder rumbling. Great... what to do- wait for the storm to pass or try to out run it. We decided to sit and wait it out. We sat reading our books in our crevice for about a half hour. The storm seemed to just be sitting there and not moving. The next time I popped out to check conditions, things really had not improved much, but I did see two or three fearless fisherman paddling past. Well hell, if they were out in a hollowed out log, I guess we should be able to handle it in a modern fiberglass kayak.

We launched the boat and headed back to town. Fortunately, the winds and big rolling waves had shifted to our backs and mostly pushed us in the direction we needed to go. It was a hell of a ride, but with much relief, we made it safely back to shore and lived to tell the story.

During our sundowner beer we met a family from northeast Pennsylvania who were traveling through Africa and India for a planned five month trip. They are traveling with their two young sons, one of who is adopted from Ethiopia. Later in their journey they with visit the village where he was born. Talk about intrepid travelers - makes us look like such wimpy novices. Really great folks and we enjoyed meeting them. Check out their blog at RTWAdventureFamily.blogspot.com

Monday, November 25

Arrrrg, another travel day- once again public transportation at its finest. The first leg started by trying to get out of Cape Maclear. There is no formal means of public transportation, but a few trucks -known as matolas here - make the trip up to Monkey Bay and the main road early in the morning. They are basically long flatbed pickups used for hauling cargo and people. We started waiting for a ride at 5:15 and got picked up about a half  hour later. But before we actually left town the truck circled looking for passengers for another 45 minutes. It was a nice way to tour the back roads of the village and watch the typical routines of the locals. Filling buckets at the lake or pump and carrying them on their heads, sweeping the dirt streets with grass hand brooms, and the parade of hundreds of laughing uniformed kids walking to school. 

In Monkey Bay we found a mini-bus to Salima, the next major town up the lake. The bus was in the worst shape of any we had encountered so far. After the requisite circling to fill up, we left. The driver went at such a moderate and safe speed, we thought we had lucked out with the only sane driver in Malawi. As we started to go slower and slower we expected engine trouble. Finally, we coasted to a stop and the engine died. We were in the middle of nowhere.

Now what? The rest of the passengers started bitching out the driver- turns out we had run out of fuel. The driver and his assistant started walking up the road, looking for a ride to the nearest community to get some gas. This did not look good. We passed our time talking to a local Presbyterian minister - friendly guy with good English. Of course, talk quickly turned to what religion we were, why we didn't go to church, if we believed in God? We fudged it a little and told him we found God when we went hiking in the mountains. He laughed at that, but thought it was good because Malawi has so many mountains - it is truly blessed.

Remarkably, the bus boys returned with gas after about 45 minutes. Maybe there is a God in Malawi. They drove us to the next town and put us on another matola. I think they had had enough for the day. This was the most comfortable leg of the trip- I got to sit on a giant sack of corn for most of it.

We took a break for lunch and ice cream in Selima and then found another mini-bus to Lilongwe. This part of the trip was uneventful, although Tammara's pack soaked up a bunch of fish juice from the floor. We arrived in the capital around 3:00 - not bad timing considering the delays. The bus dropped us off in a totally chaotic bus depot and marketplace. Literally hundereds of mini-buses sprawled all over and hawkers trying to fill them. Somehow we found our way to a bus going to the part of town we wanted to go to, which turned out to be only a short ways away. We got off where we thought we were close, and followed our Lonely Planet map to the hostel, which turned out not to be there any more. Great. After much cursing to the editors of Lonely Planet, we walked to the nearby Korean Garden Lodge. This turned out to be a nicer place anyway with a swimming pool, gardens, a decent restaurant, and a comfortable lounge.

So this is about it for Malawi, tomorrow we fly to South Africa. Despite all the hardships and poverty found here, Malawi is home to some of the friendliest and helpful people we have ever met anywhere. It really is "The warm heart of Africa".