We're still alive!

Hello everyone! It has been brought to my attention that our avid readers have been disappointed in our lack of blog posts lately. Deepest apologies. We have just been having too much fun to spend very much time at the internet cafe! Or, the computers are hopelessly slow, but mostly the first reason. ;-) We are currently in Namibia, and we are leaving this morning on a week long camping trip throughout the country. When we get back, I will do my best to catch up on all the blogging. So, you have blogs from the islands in Lake Malawi, Victoria Falls, and Namibia to look forward to! Please check back in a week or two.
Until then!

Chizumulu Island and Likoma Island, Lake Malawi

I realize that I have fallen quite far behind on my blog postings! We did not have internet access while on the islands and since then we have been on the move. My apologies.
We spent a glorious week and a half on two islands in Lake Malawi. They are both part of Malawi; however they are much closer to Mozambique. They are both rather remote, and very beautiful.

We took the Ilala Ferry out to Chizumulu Island from Nkhata Bay on the mainland. The ferry left port around 8pm. We rode on the top deck, which was 'first class' seating. Seating is the wrong word for it, however, as there were only about 5 plastic chairs spotted around the deck. So, like most people, we rented a couple mattresses and laid them out on the deck and attempted to sleep. There were a lot of other backpackers on the ferry, as well as the owner of the place we were heading to on Chizumulu Island. So, it made for a fun experience, and it was nice to have someone to tell us exactly where to go when the ferry pulled in to the island at around 1am. The ferry is not able to pull in to the port, so they lower a lifeboat down to take people in to shore. It was pretty chaotic. You have to go through second class, where people are crammed in with cargo, chickens, etc. It’s very crowded below deck. So after wading through all the mess downstairs, we made our way to a boat. Luckily, Nick (the owner), was able to have his little motor boat come meet us, and we all piled in.

We ended up staying on Chizumulu for about 4 days at a great place called Wakwenda Retreat. It was dirt cheap- about $12 a night for a hut right on the beach. It was also beautifully landscaped with a lot of natural stonework. We spent our days exploring the island and just relaxing. We swam, snorkeled, hiked, read books, and met some of the local people. It became an adventure, trying to find the one lady on the island who we heard sold bread. Or looking for a shop that sold snacks or candles. We also ate at a local restaurant a couple times run by a nice old lady named Agnes, where we had nsima and veggies. The island’s 2 generators were broken, so we were without electricity the whole time we were there. But, that meant we had dinner by candlelight every night, which was neat! One of my favorite parts about Wakwenda was the dinners- they were served communal style, so it gave you a chance to meet other guests and chat. We met a lot of interesting people and had a really nice time there.

Wakwenda Retreat on Chizumulu.

After our 4 days there, we decided to take a dhow (a traditional sail boat) over to Likoma Island. Likoma Island was a bit bigger, and we thought it would be fun to explore. The dhow ride was about an hour and a half and was an experience in itself. They let us off at a beach in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. We asked around and got pointed in the right direction to our hotel- Mango Drift. It turns out that Mango Drift was about 3 km away over hilly foot paths in the hot sun with heavy backpacks. I was VERY relieved when we finally made it. As it turns out, Mango Drift was another awesome, inexpensive place. Again, we were right on the beach. The managers and workers there were all helpful and friendly. We knew right away we would like it a lot.

The beach in front of Mango Drift around sunset.
Our hut on the beach at Mango Drift.

That first afternoon, we decided to try to walk into the main town on the island and check out the market. It turns out that it was another long walk, but we had a fun encounter which shortened it a little. After we got to a main road, we were walking along and heard a car (rare for either of the islands). The local ambulance pulled up next to us and told us to get in! The driver, Edward, was very nice and told us where things were in town. I peeked in the back, and luckily there were no ill passengers back there wondering why the driver had stopped to pick up hitchers. In fact, there was NOTHING back there- the ambulance didn't have any medical supplies in it, which is curious. But that’s the way things are around here.

The next day, we made the hike back into town to attend the Easter service at the famous cathedral on the island. It was an old Anglican church, and very beautiful. It was an amazing feat to build such a magnificent building on a remote island in the early 20th century. A Bishop (presumably English) presided over the service. The church was packed to overflowing. Curiously, men and women were segregated to different sides of the church, so Andrej and I were unable to sit together. The women's side also had most of the children, so it was really full and many women were sitting on the floor. They had made an attempt at decorating the church for Easter. The decorations included blue, white, and pink toilet paper strewn about from the ceiling, as well as red balloons that I can only assume were from Valentine's Day which said 'I Love You.' It seemed almost a bit disjointed when compared the grandness of the church. Anyways, the service itself was another long one- about 3.5 hours. There was no organ or any other musical instrument, but they had a nice choir. This service was also quite formal. After the service, we went out for a spaghetti lunch at a little place on the water called 'The Hunger Clinic.'

We spent the whole next week enjoying island life. I read a few books, we went for a few hikes, walked into town to stock up on food, enjoyed more great communal dinners, and swam in the lake. All in all, it was a very relaxing week. We had heard that the people living on Likoma Island are some of the friendliest people in Malawi. Unlike other places in Africa, they have also not taken to hassling tourists. This all makes for a very safe and pleasant environment. When we would walk around the island, many people would stop and chat with you, the most popular question being ‘Where are you going?’ I had some women tell me about the food they were cooking, and had some young girls show me how to get where I was going.

The view of Likoma Island while on a hike around the island.

The characteristic baobab trees that are all over the islands.

We had decided that we would rather fly than take the ferry off the island, and we heard you could get cheap stand-by flights back to Lilongwe. So we ended up playing the waiting game and staying a bit longer on Likoma than we intended (I’m not complaining!). Because we had a full week there, with not much to do but relax and enjoy the weather, Andrej decided to occupy himself by getting SCUBA certified. The cool, young managers at our hotel were both SCUBA instructors, and he got a one-on-one private SCUBA instruction over the course of 3 days. He seemed to really enjoy it.

Andrej on the boat ready to go on a dive.

Andrej and his instructor, Josh, about to dive in.

On Saturday, we heard that the president of Malawi was flying in for a campaign stop. This was our second encounter with him. What this meant was a lot of confusion over the ferry, and there was speculation that it wouldn’t run for the public because they would only allow government people on- essentially they were going to charter the ferry. So, Andrej and I decided to really make an effort to get on a flight, because we thought we might get stuck there for quite a while. As it turned out, due to the rally, there were many flights that day. Later that morning, our hotel manager got us confirmed on an afternoon flight. We were taking by a small boat over to the airport, found our plane, and waited under the wing until our pilot showed up. We had a nice little 8 seater plane, and enjoyed the flight over Lake Malawi back into Lilongwe.

Likoma Island from the sky. Andrej SCUBA dove out to that little island.

Andrej in front of our plane we took off the island.

All in all, we really enjoyed our time in Malawi. The people were friendly, and it had a very relaxing atmosphere. However, we decided that it would be time to move on the next morning to head towards Victoria Falls. You can read all about that in my next post!

Vwaza Marsh Wildlife Reserve, Malawi

After our week stint in Rwanda, Andrej and I hopped a 4am flight to Lilongwe, Malawi. We had a short layover in Nairobi, and the flights went well. Lilongwe is the capital of Malawi. We found a place to stay in town and spent the day resting and stocking up on supplies. We were hoping to head out to some national parks, so we bought a lot of food to take with us.

The next day, we took a bus to a town called Mzuzu, which is the nearest large town to two national parks- Vwaza Marsh Wildlife Reserve and Nyika Plateau National Park. Without your own transport, getting to Nyika would have been very difficult and expensive. So, we opted to just go to Vwaza. We got to Mzuzu in the evening and spent just one night there before taking a minibus to a town called Rumphi. (I love the town names around here!). From Rumphi, the only we that we could find to get to the park was by matola, which is a pick-up truck. The road to the park was unpaved, and its the rainy season here. Which means, the road to the park is all mud, so you need a big, high clearance vehicle to get there. As usual, they packed as much people and luggage as possible into the bed of the truck, and off we went. It was a very uncomfortable and sometimes painful ride, but after about 2 hours, they dropped us at the park entrance.

Vwaza has some great nature and wildlife. As with most game parks in Africa, you are not allowed to go about the park unless you are with an armed guard or in a vehicle. So, we were ushered to our hut where we would spend the night, and were told to stay there unless we were going on a guided walk. Fine with us! The hut was grass thatched and clean with a small porch overlooking the lake where you would see hippos and sometimes elephants. One interesting thing though is that when we stayed in Kruger Park in South Africa, the camp was fenced off so the animals couldn't get in (except for some monkeys, impala, and warthogs). But, our hut area was NOT fenced in- this made for a little excitement later on...

Andrej outside our hut.

That afternoon, we decided to go for a guided walk through the park. A park ranger was our guide, and he had a rifle with, which would be used to scare the animals if need be (they do not go around shooting them unless absolutely necessary). It was a little rainy that afternoon, so we didn't see too much. Shortly after we left our camp, we saw some impala on the path and they started to run. They were followed by a group of about 10 elephants! That was fun to see a parade of elephants go past. Later on the walk, we also spotted some hippos lazily floating in the lake. That evening, we made a delicious Indian meal over a fire and went to bed early.

On our guided walk with the park ranger.

A 'sausage fruit' tree. The hippos like to eat these.

I had a little trouble falling asleep as I could hear some animal noises outside, but I did fall asleep eventually. However, at 11:30 I was awoken by more animal noises. I spent a while trying to figure out what was out there. Whatever it was was very close to the hut. I heard grass around the hut being ripped out and chomped on in very large quantities. It had to be elephants. Nothing else can rip out that much grass at a time. And it wasn't just one elephant, there were many elephants. I admit, I was scared. I woke up Andrej, who was not at all concerned that a hoard of elephants were surrounding our hut. He wanted to go back to sleep. But eventually, curiosity got the best of me, and I decided we should peek out the holes in the thatch and see if we could see any of them in the dark. After letting our eyes adjust, we definitely saw them. They were all around the outside of our hut, eating grass, tusks glinting in the moonlight. We tried to take pictures, but of course they didn't turn out in the pitch black darkness. After about a half hour, the elephants moved on.

The next morning, I went outside our hut to look at the grass. It was all trampled and half eaten in many parts. Later that morning, as I was getting ready for breakfast, I heard some screeching nearby, which sounded like some sort of massive cat fight. I looked over to the next hut, and saw a lot of very large baboons running around and having fun. They were pretty riled up, and luckily didn't come over to our hut. Later in the morning, we went over that way to watch some hippos in the lake, and to our delight, we got to see elephants going for a swim! We saw two different groups of elephants swim a short distance across the lake, trunks sticking out of the water for air. It was quite a sight! Who knew something that big and heavy could swim?

Elephants entering the water to swim across the marsh.

That afternoon, we walked a little outside the park and went on another guided walk in the park. It was a sunny day, and more of the animals were out and about. This is good and bad. It is one thing to see an elephant in National Geographic, or on TV, or even from a safari truck. Its a totally different thing to see a group of elephants very nearby when you are on foot. I have read and heard about how dangerous elephants can be if you irritate them. I didn't want to find out first hand. During our walk, we saw a large group of elephants at the lake, drinking and bathing. One of the larger ones stuck its trunk in the air and waved it around. Their eyesight is poor, but apparently their other senses are excellent. They use their trunk to sense things, and they sensed us. The elephant gave a low rumble (some sort of communication to the others) followed by a warning screech. That's when we took off. Our guide led us quickly through the brush and back to the main path. We had other similar close encounters with buffalo and more elephants on that walk, and it made me realize that I was grateful for their rule of no unguided walks in the park!

The group of elephants that we spotted at the lake during our walk.

We spent one more uneventful night in the park. If there were elephants eating outside our hut, they didn't wake me up this time! The next morning we took another uncomfortable pick-up ride back to Rumphi, and another minibus back to Mzuzu. When we got in to Mzuzu, we learned that the president was in town. Malawi is holding their elections in May, and he is running for reelection. This was his opening campaign stop, and people were coming from all over to hear him speak. Everybody was quite happy and excited- I didn't see any protesters. I was walking to the supermarket that afternoon, and I heard sirens. Everyone came running into the street, and we all watched and waved as the presidential convoy went by.

This morning, we took another minibus out to Nhkata Bay, which is a town on Lake Malawi. From here, we are planning to take a ferry out to visit a couple of the islands on the lake. It sounds very beautiful, and I will hopefully take a lot of pictures to show you all!

I will also be posting pictures from the park, but I am not on a fast connection now, so you may all have to wait a while for that. In the mean time, feel free to check my updated flickr site with some more photos from Tanzania and Uganda! www.flickr.com/photos/piratejill .