16- 25 May (Day 78 – 87) Cycling to Lake Malawi – Lazing on the beautiful shores of Lake Malawi – Reaching Blantyre
We left Lilongwe on Sunday and headed towards the lake. Our route took us to the town of Salima and from there another 20 km or so to the small lakeside settlement of Senga Bay.
Cycling through Malawi is completely different compared to Zambia. Malawi is much more densely populated and you cannot cycle for more than a kilometer without seeing people. There are people living by the side of the road as far as you go and the reed and mud houses of Zambia makes place for little brick houses. The people are also very friendly, but far fewer people are able to speak English compared to Zambia. Another difference is that in Zambia the small children knows only three words of English, as far as you go you hear shouts of “how are you!” When you tell the kids that you are fine they will just shout the same “how are you!” back at you.
In Malawi kids also know only three words of English, but these words have nothing to do with your wellbeing. Every child, almost without exception, will yell at the top of their voice “give me money!” and hold out their little hands in expectation. Even some adults get in on the act. This culture of begging must have been caused by someone or something. Maybe it has something to do with all the brand new NGO-Land Cruisers doing the rounds in these parts.
We reached Senga just before dark, a cycle of 126 km from Lilongwe. It was a wonderful feeling to reach the lake, definitely one of the moments I have been looking forward to most on this trip. We camped at the laid back Cool Runnings Campsite for two days. You can sit at the comfortable chairs at the bar and look over the lake. Small waves break at the shore, one could easily imagine yourself at a seaside bar in the Mediterranean. As you walk along the lakeshore, there are little fishing boats and fisherman pulling nets as far as the eye can see.
We were sad to leave after just two days, but had to be in Chipoka on Wednesday to catch the ferry to Monkey Bay, since it only does its rounds once a week. We had only about 55 km to cover to Chipoka on Tuesday and cycled at leisure, reaching Chipoka after noon and then taking our time to get some fresh vegetables at the local market and just killing time before booking in at the locally owned Lakeview Beach Lodge, an agreeable enough establishment with a beautiful white beach stretching onto the lake. The ferry was supposed to be at Chipoka at 8 am on Wednesday morning…we got the number of the port manager the previous day and called him when we got up on Wednesday morning to find out whether the ferry will be on time. He then informed us that the ferry will not be there before noon. An hour later he called us to inform us that the ferry was now only expected at 6 in the evening. This would have meant that we probably would have arrived in Monkey Bay close to midnight and then we still had to get to Cape Maclear. Some plans just do not work out and we promptly decided to abandon ship before even getting on.
Instead we approached a local fisherman with an old wooden boat equipped with a small outboard motor and negotiated a price with him to take us over to Cape Maclear. We got on the boat with our bikes and off we went, onto the turquoise lake with the fisherman and his jolly companions who made the trip with him for no apparent reason. Or so I thought to myself. When we were a good distance from the shore it occurred to me that the boat was propelled by only a small outboard motor which could fail on any given day. I further happened to notice that the boat was equipped with a large number of oars, so I suppose the friends were not just there for a joyride. Between us and them we could have rowed to the shore in case of emergency, which would have taken an eternity, considering the fact that it took us more than three hours to cover the distance from Chipoka to Cape Maclear with the motor actually functioning properly. Fortunately the crossing went very well and we even had time to stop near Mombo Island and dive into the calm clear water for a quick swim.
The guys dropped on the shore, right on the front door of the famous Fat Monkeys Lodge. I can hardly imagine a better setting for a lodge. The bar is literally three meters from the water’s edge, the whole lodge is run by very professional and friendly people and the atmosphere is fantastic. The view of the lake is tremendous and here I witnessed some of the most breathtaking sunsets I have seen my whole life. There are also several other lodges along the lakeshore, all walking distance from each other. The best part is that all the lodges are integrated with the village. As you walk between the lodges, there are villagers continuing with their lives as normal. Fisherman mending nets, woman washing and little boys catching small fish with their little nets line the lakeshore as far as you walk.
One day we rented kayaks and snorkelling gear and paddled to Mombo Island, about 1.2 km from the shore. There we snorkeled in the clear water all around the island and saw an astonishing array of tropical fish in this underwater wonderland. In the evenings we had fresh lake tiger fish (a completely different species from the normal tiger fish) bought from the local fishermen, grilled on the coals and delicious. We also met six really nice guys from Johannesburg who were on a motorcycle tour and had a great braai with them one evening.
The rest of out time we just lazed around the lake, swimming and enjoying the sun. We were reluctant to leave the lake when the time came, the place is so beautiful that you could just stay there for weeks on end without getting tired of the place.
The lake also marked the halfway point of our journey and from the lake we headed south for the first time. We had to get to Blantyre in two days, a distance of 265 km. We left Fat Monkeys early on Sunday morning and had to do about 16 km on a very bad dirt road before reaching tar again, but the scenery was fantastic. The rest of the day we just headed south along the edge of the lake and after we had passed Lake Malawi we cycled on the road adjacent to the smaller Lake Malombe, all the way visible from the road. On the first day we managed to cover 125 km and found a place to sleep at a Catholic mission station just after the small town of Ulongwe.
The next morning we were on the bikes before 6 am. As we got on the road the dreaded wind from the south was already blowing and we knew we were in for a long day in the saddle. To make matters worse we had to climb up the plateau once again, from an altitude of about 475 meters above sea level to 1250 meters at Blantyre. We passed through the small city of Zomba on the way, a beautiful leafy city with massive trees lining the streets as far as the eye can see. We reached Blantyre after sunset and to find our way through the chaotic traffic was interesting to say the least.
We were hosted by an Indian guy called Nand Gopal we had met in Chipata a few weeks earlier. He and his housemate Mukesh treated us like kings and went out of their way to make sure that we were comfortable. On top of that they spoilt us with great Indian food, the ultimate comfort to the weary traveler! We spent a day in Blantyre to get all our things in order before leaving for the Mozambican border on Wednesday, which should hopefully only take another day or so…
