I finally made it out of the city!! My first trip out was to ‘The Lake’. I had been going a little stir crazy and feeling a bit restless because I had not left Lilongwe since I arrived in Malawi, which has been a month now. Malawi has an enormous lake, aptly named Lake Malawi, and takes up almost 1/5 of the country’s territory. It is definitely a must see destination and I am hoping to see more of it!
We had a 3 day holiday weekend, so I took advantage of an extra day off and went to Senga Bay with three other volunteers. We headed out of town on a rainy Friday morning for the 1 ½ hour drive to the Senga Bay, which is just east of Lilongwe. The drive was a welcome change to the scenery I had grown accustom to this past month. Lilongwe is very green this time of year and has lots of beautiful vegetation including tall flowering trees, but it is a city and was the same scene every day. My ride to work or into town takes me down 2 lane roads, a few round-a-bouts here and there, and people, bikes and minibuses everywhere.
But as soon as we left the capital, the traffic was gone…the landscape opened up… and there were green hills all around. It was so great to see a different side of Malawi! We passed through a few villages, but no big towns until we reached Salima. Here there are a few stores to pick up last minute items (i.e. beer) before you arrive at the lake. We passed over some railroad tracks and a large train depot building in Salima. I was psyched for about one minute when I was told that these track go from Lilongwe to Salima…however there is no train, so it is unused and the ‘bush’ has taken over the tracks as well as the building. It is a shame, because it would be such an easy trip to get to the lake from the capital by way of a train, especially for those of us without vehicles!
After our quick stop in Salima, we were on to Senga Bay, which is about an additional ½ hr. drive and is located on the shore of Lake Malawi. We camped at a sweet campground called The Steps – which is it is located right next to an upscale hotel The Livingstonia. Once there, we drove through the gates down to a great beach, with cool rock formations, a great view of an island just off shore and then beyond the island are the mountains of Mozambique. The water was clear and calm that first day and oh so refreshing! We swam and hiked around a bit exploring the area.
There are many local fishermen that fish in these waters. You can see them day and night, fishing from these not-so-seaworthy dugout canoes using just a line and hook. It is amazing that, and I am not quite sure how, these boat are able to stay upright in bad weather. However, I have read in the local newspaper that some do capsize during storms on the lake and sometimes the fishermen do not survive.
We bought some fresh kapanga fish, which is similar to a catfish, from one of these local fishermen for dinner one night. It made for some good eating and was probably the best meal I have had yet in Malawi. This should tell you more about the meals I have had so far than this particular one Floris, another VSO volunteer from Canada, did the deed of cleaning the fish, and as we were at the beach chatting, a huge Fish Eagle flew over our heads from behind, swooped down, and snatched a bit of fish that was floating in the water just 10 ft in front of us. It was so amazing to have a close up view of this huge bird and a nice touch to a perfect day at the lake. (I managed to get a photo of it on its 2nd fly by, which is posted below)
That evening the weather changed in a big way. Just as we finished our dinner it started to rain. So we each headed to our tents, mine - I had borrowed from the country director, my VSO boss. Throughout that night the winds and rain where unrelenting. I faired well, however the tent did not. There were three big storms that passed through the night. The 2nd one, at about 1 am, broke the center pole, and the 3rd one, at about 5 am, ripped the rain fly. Right…so I was now awake and getting wet…time to get up I guessed. I headed to a thatched roofed building that served as a bar for the campground. I started the day watching the fish eagles diving to the water for their breakfast and the sun rising over the lake and mountains of Mozambique. Another nice touch to a perfect weekend!
The hard part was telling the country director about her tent – she took the bad news better than expected...I am still here!
PHOTOS:
Huge Baobab Tree on the drive to Senga Bay
Roadside Fruit Stalls
Huge Baobab Tree on the beach at Senga Bay
And a hippo did make an appearance that evening
The beach at Senga Bay
Fish Eagle
Catch of the Day and our dinner
The beach has awesome rock formations
Fisherman with his catch
Fishermen on the lake
The Livingstonia Hotel, which weathered the storm better than the tent.
