For this weekend, I went to Lake Malawi again…thanks to my friend Roger who took pity on me. I say this because the previous weekend was a holiday 3 day weekend and one that I had planned to go to Cape Maclear with 2 other volunteers, however all did not go as planned…
(Plan 1) - The initial plan was for the 3 of us to drive down with another volunteer in her car, but this ride fell through. Since this is a long ride by public transport, (Plan 2) we decided we would need to rent a car. Then volunteer #1 backed out and since a car rental is just too expensive for 2 peeps, plan 2 was out the window. (Plan 3) Determined not to let a long weekend go to waste, I decided to take a public bus to a closer lake destination - Nkhotakota, get dropped of at the junction and walk the remaining 3 km to the lodge. I made numerous calls to the bus station to find out the correct information of departure and arrival times, and which bus station location and to ensure that the bus would indeed drop me off and pick me up alongside the road. Then after an absurd amount of attempts to get a phone connection to the lodge, I finally got through and reservations made, plan 3 was finalized! However, volunteer #2 did not want to walk the 3 km, so I was going it alone.
I woke early on Sat and took a minibus to the bus station in Old Town at 7:30 to get a good seat on the 8am bus. As I sat there in the busy station, I was so happy that all my effort and determination to get out of town this weekend was materializing into a new mini-adventure!
9am came around and I was still sitting there in the station watching the people next to me get up, load onto their buses and take off to their destinations, then a new group of people filling in the empty places surrounding me, leaving me behind to sit…and wait for my bus to arrive. I listened to the scratchy announcements by the bus attendant of the next departing buses “Monkey Bay, Monkey Bay, Monkey Bay”; “Salima, Salima, Salima”; “Blantyre, Blantyre, Blantyre”; “Mongonchi, Mongonchi, Mongonchi” but no “Nkhotakota , Nkhotakota , Nkhotakota” could be heard coming from this speaker. Then I heard “blah, blah, blah, Nkhotakota blah, blah, blah.” …What was that he said??? I stood up, thinking this may help me understand Chichewa just a little bit better, and strained to try to understand what he was saying about the bus to Nkhotakota. A man saw my confusion and asked if I were lost. No, not quite lost, but asked him if he could tell me what was being said about the bus to Nkhotakota? Luckily he was a man in the know, he worked for the bus service and just came from the garage. He told me that my bus was getting serviced – it appears the brakes were not working and needed to be replaced, which was the reason for the delay and that the bus should be here shortly.
Happy to hear that the bus was soon to arrive and with a new sense of happy energy, I sat back down and starting making friends with the latest bunch of folks around me. I was sitting in one of the few shaded spots, so there were plenty of potential friends about.
10 am came around without a bus to Nkhotakota and my latest friends had once again loaded onto their buses and left me sitting there.
11 am came around and I then decided that I was not going to the lake this weekend. It just wasn’t going to happen. Defeated, I left the bus station and headed to the Capital Bakery for the best comfort food in Lilongwe – a chocolate croissant.
Which brings me to the following weekend…when after hearing about my woes, my friend and co-volunteer Roger decided he’d like to take a trip to the lake and offered to drive me to Nkhotakota for a wonderful weekend! Pictures are below…
On the drive we passed by….
Villages:
Mountains:
Chia Lagoon:
Lots of people walk along the roads. Since most people do not have cars, the roads are used as the main path for foot traffic:
And a little bit of birdlife:
When we made it to the lake shore at Nkhotakota we stayed at the Nkhotakota Pottery. This place is a wonderful and relaxing place along the lake.
The shore:
The garden:
The rooms - I have not been to that many lodges in Malawi, but I think these may be better than most - the view is what makes it!:
The lake view from the rooms:
After a refreshing swim in the lake, we took a walk up the shore to a small fishing village where they were fishing for these tiny fish. These will be dried in the sun before eating.
Getting ready to set the net:
Roger helping pull in the net. The work of a volunteer never ends!
Pulling in the net.
The catch.
Other scenes along the lake shore:
For some reason the boys will stand in these crazy kung fu poses for any picture you take of them.
Enjoying the sunset on the lake with view of the mountains of Mozambique.
Woke well to a great sunrise coming up from behind the mountains in Mozambique:
