MALAWI TIME

By Paul Stokes and Chris Fisher

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people you might better stay at home” Stanley Michener

We have arrived in Malawi and been welcomed by a million white teeth wielding locals all the way. The Malawians are a notoriously friendly nation; you don’t have to try hard to make friends here, although many of the people that swarm you at every stop end up pulling out all sorts of curios, cards, necklaces and anything else you may be willing to part with a small portion of cash for.

We spent a full day in Blantyre shopping at the South Afrian style shops and tightening bolts on the bikes after the endless corrugations the day before. Blantyre is a relatively clean and safe African city with a real little CBD littered with recognisable banks and forex outlets. Apart from the necessities, there isn’t much else to do there so we headed for the lake as soon as our bums would allow us to get back onto the saddle. The ride up to Cape Maclear, on the southern tip of the lake was beautiful. Rolling hills and huge Baobab trees around every bend made the 3 hours of riding a breeze. I even stopped complaining about how sore my bum was for a little while. We passed some comical signs; “Toys’R’us” was one that we saw carved out of wood, where the Locals were selling intricately carved wooden tractors and trucks. A golden arched “MacDonald’s Chips” was selling a selection of French fries or French fries with salt on the verge of the road.

We thought at the start of our trip that travelling at 80-90 kph would be painfully slow, however, we’ve managed to get to our destinations faster than some of the cars who were travelling in the same direction as us. This is due to our ability to avoid, what feels like 90% of Malawi’s goat population living on the side of the roads, with relative ease. If you aren’t a goat lover before you come to Africa...don’t think that coming here is going to amend your affections towards the destroyers of the African Continent!

The turn off to Cape Maclear followed a heavily corrugated stretch of dirt road, about 16 k’s through the Malawi Parks reserve, the bushveld was stunning! Arriving at Fat Monkeys, we were met with smiles all the way. The owners were very friendly, and made our arrival as hassle free as possible, which ended up being the first place in Malawi where we did not have to pay upfront for accommodation. Setting up the tents, while admiring the most beautiful sunset we have ever seen made us realise that there is nowhere else on earth we would rather be at that moment. The feeling of content that comes over you at the lake must be my “9th wonder of the world” (the 8th wonder is Dave’s TW200 making it all the way to Malawi with no problems at all, basically the most reliable and fuel efficient bike out of the three, however by far the slowest!)

The next day we awoke to a perfect day once again, a common occurrence here in Malawi, along with the calls of the nearby Fish Eagles. We were met by an elderly man named William Shakespeare, who offered to bake us a banana bread loaf for breakfast the next day for 1500 kwacha. In no uncertain terms Shakespeare then proceeded to ask if we would like to add an extra 500 kwacha for his “special ingredient”, at which point we laughed and declined the happy additive. The warm banana bread was delivered to our tents at 8 sharp the next morning and came in handy as a snack for our astonishing full day out on the water with a tour guide named Isaac. Isaac escorted us from island to island on his aptly named boat “The warm heart of Africa” an affectionate nickname for this friendly country. The snorkelling was as good as he had told us it would be with an array of brightly coloured tropical fish clumped between the boulders within the crystal clear waters. It makes it hard to believe that you are swimming in a lake. After an “all you can eat” fish braai for lunch on an island we were treated to a spectacular show by the fish eagles. The beautiful birds of prey answered Isaac’s invitational whistle and swooped down to grab a free fish a mere 10 meters from the boat. It was incredible to witness up close and personal.

Things were starting to become a little settled in Cape Maclear, which is a sure sign that it’s time to move on. We headed northward up the western shore 370km to Kande Beach. The views were breath taking all the way, sometimes crossing river mouths entering the expanse of the lake. As we got closer to Kande Beach the mountains started to rise up to our left, shadowing the early afternoon sun. We were stopped by some important looking policemen en route to Kande. Before departing on our trip we were warned that we would be stopped often by police everywhere but to date they have found little interest in our motorbikes and so we have been ushered straight through the continuous series of road blocks. These guys had other plans and were adamant to see our licences, insurance details and any other important looking documents. I think we could have shown them our Ster Kinekor Movie Club cards and they would not have known the difference. We all had different policemen interrogating us and after we left we worked out that we all showed them different documentation that gained similar satisfaction.
Kande Beach is yet another idyllic beach with glassy waters and a small island about 500meters offshore. We rented a kayak and paddled out to the island for some more snorkelling and rock jumping. Kande beach is a popular stop for overlanders with an expansive bar and hammocks connecting all the trees. It happened to be “Market day” in the town so we took a stroll through the exuberant brightly coloured stalls and even managed to find a fish, vegetable and nSima (pap) meal for a wopping R10.

Leaving Kande we followed the road north for only 50km’s to Nkhata bay. The short stretch of road was a continuous stretch of fast winding bends through a mass of rubber trees on either side of the road. The obvious opportunists/entrepreneurs were ever present, selling balls made of rubber, which they sap from the trees with a simple, although clever little system where they peel back the bark so that the sap oozes out and drops into a cup attached to the side of the tree. We rolled into Nkhata after what will probably be the shortest day on the bikes and checked into our accommodation at the intricate Mayoka Village. Mayoka Village consists of a number of beautifully constructed twin rooms, dorms and camp sites all linked by enchanted pathways. It is set on a steep slope dropping straight into the blue waters of the lake. It is a very festive spot with a brilliantly constructed bar perched over the water, playing host to bands and serving fantastic meals all day long. We are not complaining about our three day wait here for the ferry to the islands.