Back to Malawi and out to Nkhata Bay

Because Zambia is all about safaris and safaris get expensive real quick, I decided to get back to Malawi and go up north to one of the towns on Lake Malawi.  This meant I needed to be on the Sunday bus from Lusaka, Zambia to Lilongwe (Lil’), Malawi.  When Steph and I got off the bus in Lusaka, we were mobbed by taxi drivers and people wanting to help us.  After some patience, trying not to get hit by cars driving right next to the bus, and continually fending off locals offering assistance, we got our bags from the underneath the bus, bought me a bus ticket to Lil’ for the next morning, and taxied to our hostel.  We didn’t do anything else that day because Lusaka has nothing to do there and we had only enough Zambian kwacha to pay for dinner, bottled water, and my taxi ride the next morning.

Bright and early the next day at 0430, I took a taxi to the bus station to catch my bus to Lil’.  Steph was flying out that afternoon to go back home so I was now on my own.  This bus ride was so much more crowded than the ride from Livingstone because people’s bags and stuff was in the aisle.  There were no people standing in the aisles, but I sat next to two parents and two five year olds (they had a total of 2 seats between the two of them).  The most annoying thing about this ride was the non-stop loud music English language Zambian music that played for most of the 12 hour bus ride.  I spent the night in Lil’ and then caught the “slow” bus the next day to Mzuzu (pronounced with out the M).  I didn’t realize it until I got on the bus at 0730 and the bus finally left at 0900 that I was on a slow bus.  The only way to survive was to recognize that I would get to Mzuzu when I got there and to try to listen to some podcasts on my phone.  For 9 hours, I had sat through even louder music, frequent stops, and people crammed into all corner of the bus.  Once in Mzuzu, I got a shared taxi to Nkhata Bay (pronounced as Kata Bay) and got to my hostel right as it got dark.  This ended a blur of three straight days of public transport.

The whole reason I went to Nkhata Bay was to experience Lake Malawi, and that is what I did from from arrival on Monday night until leaving on Friday morning.  I had planned on camping at a hostel there but bargained down the price of a dorm bed.  Then on Wednesday, I got upgraded to my own waterfront chalet for my last two nights.  That was the best $8/night I have ever spent on lodging.

Over the course of the week, I scuba dived twice, snorkeled, finally tried stand up paddleboarding (SUP), and ate some great food.  Lake Malawi is famous for the cichlids that live there, a type of fish.  They are the Darwin’s finches of Africa because there are over a thousand species and they have taken over all the different niches in the lake and are all sizes, shapes, and colors.  There are two really cool species.  The mouthbrooding species protects its young by gathering them in the mother fish's mouth when she is threatened.  The upside down fish feeds on the algae on the undersides of rocks by turning itself over so it can feed.  I also did a night dive and saw dolphinfish hunt the cichlids.  Little did I know before I came here but the Planet Earth program featured this part of the lake on one of its episodes.

Outside of the scuba, I SUPed, swam, and snorkeled most of my days, read, hiked the local hills, walked around town, and enjoyed being at the lake.  One thing that was super cool about this part of the lake was that it felt very beach like.  The land around Nkhata Bay is very hilly and the hills look like they go straight down into the lake. I did a little hiking each day and found out how friendly and helpful most Malawian are. People made sure I was on the right path, I played jump rope with some young girls, and entertained some boys mending fishing nets by being a white person that walked to the beach they were at.  It was very green and clear skies all week, except for the short rain storm on Friday morning.

The other highlight of my time here was listening to a musical set by a local called Michael Mountain.  His song “How Big is the Lake” is a cultural phenomenon in Nkhata Bay and his signature song.  It was quite catchy and something you should definitely to experience yourself (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRS46ugJccA; ignore the video because it is bad).

I headed back to Mzuzu on Friday so I could catch the first bus to Lil’ on Saturday morning.  This bus was with the nicer Malawian bus company called AXA and was quicker and without blaring music.  I got into Lil’ midday, to my friend’s house, and took the weekend to get ready for my next month of volunteering.

Looking out at Lake Malawi from one of my hikes to a beach

Looking out at Lake Malawi from the hills

Looking our at Lake Malawi from my private chalet

Main harbor in Nkhata Bay

Sign in the local language, Chachewa

Picture of my private cottage

Lake Malawi from my cottage after it rained

Beach with dugout canoes

Picture of local boys mending nets.  They requested I take the picture.  The only one who was doing anything when I saw them, talked with them, and took a break at the beach was the one in the top left.

Victoria Falls and Livingstone, Zambia

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted something but I haven’t had internet for the last week.  Right now, I’m in Lilongwe and will be here for the next five weeks volunteering.  I’ll post about that once I start but until then I’ll post about Victoria Falls now and about my last week in Nkhata Bay later in the week.  For now, here is about my trip to Victoria Falls; Livingstone, Zambia; and getting Stephanie to the airport so she can head back home to Texas.

On Tuesday May 9th, Steph and I flew from Lilongwe, Malawi to Livingstone, Zambia via Lusaka (the capital of Zambia) on 15-20 seat propeller planes.  I’ve never been on such a small commercial plane and it was a wild ride.  We got to walk on the tarmac to and from the plane and it seemed as if the pilots were fighting to keep the plane from skidding out when we landed.  There weren’t many on the plane, but I did meet the defense attache for the American ambassador to Zambia one of the flights.  It was interesting to talk with him about what he does and what it’s like living in Zambia.  We got into Livingstone mid-afternoon, picked up by our hostel (Jollyboys), and settled in.

The whole point of the town of Livingstone is to serve as a tourist place for Victoria Falls, one of the seven wonders of the natural world.  On Wednesday, we saw Livingstone, went on an hour long town tour organized by the hostel, the Livingstone Museum (focus is on Zambian history and people and the famous Dr. David Livingstone), and figured out what we wanted to do for the rest of the week.  By chance, this was during a full moon so along with two people we met at the hostel, we headed to see the lunar rainbow (aka moonbow).  A moonbow is a rainbow made by moonlight, and it only happens at Vic Falls near the full moon.  After some drinks a nice hotel on the Zambezi River (the river that feeds the falls), we headed to the falls.  It took about an hour after it was dark to really see the moonbow.  It is hard to get a picture of it (but see below for the best one we got) but it looks like a very ethereal rainbow.  You can see it but you can’t really see much detail with it.

On Thursday, we back to the falls to see it during the day.  This was one of my favorite places in the world!  It somewhere where you can spend hours soaking in views, scenery, and power of the waterfall.  It reminds me of Yosemite Valley, the Alhambra, Machu Picchu, Stonehenge, or Crater Lake because these are all places you can visit time after time and never get tired of seeing them.  This time of year the falls are running at full capacity so it is difficult to actually see or get a good picture because of all the mist that is churned up.  In the local language, Victoria Falls is known as “Mosi-oe-tunya” or “the smoke that thunders” and the mist definitely looks like smoke and it definitely sounds like thunder.  The falls are so big that we saw them when we flew in and from some places around Livingstone.  

We walked all around the national park to experience the falls and get good views.  One trail you walk on a bridge that goes right through the the middle of the mist.  As a result you get soaked, and it feels like you are walking through a rainstorm.  It was truly crazy to do this trail because of how wet and misty it was.

Next, we walked on the Victoria Fall bridge, saw some people bungee jump off it, and even got to cross over into Zimbabwe, though unofficially.  It is cool because you get to experience the ruggedness of the canyon that houses the Zambezi river below the falls and see how fast and how much water flows through the river.  After exploring the bridge, we went for drinks at the Royal Livingstone Hotel which is a premium hotel located right next to the falls.  We saw giraffe and zebras in the grounds of the hotel and had drinks right next to the river.  It was well worth the $4.50 beer for the views and animals.

Our last day in Livingstone was spent exploring Livingstone some more and getting ready for our bus ride to Lusaka the next day.  Steph had her flight back to Texas on Sunday out of Lusaka so we needed to get her there via a 8 or 9 hour bus ride.

This is more or less the partial week spent in Livingstone so enjoy the pictures of it below.  I will post of my three day bus trip to Malawi and time in Nkhata Bay later in the week.

Prop plane we used from Lilongwe to Lusaka (photo taken by Steph)

Mosi-oa-tunya (the smoke that thunders) from a distance (photo taken by Steph)

Showing how truly big Vic Falls is

Post Vic Falls Shower Number 1 (photo taken by Steph)

Lunar Rainbow aka moonbow (photo taken by Steph)

Vic Falls Bridge that divides Zambia (on the left) from Zimbabwe (on the right) (photo taken by Steph)

Vic Fall Bridge and the mist in the gorge (photo taken by Steph) 

Getting ready to brace the water and mist again

Victoria Falls

Knifepoint bridge where you get soaked crossing (photo taken by Steph)

Knifepoint Bridge (photo taken by Steph)

Top of the Falls

Taken from the Vic Fall Bridge looking at the falls.  Look at all the mist!

I walked about four feet from the zebras nose! (photo taken by Steph)

Rainbow from the mist (photo taken by Steph)

Giraffe eating in the ground of the Royal Livingstone Hotel (photo taken by Steph)

Panorama of Royal Livingston Hotel bar where we had drinks after visiting the falls (photo taken by Steph)

South Luangwa National Park Safari

On Friday, Christina, Stephanie, and I left Lilongwe for Zambia to safari for three nights and four days at South Luangwa National Park.  We stayed at a place called Marula Lodge and the trip was all inclusive.  This meant meals, two game drives per day, lodging, and snacks were all included.  The main thing we had to organize and pay for was the transit to and from the safari but my friends here knew someone who knew someone who could take us.  Jacob our driver was great, safe, knowledgeable about all the questions about Malawian culture, running a taxi service, farming, and all the other questions we asked him during our 5 hour drive.  It was an easy drive because Lilongwe is the major city closest to South Luangwa and crossing the border into Zambia from Malawi was easy and took only about an hour.

How safaris work is that you get up early for a four hour game drive in the morning (0600-1000), come back to the lodge to relax, have lunch at 1130, tea and cake at 1500, an evening game drive (1530-1930), and a three course dinner after the last drive.  The theme of a safari is seeing as many types of animals as possible and then relaxation, and we scored on both accounts.  

The second day at Marula we were there we saw almost everything on our two game drives.  I will only post a few below because between the three of us took 2000 pictures over the course of our four game drives but we saw elephants, leopards, giraffes, lions, hyenas, the Lillian Lovebird and lot of other birds, 3-4 types of antelopes, zebras, a wildebeest, hippos, crocodiles, baboons, two types of mongoose, genet (animal related to mongoose that scientist though was a cat for a long time), porcupines, velvet monkeys, guinea fowl, monitor lizards, and three warthogs.  The two disappointments was not seeing buffalo and rhinos but rhinos don’t live in the park so I guess I need to safari again sometime to see those.

Some of the cool animal things we saw happen were elephants crossing a river, elephants fighting, an elephant aggressively getting close to our vehicle, giraffes fighting, a hyena during the day, zebras horsing around, and lions roaring.  You ride in a vehicle that is like an oversized SUV without a top.  This way you can look around you and see the animals.  This also means that if the animals get really close to you but this wasn’t a problem except for when the lions went by us within 6 feet.  

On our third day, a woman who was a birder with a blog as started her safari and we spent the morning on a birding safari.  It was nice since we saw so many large animals the day before except the woman was overbearing and bossy to our driver.  She was intent on seeing Lillian Lovebirds and didn’t care about the other people on the safari.  For the afternoon safari, Christina and I made it clear we didn’t want to do a bird only safari.  This didn’t go over super well but the driver did a good job of balancing the competing interests.  He did so well that we saw the lovebirds when we were heading to see the buffalo that the rest of us wanted to see.  We didn’t see the buffalo because it was sunset but the woman got to see the whole reason for her trip.

We drove back today and tomorrow Stephanie and I are leaving Malawi to fly to Livingstone, Zambia tomorrow to see Victoria Falls!!  So excited for this week!  After that she will go home and I will be on my own in Zambia until the end of the month.  

My room.  I was super nice

Dead crocodile we saw 

Lion prints in the mud

How close we got to some of the animals

Baby elephant with mom

Our safari vehicle

Lilac-breasted roller

Giraffes fighting

Someone in their own vehicle doing a safari.  I was super jealous of their truck

Leopard looking at antelope in the distance

Elephants crossing river

Elephant getting aggressive towards us

Warthog

Guinea fowl

Baobab tree.  They look so cool

The infamous Lillian's lovebirds

Malawi: Week 2

On Monday (aka International Labor Day), we took a taxi to Senga Bay, a town on Lake Malawi, to see the lake and have lunch.  We took a taxi there and it was about a two hour ride.  The drive there was probably the most interesting part of the day because it is fun to see scenery and drive through the villages.  We went to one of the hotels in Senga Bay to eat their buffet lunch and walk along the lake.  We had perfect weather for our trip but didn’t go in the lake because you can get a parasite from swimming in the water.  After two weeks, you get testing and take a anti-parasitic pill but I didn’t want to worry about that, especially considering all you could do is float and splash around.  There was a fence separating the locals from the hotel guests (see pic below) to keep the locals from trying to sell things to the tourists on the beach.

On Tuesday, Steph and I took a minibus (think a large van for 18 that they cram 20 or more in) to the market to get some of the local fabric and other things.  We got on the bus after they told us to “Get on” and then off when we were told to “Get off” and then on again when we were told to “Get on.”  Everyone on the bus thought this was the funniest and they laughed about it the whole 10 minute drive.  We got some local fabric, an avocado, and some local crafts and then took the minibus back which was an equally fun experience.  

On Wednesday, Steph and I went about an hour outside of Lilongwe to the town of Nkhoma to climb the mountain near it.  As soon as we got on the trail heading to the peak, a random dog from a house next to the trail ran to join us.  It proceeded to guide us through the hike!  I am not kidding about this.  The dog would run on ahead and then wait for us to catch up.  It went the entire four hours with us and up to the peak.  I was thoroughly impressed, even though I got us lost a few times because I thought I knew a better way.  I don’t know how the dog knew where we wanted to go but he lead us great.  We got a ton of stickers in our clothes because we had to wade through plants 8 feet tall but we thankfully didn’t get any ticks.

Thursday was a low key day as we got ready for our safari this weekend and random things I needed to do but didn’t really want to like laundry and organizing my stuff.  This weekend I will be on in Zambia at the South Luangwa National Park for a safari.  I will post about it when we get back but I feel as if it will be a highlight of the trip.

Fence dividing the hotel beach from the local beach

Locals out on the lake

Panorama of the beach

Saw some people on touring bikes driving to the lake and they went to the same place we did.  I didn't get to talk to them but am adding bike touring to my to do list.

Picture of the minibus depot

Picture of the minibus depot

Nkhoma Mountain in the distance

Panorama from the top

Walking through the bushes

With our guide dog

Following the leader

Nkhoma Mountain in the distance