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.