Malawi

 

We've just had an argument!

After days on old, decrepit buses packed with chickens, dogs (barking and whinnying in the boot), huge sacks of smelly dried fish lining the aisle, babies with seemingly unchangeable nappies and up to one hundred and twelve other passengers impossibly squashed together we have arrived in Mzuzu, northern Malawi. As we pull into the bus station we look out of the window. It is dirty and dusty, there are people milling about or just sitting down watching the world go by. People try to sell us bread and drinks and sweets through the window, letting us know they are there with a shrill hiss right by our ears. There are people selling things everywhere, oranges, pineapples, all manner of vegetables, dried fish, notebooks, fabrics, everything. As the bus stops we watch a tired, old woman struggling with heavy bags of shopping in her hands, walking through the bus station. She casually puts down her bags, hitches up her skirt, and we are stunned as she just squats and pees in the gutter. When finished she wipes her legs with her bare hands, picks up her shopping and walks away as if she had never stopped! This is a very different place to back home.

She didn't care that she was on her own; she had booked the trip from home and was there to enjoy it - no matter what.

Tracy and Tassie don't want to go any further. They are both feeling ill and tired of the dangers and unpleasantness of public transport in Malawi. Not surprisingly I am a little tired of this too. We are here because we wanted to go to the small Scottish built missionary, Livingstonia. The setting is supposed to be beautiful as the missionary is 800 meters up on a mountain overlooking the stunning Lake Malawi. Unfortunately this plan involves another long bus journey to the bottom of said mountain and from there either walking (not likely with a full backpack!) or 'hoping' to get a lift with one of the few cars a week that go up the dirt track, negotiating the 19 tight hairpin bends on the way. As far as we know there is no accommodation at the bottom and if we don't get a lift we have a long wait!

After many irate words, hard looks and my best sales skills learnt so far away in the civilisation of air-conditioned, comfortable buses we agree to give it a shot. Tracy and Tassie are not convinced but will go along with the plan. To be fair this is about the only argument we have had since we started travelling together. Normally we have an immense amount of fun.

I was lucky, in my first week away I met three mad Irish girls. They were straight in from Ireland, and there to have fun. Without meeting them my next five years would have turned out very, very differently. They helped me to start exploring and put me into the situations I needed to be in to gain the confidence to travel by myself. None of them had travelled before either, so I think we were good for each other, fresh and keen. I met them in The Lions Den in Cape Town, where they were planning to stay a week before heading off to Australia. However, after one of our many drunken nights in the Rocking Shamrock (and a little help from Jackie at the hostel) I have convinced the three of them to change their tickets and take a three-week overland expedition up through Namibia into Botswana and finishing at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. After this they would all fly on as planned. Well that was the plan; Elaine and Sonya sadly did to go on to Oz but Tracy, and not for the last time, changed her ticket again.

The person responsible for the Malawi trip was Tassie. The four of us met on the overland truck. Tassie, whose real name is Leanne, is from (go on, guess...) Tasmania, Australia. She is so bright & bubbly, and right from when we first met her, we liked her. She didn't care that she was on her own; she had booked the trip from home and was there to enjoy it - no matter what. She was also going to make friends - like it or not! She was so positive and infectious as well as a little mad too (it always helps) that no one could help liking her. The four of us got on famously.. Near the end of the trip she asked me if I wanted to go to Malawi with her, and told me that Tracy was already thinking about it.

"What's in Malawi?" I asked her, being completely knowledge less about Malawi and most of Africa in general - I'd heard of the country at least, but that was about it! "Well, there is a huge lake and some beautiful scenery" I thought about it for a few minutes and said: "OK, why not! I don't have any other plans apart from the ones that have already gone up in smoke, like err, going back home!"

You would be forgiven for believing Lake Malawi was an ocean.

That was it, off we went, and here we are. That's how it often happens in fact. Usually the best plan to have is to have no plan at all. Just take it as it comes and see what happens. So, we take another gruelling bus trip to the mountain turnoff and get out into the intense tropical heat. Although it is scorchingly hot out here, it is actually less intense than inside, and, a little fresher too! We are relieved to be off the bus, but instantly worried about what the hell is going to happen next. We put our bags down and I try to look positive about getting to the top. Almost instantly, as if by magic, an open back 4 wheel drive utility jeep, or 'ute' arrives. The guy driving gets out and asks: "Do you people want a lift up to Livingstonia?" We look at each other amazed; quickly and eagerly, all at once, we accept.

The driver skilfully negotiates the hairpins and looking down the steep drops off the narrow track we are glad he is a capable driver and knows the road well. We reach the top, get out, thank him and look around at the scenery. What an incredible view! A light green patchwork of cultivated land, red/brown earth showing through in spots and the dark green of lush tropical trees randomly interspersed throughout. And then there is the lake, no picture will ever do this view justice!

The lake stretches out from as far left to as far right as it is possible to see. You would be forgiven for believing Lake Malawi was an ocean. Beautiful azure colour, unbelievably clear water and its tropical white, palm tree lined, sandy beaches stretching out along it's never ending shore. It was described by the famous explorer Dr. Livingstone ('I presume') as the Lake of Stars - when you see the stars reflected on it's glittering surface at night, you realise that this is a very apt description. The other side of the lake is too far away to see all but on the clearest days when the tops of mountains can be spotted far off in the distance.

The lake itself is 600km long and 80km wide; it forms inland shores in Malawi, Tanzania and Mozambique. It is located in, and was formed by, the immense African Rift Valley. It holds an incredible variety of fish, especially those of the colourful Cichlid family, of which the female keeps her eggs in her mouth until they hatch. It provides more aquarium fish than anywhere else in the world, over 600 endemic species in an amazing variety of shapes and colours are known, more still await discovery.

 

©Ian Picken 2004