I love Malawi. It might be the bright green foliage against the bright red roads that remind me so much of Uganda. It might be the fact that the people speak English and always seem so happy to see you. It might be the fact that everything is that little bit cheaper here so that we don’t have to worry constantly. It might have been the goat braai that we were treated to on Easter Sunday or it might the huge soothing freshwater lake that seems the ultimate chill out destination. Basically Malawi is awesome.

After crossing the boarder from Mozambique our first main stop was in Cape Maclear, a peninsular at the southern foot of the lake. Within a moment of arriving at Fat Monkeys (our new home), Mark popped up from under a fence and introduced himself. Mark got us fish for our evening braai, Mark organised a boat trip for us, Mark sold the most beautiful carvings…the problem was that we liked Mark so we paid extortionate amounts for said carvings!

Mark was an HIV counsellor at the local clinic however could earn rather a lot more from guiding tourists around the bay. On his day off he and his brother packed us into a boat taxi and we lazed towards the island in the distance to snorkel with bright blue fish and tiger striped fish, and black fish with floating fins. When we emerged from the rocks there was BBQ’d fish and rice and tomato waiting for us to scoff with our fingers. The next stop was the middle of the lake where Mark made some rather bizarre noises and threw a small fish into the lake and suddenly swooping towards us was the largest fish eagle I have ever seen. It glided straight towards the fish, legs and claws outstretched and snatched the fish out of the water with barely a flutter before soaring up into the trees to munch its prey. It happened so quickly we barely had time to grab the camera!

The rest of our day was spent being tutored in the art of Malawi Bawo, a game that involves moving seeds from one hole to another in a certain sequence while capturing the other players seeds. Rob and I like to think that we are now pros and will willingly challenge any man we see playing the game on the street.

Now the trip to the island hadn’t seemed like that great a distance. Indeed with a motor behind us the trip had taken roughly 20 minutes. Goodness knows what was going through our heads when we agreed to row out to the island with the owners of Fat Monkeys two days later, nor indeed what was going through my head when I decided that it would in fact be a marvellous idea to swim all the way to the island. Still we had a cool box full of drinks and enthusiasm on our side and two hours later we proudly stood on the island and gazed back across the bay to where we had begun. It was only then that the wind picked up and the waves began to grow. None of us had had the foresight to bring a watch but we didn’t worry, everyone knows that the lake goes still between four and five o’clock. I had seen evidence of this the day before when I went water skiing at four and struggled until the waves vanished magically and then zoomed around at what I was convinced was great speed!   

Rob set about building a fire (for smoke rings just in case) and we all laughed at our predicament. Then the sun began to set and the waves seemed to get higher still, the music from the main land pumped up a notch and Tanya was convinced that she had seen a crocodile…or two otters…or the lock ness monster feet away from our boat. It was time to brave the waves and try to get back. And try we did. Using all my paddling skills learnt from white water rafting we paddled like maniacs and managed to get a few feet. We couldn’t stop and rest as then we would be pulled back towards the island but we were definitely moving forwards. Rob tried to push us from behind with his super human leg kicking and it was only as we heaved him back into the dingy that we realised we obviously had a leak. With three paddling, one bailing with a beer bottle and the sun setting we seemed an awfully long way away from Fat Monkeys.

We spotted a Catamaran and tried to call out but the people just waved. On we went and then a boat began moving towards us, it was most certainly coming straight at us. The boat pulled up and started attaching us to them with a rope. Apparently the bar man had decided we had been out long enough and sent rescue. The dingy was turned into a speed boat as we were dragged through the lake and we arrived back jubilant and slightly embarrassed.

Georgie