Lake Malawi, what a beauty!
27 maart 2017 - Nkhata Bay, Malawi
From a rural village to the second biggest city to a touristic Lake side village, going by ferry to another Lake side village.
Lake Malawi, what a beauty! Malawi is about 3 times as big as The Netherlands, the lake is 1/3rd of Malawi so according to my calculations the lake is about the size of The Netherlands. And it really is beautiful with big rocks it looks like the carribean.
Going to the lake with minibusses (same as matatu's or chapa's), the busses where officialy 12 people fit in, but in Africa 12 is a flexibel number and get up to 24 people easely! The first bus broke down, the breaks didn't work anymore. The driver drove another 30 minutes until in the middle of nowhere he knew a garage to fix this bus. The garage, a car graveyard filled with beautiful oldies missing most parts. Only one hour later we're back in the bus, one bus and six hours later to arrive in Cape Maclear. This village is beautiful, a lot of tourism, people seem quite poor though, somehow the locals don't seem to benefit from the tourism. In this village the're many, many children, not many seem to attend school. Fishing, farming and tourism seem to be the tree main income resources.
In the 3 days I spend here I went diving, hiked up a small mountain and strolled trough the village. All unpaved roads and small huts as house, and finally a Mc Donalds ;-p . My last night at Cale Maclear I wanted to experience nightlife eventhough it's a wednesday night, locals would go out any night. So I hassled some people at the hostel and we went to Uncle Charlo (the local bar) When we got there we found out that there was no music. Since there was a funural and to show respect for the people who are grieving the bars are silent. So after one Chibuka (a local beer from maize), a cider (to get rid of the aweful taste of Chibuka) and getting rid of some very presistend drunk men we went back to the hostel.
The next day to Monkey Bay, unfortunatly I needed to use the ATM and the neerest ATM was only 2 hours by minibus away. So all I did that day was using local transport and getting some money.
It surprised me that in the second biggest city of Malawi (Blantyre) there are many blackouts, some last for days, but at the small villages of Cape Maclear and Monckey Bay there was power all the time. It turned out that the president was in the same district as where I was. So that somehow makes power work 24/7. What a coincidence...
I met a lady working as a human rights layer and she told me about new laws of ending child marriage last wednesday, so children from 9 to 16 arn't forced into an arranged marriage anymore, a big win for her!! And an even bigger win for the children!
The next day I took the ferry, this ferry only goes once a week, to Nkhata Bay (my destination) it's only 31 hours. So a little bit different from 't Pondje in Amsterdam! The food was good and cheep, the people were very nice and the night on the deck with only my sleeping bag on the wooden deck was horrible. But I survived! I really shoudn't complain since the locals who are traveling economy are next to the (warm and loud) engine and need to sleep with one eye open so their goods they are transporting are safe.... Every stop is for some hours, getting people and goods from the ferry to small boats and on to land. It's such a mess people struggeling to get on and of the small boats at the same time, nobody is coordinating and its very interesting to watch and surprisingly nobody falls into the water. Some people of the main land try to sell goods, kids climb up the top deck and take pictures of the Mzungus (white people) I had a small photo shoot, I'll be at some fb profile pictures now. Some try to sell alcohol, 300 kwatcha for 200ml of vodka (42%) that's cheeper than a coke or water, no wonder that alcohol is such a problem in Malawi. People without jobs, very bored and struggeling trough life.
Some stops of the ferry I took a nice dive into the nice fresh water and I became the main atraction to look at for locals. A swimming Mzungu... apperantly that'a something special. Another stop I had some time to walk around the small beautiful island. According to the captain I had one hour so I made sure I was back after an hour and a half to wait for another tree hours before we finally took off.
Now I'm in Nkhata Bay, another beautiful place. Yesterday a nice walk trough town and an afternoon at the beach. Today thanks to my dear friend Erma I had an excuse to eat dessert for breakfast (best breakfast ever!) It's a very rainy morning so the planned snorkling trip ain't gonna happen. So after writing my next plan is to figure out when and how to go to Tanzania. Probably tomorrow night an overnight bus of about 30 something hours....
Tuo nana (see you later)
X, Sabine
Lake Malawi, what a beauty! Malawi is about 3 times as big as The Netherlands, the lake is 1/3rd of Malawi so according to my calculations the lake is about the size of The Netherlands. And it really is beautiful with big rocks it looks like the carribean.
Going to the lake with minibusses (same as matatu's or chapa's), the busses where officialy 12 people fit in, but in Africa 12 is a flexibel number and get up to 24 people easely! The first bus broke down, the breaks didn't work anymore. The driver drove another 30 minutes until in the middle of nowhere he knew a garage to fix this bus. The garage, a car graveyard filled with beautiful oldies missing most parts. Only one hour later we're back in the bus, one bus and six hours later to arrive in Cape Maclear. This village is beautiful, a lot of tourism, people seem quite poor though, somehow the locals don't seem to benefit from the tourism. In this village the're many, many children, not many seem to attend school. Fishing, farming and tourism seem to be the tree main income resources.
In the 3 days I spend here I went diving, hiked up a small mountain and strolled trough the village. All unpaved roads and small huts as house, and finally a Mc Donalds ;-p . My last night at Cale Maclear I wanted to experience nightlife eventhough it's a wednesday night, locals would go out any night. So I hassled some people at the hostel and we went to Uncle Charlo (the local bar) When we got there we found out that there was no music. Since there was a funural and to show respect for the people who are grieving the bars are silent. So after one Chibuka (a local beer from maize), a cider (to get rid of the aweful taste of Chibuka) and getting rid of some very presistend drunk men we went back to the hostel.
The next day to Monkey Bay, unfortunatly I needed to use the ATM and the neerest ATM was only 2 hours by minibus away. So all I did that day was using local transport and getting some money.
It surprised me that in the second biggest city of Malawi (Blantyre) there are many blackouts, some last for days, but at the small villages of Cape Maclear and Monckey Bay there was power all the time. It turned out that the president was in the same district as where I was. So that somehow makes power work 24/7. What a coincidence...
I met a lady working as a human rights layer and she told me about new laws of ending child marriage last wednesday, so children from 9 to 16 arn't forced into an arranged marriage anymore, a big win for her!! And an even bigger win for the children!
The next day I took the ferry, this ferry only goes once a week, to Nkhata Bay (my destination) it's only 31 hours. So a little bit different from 't Pondje in Amsterdam! The food was good and cheep, the people were very nice and the night on the deck with only my sleeping bag on the wooden deck was horrible. But I survived! I really shoudn't complain since the locals who are traveling economy are next to the (warm and loud) engine and need to sleep with one eye open so their goods they are transporting are safe.... Every stop is for some hours, getting people and goods from the ferry to small boats and on to land. It's such a mess people struggeling to get on and of the small boats at the same time, nobody is coordinating and its very interesting to watch and surprisingly nobody falls into the water. Some people of the main land try to sell goods, kids climb up the top deck and take pictures of the Mzungus (white people) I had a small photo shoot, I'll be at some fb profile pictures now. Some try to sell alcohol, 300 kwatcha for 200ml of vodka (42%) that's cheeper than a coke or water, no wonder that alcohol is such a problem in Malawi. People without jobs, very bored and struggeling trough life.
Some stops of the ferry I took a nice dive into the nice fresh water and I became the main atraction to look at for locals. A swimming Mzungu... apperantly that'a something special. Another stop I had some time to walk around the small beautiful island. According to the captain I had one hour so I made sure I was back after an hour and a half to wait for another tree hours before we finally took off.
Now I'm in Nkhata Bay, another beautiful place. Yesterday a nice walk trough town and an afternoon at the beach. Today thanks to my dear friend Erma I had an excuse to eat dessert for breakfast (best breakfast ever!) It's a very rainy morning so the planned snorkling trip ain't gonna happen. So after writing my next plan is to figure out when and how to go to Tanzania. Probably tomorrow night an overnight bus of about 30 something hours....
Tuo nana (see you later)
X, Sabine
Foto’s
2 Reacties
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Wieteke:28 maart 2017Hoe vervelend die opdrachten van Erma. Wat een prachtige foto's. Ik verheug me alweer op je volgende verhaal en foto's. Geniet van alles wat je meemaakt, XXX Wieteke, Ivo en Max
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Kelsey Kristensen:2 april 2017Sabine, everyone I read your blogs I'm amazing by the things you do and go through by yourself. I admire you so much - that you're willing to try new things no matter what and you (seem to) live with no fear.
