Cape MaClear, Lake Malawi

Mothers’ Day was celebrated in October in Malawi.  I took advantage of a long weekend to go to Cape MaClear in Mangochi on Lake Malawi.  Fortuitously Gillian was heading that way and I was able to get a ride from her. I mixed up my dates when I reserved my stay in Mgoza Lodge and so I had to stay at Thumbi View Lodge which did not have an oasis like lawn as in Mgoza Lodge but served the purpose.  It was hot the day we traveled to Mangochi and I found the terrain very much like Nsanje, dry and arid and some areas had been so overgrazed that there was just sand with little by way of vegetation like in South Sudan.  The big difference was here unlike Nsanje even the limbs of the baobab were amputated so that they looked oddly and sadly deformed.          

            It was a four-hour drive and we arrived in time for a dip and then the sunset.  The village only has dirt and sandy roads and the lodges seem to blend unobtrusively into the rest of the scene, not at all overwhelmingly touristy.  There are several very old baobab trees with leathery and pitted swollen trunks which resemble elephantiasis.

Cape MaClear, Lake Malawi

Dipping in Lake Malawi

          In the early morning around five, I got up to swim in the lake.  Lake Malawi is known to have bilharzia. However since the water for our shower is piped from the lake even if one avoided swimming one would still be exposed to the water of the lake.  Even at this hour, I noticed many villagers, hundreds of them mainly women and children by the lakeside washing dishes, clothes, bathing, brushing their teeth, and fetching water.  Despite the fact that they do have tap water at various spots by the dirt road built by some NGOs Malawians use the water from the lake and some even drink it.  The Lake is a big bath tub.  Ducks and dogs milled around for left-overs and children caught small silvery fish and placed them in shallow sand pits where they struggled for their last breath.  Men sat on the edges of dug-out canoes people watching, perhaps they had just returned from their night fishing. Despite all that washing the lake is crystal clear. 

Morning Chores at Lake Malawi

          Later in the morning I joined Willaim and Verome from South Africa on a boat trip to Thumbi Island for some snorkeling.  There were many brightly colored cichlids: brilliant blue, purple and neon yellow and some of the blue ones had black zebra stripes.  We saw a baby chambo, a fish known here in the lake. There were several fish eagles perching on tree tops calling; Peter the boatman threw fish into the lake attracting them to swoop down to catch the fish. We visited Otter’s Point for some more snorkeling. 

Thumbi Island

Otter's Point

Cichlids

Fish Eagle Catching Fish

          I spent the rest of the days relaxing on chaise longue, reading, swimming when it got to be hot and walking on the beach.  I also swam in the evening as the moon was almost full. In the morning I ran towards the hills of the national park and saw the graves of two Scottish medical missionaries died in the late 19th century: Dr. William Black and Captain Benzie and then I ran back to the lodge by the beach.  Aiden showed me his rented place; a two story reed and thatched house with a bedroom and a sitting room overlooking the lake.  There are no walls to block the view. It is just a beautiful dream to wake up to see the turquoise blue lake with the gentle lake breezes constantly blowing. 

Sunset 

          On our way home Gillian took a short detour to Monkey Bay which is essentially a dusty little town on the beach culminating in a big shipyard where we were forbidden to go further. My visit to a small part of Lake Malawi has been a memorable one.  I am now ready to go back to Nsanje for my quiet life.