Malawi

3 days in Malawi just wasn’t long enough and unfortunately most of that time was spent travelling, again. As with Zambia, Malawi becomes even greener and less populated with wild animals. Just after entry we passed through what used to be an old wildlife reserve but after the animals migrated it can no longer be called that. We did, however, see a couple of elephants in the distance that even the locals were impressed to see.

After entering Malawi it is easy to notice that the population density is much greater than places previously visited such as Namibia and Botswana. Houses and buildings are never far apart and are made from bricks with tin or straw roofs.

We arrived at Kande beach which is situated next to lake Malawi and has a stunning landscape. Here we went on a tour of the Mbamba village. As we stepped into the village we were greeted by two villagers.. each, who accompanied us throughout the tour. My new friends were Amanda and Sweet Banana who spoke fantastic english and were really good company. We then went on to learn how they harvest and prepare their main food source, Cassava, and how they get their water from the pumps.

Our next stops were the clinic and the school. The clinic was a 2km walk from the village and is only used for minor problems which include second pregnancies that had no previous issues. There were two rooms for this including the delivery and post natal room which weren’t in the cleanest condition. The nearest clinic for more major issues is 70km away and there is no ambulance, scary thought! The school room was quite small and had a range of books but I suspect not enough for the 120 pupil classes.

Throughout the tour our two companions talked about their shops and that there was no pressure in buying. However, at the end of the tour I felt the pressure. I guess you can’t blame them as this is their livelihood. All I can say is you can say No if you want to! If you are interested in something barter by going at least less than half price to start with, they will end up raising it.

At Kande beach there is a little island 780km away from the shore. It is possible to swim out, borrow a pandle board (for free, no paddles), hire a canoe or take out some boats. There’s also options for diving or scuba diving. We swam out to the island as a group, with someone watching from the beach just in case! Lake Malawi holds a 1/3 of the total species of cichlids and once you are at the island you can really see the bright colourful fish swimming around the rocks. There’s also a place to safely rock jump (if you can call rock jumping safe) into the lake at varying heights. The lake itself has something called bilharzia which gets into the skin. To counteract this you can take some tablets from a local pharmacy in Malawi (and probably other places) 6 weeks after your final swim, that will be Christmas day for me!

Cara Bertram