Day 2-3: Lilongwe to Chipoka
Chipoka is about 90 km east of Lilongwe. Here, I get my first sight of Lake Malawi, which, like Lakes
Tanganyika and Victoria, has its origins in the Great Rift Valley. The lake is 580 km long and 85 km
wide at its widest point, making it the eighth-largest fresh-water lake in the world. 
Chipoka is a sleepy little town on the south-western shore of the lake. In colonial times, the British had big plans for Chipoka. They built a harbour, which today serves the Ilala, a ferry that plies its trade up and down the lake, transporting people and goods. 
Much to my astonishment, the harbour master, Nelson, speaks fluent Afrikaans. His father was a Malawian and his mother a South African, and he was raised near Polokwane. 
We stay at the Lake View Lodge – a basic establishment but with a beautiful view. 
Here, dinner is goat meat and Chibuku beer, also known as “shake-shake”, which is what you do to it before drinking. It’s brewed from sorghum and mielies and, to be honest, is an acquired taste.

Day 4: Chipoka
We decide to look around Chipoka with Jerry, one of Dawie’s workers. Jerry’s job is to mark out potential prospecting sites with a GPS and to determine whether they can be explored with a core driller. 
Walking around in the veld, it’s evident that Malawi has had a good rainy season. The cotton, beans, cassava, tomatoes and mielies are all ready to be harvested. You can almost sense that the earth is expressing its gratitude after years of drought. 
Malawi is largely rural and agricultural, and many of its citizens are subsistence farmers. All the people we meet greet us with a friendly hello – mulibwane.
 

Day 5-7: Laka Malawi
Early in the morning, I look out over the lake from the lodge – I can just make out mountains over in Mozambique.
Dawie lends me a fishing rod, and I persuade two fishermen to take me out with them on their small boat.
I only have bread for bait, and it’s not the right thing for these lake fish. We row across the lake in
search of a fisherman who might be able to supply us with some live bait, which will be more suited
to the task. 
After some time, we encounter other fishermen, hard at work pulling in their nets, the catch wriggling and squirming in the bottom of the boat. 
 With a few friendly gestures, we depart with our bait – not that that helps at all, because I still go home empty-handed.

Day 8-11: Mount Mulanje
After a week in Chipoka, I’m back in Lilongwe to meet Leigh-Ann at the airport. 
Our plan is to explore Malawi by public transport – the quickest and easiest way to meet people. We head for Mount Mulanje, going via Blantyre. The village Mulanje is about an hour’s drive in a matatu (minibus taxi), from where you have to catch a lift to the mountain in a bakkie.
Mount Mulanje is a large granite massif in south-east Malawi 3000 m above sea level. Once we get there, we arrange for a guide named Comestar (derived from “comes from a star”) to take us to the highest point on the mountain, Sapitwa Peak. We spend the next three days on the mountain. We are amazed by the diversity of the vegetation – from pine plantations to natural rainforest and fynbos.We even see proteas. 
From Sapitwa you have an amazing view of the rest of the mountain, the Phalombe Plain and far-off tea plantations.
 

Day 12-17: Monkey bay & Likoma Island
From Mount Mulanje we head to Monkey Bay via Blantyre. 
We arrange a snorkelling outing to Fish Eagle Island. The variety of colourful cichlid fish is amazing: There are thought to be as many as 3000 species. It’s better than visiting an aquarium.
At Monkey Bay we board the Ilala, a stately ferry that is the most important transport on the lake. On the Ilala there’s precious little to do but relax. 
We spend the next three days on board reading, chatting, staring into the middle distance and drinking beer. Wine is expensive in Malawi, but in the bar we discover a 1997 bottle of Rooiberg Shiraz, and R100 later we’re drinking South African red wine while the sun sinks into the lake. 
We stop at Likoma Island, which is all of 17km². One place of interest on the island is St Peter’s cathedral, built by islanders and Scottish missionaries early in the 20th century.
 

Day 18-22: Livingstonia
We disembark at Chilumba, the northernmost harbour on the Ilala’s route, from where we travel along the western shore of the lake by matatu, and slowly head back south towards Lilongwe. 
En route we discover a mushroom farm. It belongs to Mickey Wild, an Australian who decided after a holiday in Malawi to move there. Mickey and his staff strive to farm in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. 
The farm has a surprisingly large vegetarian menu for such an isolated destination, and every night we sit down to a feast. Besides good food and good karma, Mickey also offers abseiling outings at the nearby Machewee Falls. 
Nearby is Livingstonia, a small town that grew around a mission station. Livingstone’s death in 1873 moved the Scottish church to establish a mission station in Malawi. It was first built at Cape Maclear in 1875, but was moved north to Bandawe to escape malaria. There things didn’t work out either. The third and final move was to Livingstonia in 1894.
 

Day 23-24: Mzuzu
After a few days, we decide to move on. Our next stop is Mzuzu, a two-hour drive away. It’s apparently
Malawi’s third-biggest “city”. To our South African eyes, Mzuzu looks more like a town. After stocking up on essentials we move on to Nkhata Bay.
 

Day 25-27: Nkhata Bay
A friend once told me it’s very easy to get stuck in Nkhata Bay. We soon find out what he meant. Tourism is not the main focus in this town, although many tourist activities are on offer. It’s a great place to just relax. 
We decide to stay at Mayoka Village on the lake shore, a backpacker’s lodge built and run by Gary, an ex-Capetonian. 
At night the fishermen go out on wooden boats (bwatos) and lure usipa fish with lanterns. You see many of these boats at night, so far from the coast that they look like a string of pearls on the lake. 
The next day we set off with Isaac and Jairos in two double kayaks. We’ve decided on an overnight trip with a tour company called Monkey Business. They assure us that the stormy weather on the lake will soon die down.
For the first few hours the south-easterly wind pushes us forward comfortably, and the paddling is a lot easier than we expected. With each stroke of the paddle the lakeshore with its lush vegetation moves by faster. Everywhere we see small waterfalls tumbling into the lake and even an otter that flees quickly when we spot it. We snorkel again and are amazed at the majesty of the lake. 
Around the campfire at the village of Sanje, north of Nkhata Bay, Jairos says he’d love to go to South Africa to be a gardener. He describes, in tones of awe, how people there use a machine, rather than a machete, to cut grass.
 

Day 28-30: Nkhotakhota
We catch a matatu and a lorry to Nkhotakhota, about two to three hours south of Nkhata Bay. Two things amaze me about public transport in Malawi: how there’s always space for one more person, even when it seems as if every nook and cranny is full; and how stoically people put up with such uncomfortable conditions. 
After exploring Nkhotakhota on foot, we decide to overnight at the Pottery Lodge outside town. Here we drink a bottle of 2005 pinotage from Zimbabwe!
The next afternoon, back in Lilongwe, we go shopping for presents to take home. We spend the night in the Korean Garden Lodge and I think back over the past month’s experiences – the beautiful landscape, the amazing underwater world, the friendly people, but also the poverty. What were those words Johnny Clegg sang again? “It’s a cruel, crazy, beautiful world…
 

Do I need a visa? No, just your passport.

Which airline? South African Airways or Air Malawi.

Airfare? An Air Malawi return ticket between Johannesburg and Lilongwe will cost you about R5 500, including airport taxes. On SAA it will cost you about R4 700. The cheapest way from elsewhere in South Africa is to book a budget internal flight; just allow ample time to connect at OR Tambo International.

Public transport in Malawi? An hour-long minibus ride costs only about R20. For the same amount you can hitch a ride on a bakkie, and a bus ticket can be even cheaper.

Health? No vaccination is required, unless you have passed through a yellow fever area on your way to Malawi. It’s a good idea to take a malaria prophylactic.

(Note: Prices accurate in October 2008)