I have done it often enough – rented a car and gone
exploring, it’s not that difficult surely! Hmm, here in Malawi such a choice
poses a few more challenges than elsewhere. To start with, renting a car is
expensive - $65 a day for the smallest option. I decided to go with one of
the bigger firms to minimise the chance of getting a dodgy deal, and as they
didn’t have a small car available, they gave me a Toyota station wagon for the
same price. It was not new or in pristine condition and the ventilation system
was somewhat intermittent, turning itself off periodically, and I was not sure
if the orange ABS light should have been
on the whole time, but it generally went well and coped with the roads.
Ahh, the roads. The main roads are mostly in reasonable
condition although you do need to look out for large potholes or sudden loss of
seal which are not signed and can catch you unawares if you are travelling too
fast! But once you are off the main road, then the adventures really begin as
conditions deteriorate quickly. Most side roads are unsealed, which would be
alright if they have a good base, but if not, then they get very eroded during
the rainy season. Thankfully I had had some experience of being driven along
some fairly poor roads by workmates, so sort of knew what to expect. But even
so, the 6 km track to my accommodation at Fish Eagle Bay and the 10 km in to
the Bua Lodge really tested me and the car. I would have been fine in a Hilux,
but in a low slung saloon I was fearful and stressed. I was forced to negotiate
serious ruts and potholes, large rocks, steep hills and soft sand, and crawled
along at 10 or 20 km per hour. It was not at all enjoyable and I arrived at my
destination each time feeling exhausted! I suspect that this is one of the
factors that will limit my explorations around the countryside as I find that
sort of driving too stressful.
On the main roads, the open road speed limit is 80 km per
hour. Although this seems slow I can understand it as there are so many hazards
all along the highways. The main hazard is people, walking or cycling. Here
pedestrians must outnumber cars by a factor of at least 30 to 1. People of all
ages walking along, by themselves or in groups, with or without loads. Some
carry just a small bundle, while others carry much larger items on their head,
like a bundle of firewood, a pumpkin or a sack of pumpkins, a bucket of water
or large basin of freshly ground maize meal. And many women also have a baby
strapped to their back in a colourful cloth. As for the bicycles, well that’s a
whole story for another day.
And it is not just the human foot traffic of which one has
to be wary, there are also the goats, the chickens, the dogs and the occasional
cows! And then there is the other motorised traffic to contend with.
Technically, due to the British legacy, one drives on the left in this country
which makes my life easier. However “left” is a loosely interpreted concept
here, especially when the road surface or foot traffic make the other side look
more appealing. A number of times I had to slow right down to avoid being
side-swiped by an oncoming vehicle, generally travelling at some speed! The
most ridiculous example of this craziness happened in the work vehicle a few
days ago when the pot holes in the road meant we passed the oncoming car on the
right as they detoured to the left of us!!! Maybe it is just as well there
aren’t too many cars in this country!
Despite the open road speed limit being 80 km, the speed
limit through villages and towns drops to 50 km per hour, which again seems
sensible given the bustle of foot traffic. And I wouldn’t mind so much if it
weren’t for the fact that because Malawi is a densely populated country and 85%
of the 14+ million people live in villages in rural areas, there is a village
every 5 km or so!!!! So a 170 km journey takes three hours instead of two! I
have also been told that speeding fines are a flat fee of 5,000Kwa (about $30)
regardless of how far over the limit you are, which would be ok if the signs
telling you the speed limit were in place. However, apparently they get stolen
a lot, so you are never quite sure if you are in a 50 or 80 km speed zone, and
ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law. It seems many of the folks at
work get speed fines at some stage or another, so no doubt I will too!
So much for the journey, what about the destination? I had toyed
with all sorts of plans and ideas, but in the end I decided to keep it simple
for several reasons. One was I was a little unsure about driving here for the
first time and secondly I couldn’t guarantee I would get petrol en route so
couldn’t go further than a tank would take me. And thirdly, the maps here are
abysmal and that is not an exaggeration! Given that I am geographically
challenged even when I have access to detailed and reliable maps, I didn’t need
the stress of pushing the limits on this trip. As it was, just getting out of
Lilongwe was a challenge and I am so grateful that Carmen told me to turn right
at the corner where the minibuses congregate – if she hadn’t given me that
visual cue I would have missed the turn as it wasn’t signed! Signposts here are
somewhat randomly distributed and it seems that you are expected to know where
you are going (oh boy, am I going to get seriously lost at some stage!!!). As
for street names, why would we need those quaint Western conventions? Within
Lilongwe only a handful of streets have names and people give directions by
land-marks such as roundabouts or obvious buildings or signs. Oh joy!
My route was fairly straightforward – drive east towards
Lake Malawi until you get to Salima, then turn left and drive north until just
before Nkhotakota. Then take the dirt track to Fish Eagle Bay Lodge, which
actually was well signed, thankfully. I am glad I asked the helpful police man
at the police checkpoint at Salima for the turnoff to Nkhotakota as otherwise I
would have missed it, because (you guessed it) there was no sign! Arrgh, I am
learning!
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| My cabin at Fish Eagle Bay lodge |
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| Rondavels on the beach at the lodge |
I was very relieved to arrive safe and sound at Fish Eagle
Bay Lodge about 3 pm, after a less than relaxing drive. But the lodge lived up
to its photos on the web and was lovely. It was situated right on the lake
shore, with its own beach, and they hired out kayaks and little sailing boats.
My cabin was white-washed with a thatched roof, with a double bed in the main
room and its own bathroom and loo. There was no glass in the windows and the
sound of the waves breaking on the shore was lovely. And yes, those are eucalypts overhanging the cabin! There were a couple of
open-sided thatched rondavels at the top of the beach with comfortable chairs
and tables, and a dining room and small lounge further back. It was all very
lovely, but in typical African fashion had it owns quirks, the main one being
the shower. It operated on Malawi time and so I needed to turn the taps on
about 10 minutes before I wanted to actually have a shower to give the water
time to arrive. The cold water turned up first and then eventually some
(solar-heated) hot water wandered along. It was not ideal, but then I didn’t
come here to spend time in the shower!
On my first afternoon I wandered along the beach, past the
little fishing villages where the locals were mending their nets and going
about their daily business. Some women and older children were in the lake,
fishing for small fish with bamboo rods and nylon lines. I am not sure how
successful they were as they didn’t seem to be catching much. There were a
number of painted row boats that could take 3 or 4 fishermen out as well as a
few traditional dugout canoes. The dugouts were made of logs with only a small
opening in the top so you could put your catch and equipment into the body of
the canoe, but there was not enough room a person to sit. Instead there was a
simple wooden plank nailed to the end of the canoe as a seat. It must take a
bit of skill to manoeuvre a vessel like that on the lake, particularly in windy
conditions.
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| Fishing boats heading out on Lake Malawi, with the hills of Mozambique in the far distance |
It was very relaxing and refreshing to walk along the beach,
I paddled in the amazingly warm water and soaked in the atmosphere of everyday
life here along the lake shore. The hills of Mozambique were visible on the
eastern shore of the lake, some 50 or 60 km away. Lake Malawi is a huge body of
water, about 600 km in length, and hugely important in the life and economy of
the country. It supports a large percentage of the population either directly
in income or indirectly as fish provide a key source of protein for many
people. And it is the key tourist attraction for the country, attracting both
back-packers and tour groups travelling through southern Africa. So it was
lovely to finally get to spend some time here and in such a restful
environment. It was very relaxing to sit at the top of the beach and watch the
locals wander along by the lake, heading from one village to the next. Each
evening I also spent time happily reacquainting myself with the splendour of
the night sky without the curse of light pollution – I haven’t seen this many
stars since I spent time in Namaqualand in South Africa a couple of years ago.
The little square of night sky I have access to in Melbourne just doesn’t
measure up!
The other bonus of the descent of darkness each evening was
the emergence of the bats which flitted in and out of the open rondavels and
around all the outdoor lights, hunting down the local insect populations. They
swooped and flew with such energy and precision, never quite close enough to
touch me or staying still long enough to ever really get a good look at them,
but they were very entertaining none-the-less. They were smaller than the big
fruit bats we get in Australia but bigger than the micro-bats in the reserve at
my place in Melbourne, so being ignorant of their official title, I shall
christen them “meso-bats”.
The other entertaining fauna I encountered was on my second
day when I once again braved the rough roads and headed north to Bua Lodge in
the Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve. The road in was extremely challenging and I
wondered if it was worth either the stress of the drive or the petrol, but I persevered.
The folks at my accommodation had made arrangements with the Bua lodge
operators for me to do a guided walk in the reserve. I had been warned that
although there are plenty of interesting animals in the reserve, including
elephants, they can be very elusive as it is a big park (about 2,000 km2)
and is largely inaccessible due to the terrain. I had to wait quite a while for
the guide to come back from another walk, and while I waited a family of little
vervet monkeys kept me entertained. There were about six of them, with the
smallest of them being about the size of a large cat and the larger monkeys
maybe about the size of a small dog. They scampered along branches and up and
down trees and along the ground, chasing each other, occasionally fighting or
feeding or grooming, and chasing the tree squirrels – it was great watching
them! There were also some beautiful butterflies, including one with blue wings
tipped in orange. I have seen lots of beautiful butterflies here, many more
varieties than I am used to seeing.
Finally my guide turned up and he and I set off for a
relatively short walk to a nearby waterfall. He stopped at various trees to
tell me their names and interesting facts, which was great. There was jatropha
which I had heard of but not seen before, which is grown as a biofuel crop with
oil extracted from the seeds to make biodiesel, and the fig tree with the
slippery bark which the baboons can’t climb, and the sacred tree under which
folks would have gathered to pray for rain. We also saw sausage trees (Kigelia africana), which I have seen
before but I hadn’t had the chance to really look at the fruit. And the fruit
are amazing. They hang on long wooden stalks and are cylindrical, about 40 or 50
cm long with a diameter of maybe 15 cm. They weigh 5 kilograms or more – they are
solid!! You certainly wouldn’t want one to fall on you as you wander under the
tree. Apparently the squirrels eat them while they are still on the tree, while
baboons and other animals eat them once they fall. But it has to be one of the
heaviest fruit produced by any tree and it seems like an awful lot of resources
are being channelled into fruit production by the tree. It was great to finally
get the chance to pick one up and examine it for myself.
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| My guide holding the fruit of a sausage tree |
We didn’t see any interesting terrestrial wildlife on the
walk, but a couple of different birds and then, just before the waterfall, the
guide stopped me and pointed out a rock on the other side of the river. I
needed to get out my binoculars to identify the rock as the head of a crocodile!
He was about 3m long and one of a few resident crocs along that part of the
river. But they always stay on the opposite bank where the water is slower. So
that was very exciting! We stopped for a rest under the shade at the waterfall
and the guide talked about the 16 years he has worked for the Parks and
Wildlife department, including the issues with poachers in the forest (they
poach fish and elephants and other animals). One poacher lost his arm to a
crocodile recently! I am not sure if it was the crocs or the elephants or the
poachers that meant that he was armed for our walk. I am not an expert on
military stuff, but I am fairly sure it was not a rifle or shotgun that he was
carrying, it seemed to my inexperienced eye to be some sort of semi-automatic
weapon with one of those black, rectangular magazine thingys that slots into
the gun about halfway down. Anyway, whatever sort of gun it was, I was relieved
he didn’t need to use it!
Although it was quite a short walk and we didn’t see too
many different animals, it was good to get into the forest and to see the
diversity of plant species and experience a little of what Malawi forests would
have been like before so many were cleared for agriculture. Once I braved the
road out and got back to my digs, it was also nice to go for a swim in the lake
– it was so warm.
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| Woodland at the edge of Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve |
The following day I spent in the local environs and refused
to drive anywhere! I walked along the lake shore to the Nkhotakota Pottery,
which was a couple of bays along, for a spot of cheesecake. The pottery is run
by the same crowd as the one in Dedza that I had visited at Easter with my work
colleague, so the products were very similar. I didn’t buy anything at the
pottery but was encouraged to part with some kwachas for some wooden souvenirs
– including another hippo for my expanding hippo collection. The tables in the
little café were decorated with ceramic tiles depicting different aspects of
life in Malawi in a simple and naïve style, which I thought were really cool –
hence all the photos.
That night for dinner I finally got to try the staple dish
of Malawi – ‘nsima and beans’. Nsima is made from ground maize meal and has a
consistency similar to mashed potato, but it’s not as tasty. I guess it’s a bit
like polenta. It is usually accompanied by beans or meat stew or relishes etc
to impart some taste and protein, and is often eaten with the hands. I chose to
use a fork! It was good, but I won’t be eating it everyday, like the locals do.
At one point as I wrote this, I heard the sound of singing
and looked up to see two young boys guiding a small herd of cattle along the
lake shore – cool!
On Monday I braved the drive back to Lilongwe, unsure if I
would readily find petrol to fill the car. I had enough in the tank to get me
home but not a lot to spare. And given the way queues for petrol sometimes stretch
for a km or more without ever seeming to move, I wasn’t sure that even if I found
somewhere with fuel and gave myself 3 or 4 hours to queue, that I would succeed
in getting my tank filled within that time. However the financial incentive was
strong – if I returned the car unfilled I would be charged at the black market
rate for petrol which is about $4.50 per litre, as opposed to the official
price of $2.20. So you may appreciate that I was somewhat apprehensive about
the usually straightforward process of filling the fuel tank. As it turned out,
there had been good deliveries of fuel over the weekend and I filled up at the
first petrol station I came to driving back into the city, without having to
queue at all!!! Wow, a miracle! However, I did see a couple of inner city
stations later in the day that still were without fuel, so normality of supply
has yet to be restored.
It was an interesting weekend and it was good to get out of
the city and explore some of this beautiful country, but next time, I am going
to let someone else do the driving!
