March 3-5
Hello everyone!
March 3rd is a national holiday here in Malawi:
Martyr’s Day. Past struggles for freedom now result in present freedom, in the
form of a long weekend. An opportunity to hit the beach.
Malawi is landlocked but much of its eastern frontier is its
beautiful eponymous lake. Well, normally beautiful. Heavier rains than normal
have washed more than just water into Lake Malawi.
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| Rubbish strewn across the beach |
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| Lots of plastic is washed ashore but most is still in the lake |
The place we were staying is one of the more frequently
visited travelling spots in the country: Cape Maclear. The village is situated
on the edge of Lake Malawi National Park, a protected area which measured just
short of 100km2.
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| Cape Maclear is a 3-and-a-half hour drive from Lilongwe |
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| A panorama of Lake Malawi from the beach at Cape Maclear |
My first impression wasn’t of a ‘protected’, well-conserved
place; rather, a slightly neglected village which could do with a clean and a
polish. It was actually quite sad to see so many of the villagers having to
bathe and wash plastic kitchenware and chitenge clothes in water which one
could politely describe as ‘murky’.
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| Clothes drying in the sun, using a fishing boat as a washing line |
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| An enormous fishing net, used to catch chambo |
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| A villager washing his clothes in the lake |
This was the other thing that struck me: how many people live here. Quite the opposite to your
European beach resorts, Cape Maclear has kept its local soul and hasn’t (yet)
sold out too much to the tourist dollar. Sure, opportunists are taking their
chances and showing off the entrepreneurialism. On the whole though, you are
left alone to enjoy the peaceful whoosh of the waves. The Bradt guidebook says
that Cape Mac is one of the most developed resorts on the lake, which probably
says more about Malawi’s tourism infrastructure than the relatively sleepy
nature of the town.
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| Kayaks were available from our campsite but other options are few and far between |
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| Less tourists means that you are more likely to be able to order local delights such as grilled kampango with nsima |
One thing that Cape Maclear possesses is an abundance of
fish. Lake Malawi has more described fish species (over 850) than Europe and
North America combined. Many of these
are cichlids (pronounced sick-lids) which are endemic to the lake.
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| Cichlids are small, just larger than a finger in length |
Beautiful things, too. Very vivid colours.
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| Turns out cichlids, like most fish, come close when bread is thrown in front of you... |
To see these fancy fish in clearer waters, we kayaked to
West Thumbi Island, about a kilometre from the shore. Rumours about crocodiles
being around thankfully proved to be false.
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| A vast array of colours |
After admiring the colourful cichlids for a while, we
decided to paddle around the island. The different hues of green and dense
forest was reminiscent of a scene from The Lost World.
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| The northern frontier of Thumbi |
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| The water had an emerald hue for much of our expedition |
Not realising how large the island was, we paddled about 10
kilometres in total before returning to shore as dark clouds loomed ominously
in the distance.
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| A rainbow shining over Lake Malawi |
Those dark clouds wreaked havoc on our first night, blowing
the top sheet off our tent at four in the morning and resulting in us needing
to drag our tent under a nearby straw roof with lightning forks firing in the
immediate vicinity.
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| Where we were camping before the storm... |
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| ...and where we ended up after. |
In spite of the polluted nature of this part of the lake, it
is worth a visit. The cichlids at Cape Maclear are a joy to behold. Apparently
it never normally has this much rubbish lying around; I’m sure I’ll be back at
some point to see for myself. Happy Martyr’s Day!
Love you all
Matt
