January and February
2022
Hello everyone!
2022 in Malawi has been…well, wet. Very wet.
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| Fishermen battling the rain near Blue Zebra |
The regular rainy season downpours, which arrived later than
usual this time, have been complemented by cyclones drifting in from the east.
You may have read about two of them battering Mozambique. The first of them,
Cyclone Ana, also affected Malawi, particularly the south.
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| Rain can be intense |
The video above shows an incredible volume of water surging
through Majete National Park in an area where you normally drive around looking
for wildlife. Some friends had been there just weeks previously, when the
region had had no rain and was struggling under the oppressive heat and
humidity. The video below show Liwonde National Park. An area I’ve driven
through before was now having to be explored by helicopter. Quite a few animals
in both parks were unaccounted for.
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| BBC picture of damage from Cyclone Ana |
One of the consequences of these massive torrents has been
to damage important infrastructure in Malawi: specifically, the hydroelectric dams
which power much of the country. Power is a fragile utility at the best of
times in this country; we are now having to ‘load shed’, meaning a regular six-hour
period in the day without power.
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Article portraying the
power problem |
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The chart - often unreliable - shows when your
part of the city will and won't have power |
That has been the main impact on Lilongwe, which was too far
north to feel any direct cyclone effects. It has meant many rainy days.
Sometimes you can dodge the showers, other times you feel like you have trench
foot as you go about your daily life.
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| After rain comes rainbows! |
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| Golf in the rain: challenging |
This will be our final year in Malawi before moving on to
pastures new. In the time we have left, Hannah and I want to explore the few
places we haven’t seen whilst also returning to our favourite places. One place
which fell in the first category was Blue Zebra, a lodge situated on Nankoma
Island in Lake Malawi.
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You drive about two hours east to get to Senga Bay,
then take a boat to the island |
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| A view of the island from Senga Bay |
This is advertised as a place to go to relax and enjoy the
best the lake has to offer. Such a place doesn’t come cheap, which is why we
hadn’t been in the first five years of living in Lilongwe. After hearing many
good things about it, and getting a green season rate at resident prices, we
decided that now was the time to go.
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| The jetty area, complete with pool |
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Our luxury tent - the bathroom is within the
tent but behind the bed area |
The ‘green season’ part is important here. For those reading
this who are unaware, many places like this in southern Africa offer a lower
price during low season. The time when fewer people visit is generally when it
is more likely to rain. From January to April, many more exclusive companies
offer a cheaper rate. Not cheap, but cheaper.
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| A terrible picture of a delicious fish served in a banana leaf |
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| A speedboat trip is a rarity on Lake Malawi! |
There is a fairly obvious reason fewer people visit during
rainy season. Things are generally easier to do, and appreciated much more,
when you aren’t soaked to your skin. It’s a gamble: we’ve done trips before
when it’s been dry, we’ve done trips before when we’ve gotten a bit wet. This
weekend…well, see for yourself…
The rain was relentless on Saturday morning in particular.
In a way, spending the time having a lie-in and reading was what we needed
after a hectic few weeks.
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| A room with a lovely, if wet, view |
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Plenty of games, which were occasionally joined
by large flying beetles like this one |
We had a four-hour window of daylight without rain on the
Saturday afternoon, which we used to the max. Firstly we trampled around the
island as the rain began to relent, with droplets from verdant trees landing on
us as we snaked along the edges of the island.
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| Hanging vines were a common obstacle |
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This tree had blown over in a recent storm -
we had to duck very low to get under it |
Walking through the forest allowed us to see a large number of baobabs which have flourished on this small rock over the centuries. We also found many different colourful insects as we weaved through the foliage.
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| These looked particularly cool and slick after the rain |
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| Butterfly |
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| Unidentified insect |
Later, when the Sun tried its very best to come out to play,
we kayaked around Nankoma. Seeing the ‘blue zebra’ cichlid which lends its name
to the lodge wasn’t going to be possible in the muddy-coloured waters, but we
saw plenty of birds as we paddled around.
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| The water had calmed a lot by the afternoon |
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| This was where our tent was - nice view! |
I imagine the sunsets are pretty spectacular from Blue Zebra.
The two we had were pretty nice – and dry – with the sky changing colour as the
Sun dipped beyond the mainland to the west.
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| View from the jetty |
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| View from our room |
There weren’t other guests on the island to share these
experiences with. Many had booked and were coming from Blantyre in the south.
During the week, this happened…
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| No road, no trip! |
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| The other visitors...had...wings... |
We had to negotiate some tricky driving conditions,
particularly on the way back on the Sunday. Puddles like the one you see below
were commonplace until reaching the tarmac. Our car went a bit too deep in one
of them, causing the battery to fail. We managed to get the car restarted, then
sat nervously as plumes of white smoke came out of the front and back of the
vehicle. We did make it back, though I haven’t gone to the mechanic just yet.
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This was one of the shallower puddles; however,
we still had to go left around those sand piles |
Blue Zebra is a lovely spot, and we had a lovely time there
in spite of the weather. The food is lovely and the staff very nice, even
though it was a bit awkward that there seemed to be about twenty people for the
two of us. As the rains ease later in the year and roads get fixed, more people
will flock to this secluded and exclusive rock in Lake Malawi.
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| An amazing peppermint tart |
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| Enjoying a drizzly walk |
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| Blue Zebra: a lovely place |
Love you all,
Matt
