Take a peek at any other JF blog for Southern Africa, and I expect you will find a post similar to this one. And I highly encourage you to, because they probably have nicer pictures, and many other quality stories that I have forgotten to mention. While the travelling was pretty epic, it truly was a fantastic vacation, and Lake Malawi is one of the nicest places I have ever been to.
It was tough for me to gather my thoughts to write this post. I'm super jealous of Rob who lives 20Km away from the resort we stayed at. The sheer volume of water we were looking at was pretty amazing. How about the temperatures? Warm all night and morning instead of the frost I have here in Pemba? The Chibuku drinking competition? Not having nshima (or kapenta, bream, boiled sweet potatoes or okre) for an entire night? And of course the ideas and energy I got from talking with all these other smart Canadians. Yes, there were certainly lots of great memories from this trip, so I will share a couple and post some pics, and leave it at that.
I will start with the bus trip. Since I have not yet discussed buses in Southern Africa, please skip to section (*) if you are bored or scared of buses. Unfortunately this is the majority of the excitement for this post.
From Pemba, the first step for me was to mini-bus to Mazabuka. This was not essential, as I could have gone straight to Lusaka, but Mike Klassen and I planned to do this last piece together as buses are boring by yourself. I started from Pemba around 9:30, and reached Monze at about 10:00. However Monze is a hub, and we stayed there until about 12:00 for some reason, which I still don't understand because the bus was full and people were definitely ready to go. Reached Mazabuka around 13:00 and we started looking for the Mazhandu agent.
The Mazhandu bus company is quite innovative in that they leave on time, regardless of whether they are full or not. This seems to allow them to fill about 10 buses each day, instead of the 1 or 2 that other companies fill. Hmm, interesting business model, I am wondering what would happen if IDE farmer meetings started on time – maybe more farmers would come to our meetings. They also serve soft drinks if you are coming from Lusaka or Livingstone, which is an added bonus. But the agent was nowhere to be found so we hopped on another mini-bus which was Lusaka bound.
Mini-buses come in a couple flavours, but work pretty much the same. You fit about 30 people into a small van fitted with 24 seats, bargain with the conductor for the price, and go places. Most have a staff of 2 – a driver who drives and honks the horn, and a conductor who opens and closes the door, handles the money and yells at people out the window to inform them of where the mini-bus is headed. You are inevitably squashed, but unfortunately big buses rarely stop at places like Pemba so these are the only option until you get to a larger town like Monze.
However getting on the mini-bus was probably a mistake. We left about an hour later after touring town, picking up and dropping off about 10 people and a chicken, taking all the passengers from another mini-bus at a gas station then having them suddenly get up and leave again. Finally the driver seemed content with the number of passengers and we progressed again, reaching Lusaka at about 16:00. At this point Mike and I felt pretty bus savvy and decided to try our hand at mini-busing (instead of taxiing) to Mikishi Road where the backpackers is located. And we both only had a small bag of stuff, so we weren't afraid of a small walk.
Actually this stage was OK, some nice people guided us in the right direction, amidst the craziness of people trying to shove you into their bus, drag you to their taxi or sell you their stuff. We got off at the wrong place, but a 10 minute walk later (and collectively saving about a dollar over the taxi ride) and we made it!
The trip to Chipata was slightly more eventful. We went for the bus that leaves at 5:30 (and actually left at 6:30 which is pretty impressive). Its too bad the Mazhandu only runs in the Southern Province, but the NPS is usually quite respectable. I say usually because when our front tire blew out with a loud bang, and we almost crashed into a bus travelling the other direction, and then sat for a couple hours in the middle of nowhere because we had no jack or spare, my impression waned slightly. But Zambians are quite resourceful, we borrowed a jack from another bus, swapped the tire for a rear tire (which are dual tires so I guess you don't need both?) and headed on our way. And Zambians can also be entrepreneurial – many came from the nearest village with scones, Coke, Fanta, sugar cane and popcorn strapped to their bikes and got pretty decent business. After realizing how much these people were making, I became slightly suspicious, and considered walking back to look for a spike belt on the road.
We got to Chipata around 17:00 or so, and then crossed the border, and found a mini-bus to take us to Salema on Lake Malawi. After Lilownge (about halfway) we had the bus to ourselves so we made a quick detour to Shoprite for beers and marshmallows, and Nando's Chicken for food. The rest of the ride was pretty fun, and it felt nice to have some good spicy food with protein and nutrients.
(*)
After arriving safely and without incident at the resort, we had a couple days of workshops. The typical day was as follows. Get up between 5:30 and 7:00, depending on whether I want to watch the sunrise or just go for a morning swim. Morning sessions, usually a workshop on EWB or what we have been up to. Lunch, volleyball, great discussions or another swim. Afternoon sessions, usually in smaller groups and discussing specific work or life related challenges. Get some beers. Make dinner, or discussing very specific work related challenges with my coach Hans. Eat dinner. Beers. Campfire on the beach, swim, sit and talk. Snack. Bed around 22:00 or so.
The stay itself was pretty uneventful, but extremely scenic. We were surrounded by monkeys, birds, and huge trees. On the last night we went for a boat cruise to a nearby island, and got to see more of the lake (which is absolutely massive). We even did some swimming and jumping off the top of the boat, though I must confess that boat cruises make me feel pretty seasick, especially since the lake is so big that there are decent sized waves. I've posted some pics, just so everyone is properly jealous.
No comments:
Post a Comment