Julia's Travels: September 2010

From Cape Maclear, we continued south to the city of Zomba. Zomba wasn’t originally on our itinerary, but Chris and I have heard so many travelers rave about the hiking in Malawi, that we figured a few days of fresh air might be pretty nice.

During colonial times, Zomba was the capital of Malawi, so even though it isn’t a major city now, it has lots of beautiful old buildings. Zomba was also one of the greenest places we visited in Malawi. Since winter is the dry season, much of the countryside we’ve seen has been bone-dry and a little barren-looking (especially when you get away from the lake). Zomba was lush, green and cool…an excellent change of pace.

We were only in Zomba for a couple of days, but we had a great time hiking up and around the Zomba plateau. I, for one, haven’t been able to exercise regularly during this trip, and it was definitely a wake-up call for my body when we decided to hike 7 km uphill one afternoon. Fortunately, we got a ride back down the plateau and saved our knees from the downhill walk. :-P

Zomba doesn’t seem to be on the main backpacker circuit in Southern Africa, so we didn’t meet any other travelers there. We did, however, bump into a group of super-friendly resident expats during our hike up the plateau, and they invited us over for dinner. Most of them are in Malawi working for NGOs, and it was interesting to hear their perspective on life in Malawi. As a traveler, it’s relatively to cope with some of the challenges of living in the developing world (e.g. evening power outages that you can set your watch by), because you know that you only have to deal with the inconveniences for a short time and will eventually be returning to the world of orderliness and comfort. When you are living in rural Malawi for several years trying to manage an organization, these challenges become a much larger part your life. On the flip side, living in a place like Zomba for an extended period of time gives you the opportunity to integrate yourself into the community and learn about the local culture in a way that you just can’t do as a visitor. In any event, it was a wonderful and unexpected evening of dinner and conversation with some awesome people.

-Julia

From 08-13-10 Zomba Web

Zomba town

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Lots of old colonial buildings

From 08-13-10 Zomba Web

Zomba plateau

From 08-13-10 Zomba Web

Little kids carrying HUGE logs down the plateau

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Feeling a bit wimpy for needing a breather while the little kids ran past me carrying giant logs on their heads

From 08-13-10 Zomba Web

Wildflowers

From 08-13-10 Zomba Web

Lake atthe top of the plateau

From 08-13-10 Zomba Web

Mountain berries

From Zambia, we returned to Malawi and headed south to Cape Maclear (Southern Malawi). We had such a fantastic time in Nkhata Bay, so we wanted to check out Lake Malawi’s other lakeside backpacker hangout spot.

First off, I have to note how we got to Cape Maclear. Chris and I have tried really hard to seek out safe transportation in Africa, and where possible, we try to avoid minibuses and back-of-the-pick-up-truck style rides. Sometimes it’s just not an option, and we have to say our prayers, hop in the back of the pick-up and hope for the best. From Lilongwe, we were able to take a big 40-seater bus, but from Monkey Bay to Cape Maclear, it was pick-ups or walk 20km, so we took the pick-up. Everything was going well until I turned around and realized that the guy sitting directly behind me was holding a full gasoline can (without a proper cap, mind you) in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Chris gave me a look that told me he was just waiting for me to put two and two together before freaking out. I’ve learned to become really flexible about my personal space on African public transportation; you can put a bag of rice under my seat, a baby in my lap, but I draw the line at pyrotechnics. I would like to live to see my 30th birthday, thank you very much. Given the fact that there was almost zero extra space on the back of the truck, it was tricky to get away from death-wish man, but I managed to slowly inch myself away and put some luggage between me and the gas can so that if we went over a big bump, at least I wouldn’t be the first thing to go up in flames. 30 minutes later, we safely arrived in Cape Maclear swearing off African pick-up trucks for good.

Cape Maclear was great. It’s different than Nkhata Bay in that it’s a much smaller town and the coastline is sandy rather than rocky. Cape Maclear has been on the backpacker radar for 30+ years (supposedly one of the original hippie backpacker spots from the 1970s), so it has all of the traveler amenities, but has managed to maintain the laid-back vibe.

At Cape Maclear, we stayed at another great hostel/lodge, Malambe Camp. Most tourist facilities in Southern/Eastern Africa are owned by foreigners (largely former traveler expats), but Malambe Camp is owned by an enthusiastic local Malawian guy, “Cheezy”, who is looking to create a chilled-out backpacker hostel/budget lodge. The camp is definitely still a work in progress, but has a ton of potential, and it was great to see a local breaking into the backpacker scene.

One of my favorite things about Malambe Camp was the kitchen! I’ll be honest, the cuisine in mainland Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia has left much to be desired. In general, my outlook on food is that if you add enough hot sauce, you can made almost anything delicious, but there is only so much chicken and nsima (think bland polenta) that one person can eat, and at a certain point the hot sauce stops working its magic. When Chris and I found out that we had access to a kitchen at Malambe Camp, we went hog wild at the local (tiny) grocery store. We had a great time cooking some of our favorite dishes from home.

One of Cheezy’s ideas is to add a restaurant to the camp. Taking a break from cooking for one evening, we decided to sample menu. I ordered a BLT (because really, how can you go wrong with bacon?), and Chris decided to get adventurous and order the “happy-pants” sandwich. It turns out that the “happy-pants” sandwich is essentially a can of warmed up baked beans smashed between two slices of bread. This Malawian delicacy definitely lived up to its name. Knowing that Cheezy is trying to attract more backpackers with his new restaurant, we offered to help him spruce up the menu (the club sandwich was my personal addition). :-)

When we weren’t cooking or enjoying “happy-pants” sandwiches, Chris and I also found time to explore the lake. Unfortunately, bilharzia (nasty virus carried by lake snails) is a problem in the waters right off the coast from the village, but it’s safe to go swimming farther offshore. We made friends with a couple of other travelers staying at the lodge and decided to organize a boat trip with some of the local fishermen. Our idea was to start with some fishing (ideally catching our lunch), then head to a peaceful little cove to snorkel and make lunch. It turns out that my calling in life is NOT as a fisherwoman, so we ended up buying lunch straight from the nets of some local fishermen who DID know what they were doing. :-) Even though we didn’t catch our own lunch, it was still great to get out on the water and see more of the lake.

After a couple of days at Cape Maclear, we decided to move on. Our mildly terrifying experience getting to Cape Maclear in the back of a pick-up still fresh in our minds, we were stuck once again without any other options and had to go for the open-air transportation. As it turns out, the gas cans get refilled in Monkey Bay, so we were much safer on our ride out of town (Chris would like to note that even empty gas cans leak a little and his bag was wedged beneath a couple of cans, so now he smells a bit like a Texaco station).

-Julia