Hippos, Crocs, and Monkey Bay

We woke up to the sun rising at 5:30am. I guess even without our usual rooster alarm clock at our home in Lilongwe, we still wake up very early. Lake Malawi is beautiful and seeing the sun rise is an absolute spectacular sight.

First thing in the morning, we decided to climb up to the top of a small hill near our camp so that we could see the entire lake, village, and swampland from above. The view was absolutely gorgeous. I kept my eye out for crocs and hippos, but unfortunately we didn’t see any… We did hear them during the night tho (as well as many monkeys).

We walked into town right after our hike to observe early morning village life and purchase snacks for the rest of the day. We discovered a little bakery with delicious loaves of bread for only 25 cents. We also purchased our usual of popcorn, bananas, and tangerines to have as snacks on the beach.

For several weeks now Andrew has been in need of new church clothes. What is interesting about shopping in Africa is that you can actually get really good name brand clothing. Most of the stores sell clothing donate from the United States and Europe, and because most Africans don’t know one brand from another you an actually find quite a few brand-name items (i.e. Burberry, Teva Nike, Anthropologie). We purchased Andrew a white shirt, slacks, and a tie for less than $5…. Next on the list is a dress for me.

One thing that I have learned while in Africa is that the people are humble and giving, but unfortunately many people have also developed an attitude of free-handouts. If we walk down the streets with food in our hands everyone asks for it. When we walk by a group of young children, they all ask us to give them money. Even children from wealthier families have developed this dependency on asking for things. We have yet to see true starvation here in Malawi, but we have seen malnutrition among most people. People eat enough food, but they don’t eat the right kind of food. Corn cannot sustain life without other foods that provide additional nutrients.

Eventually we left the village an headed back to Mufasa’s Lodge. We rented snorkeling gear and set out into the water to observe the large variety of freshwater fish. Lake Malawi actually had the largest diversity of freshwater than any other lake in the world. The location of the swamp or marshland is very close to the lake, and although we were informed that the hippos and crocs do not ever enter Lake Malawi, the entire time I was swimming in the open water I was praying that I would not see a large crocodile come after Andrew or I! We were fortunate and did not suffer any croc or hippo bites the entire 3 hours we spent in the water.

At one point we swam out to a nearby island, from which we were told had great snorkeling a well as a beautiful view from its highest point. We spent a few minutes snorkeling among the rocks and then proceeded to trek our way to the highest point on the island. We did not realize just how hot the rocks in Africa can get when you are not wearing shoes. We see most Malawians walk everywhere without shoes and I guess we assumed that we were just as tough. Wrong. We ended up running up the rocks as fast as we could to prevent burns, and when the rocks became too hot we decided to complete the rest of the climb in our snorkeling flippers. I had never before hiked in flippers, and let me just say it is really hard! A hike that should have taken 15 minutes took over an hour… When we saw the view from the top we realized that all the pain was worth it. I wish I would have had my camera so that I could share those moments with you now, but I was a bit nervous to swim to an island in croc infested water with a camera held above my head.

The evening was just as enjoyable, we ate at our favorite little restaurant and purchased some beautiful souvenirs. Austin, a local Malawian, had a small craft shop just outside the little restaurant. At his shop he sold crafts made out of different grasses and woods. One of his most spectacular creations is a series of mod helicopters, airplanes, and cars that are made out of local grasses. When you push the cars across the ground, they are engineered to have the propellers move. We were so amazed at the innovative idea that we bought a model grass-airplane.

(Below: Andrew’s post)

I woke up this morning to the sound of mosquito buzzing… Thankfully I was safely cocooned in my mosquito net so I didn’t give them much thought. Kylie and I woke up early as usual to tackle new adventures in monkey bay.

We walked into town past the excited calls of azungu (white people) of the local village children and finished our errands. We got church clothes for me, and a ton of fruit for Kylie. Afterwards we decided to rent snorkel gear and get out into the water.

We got snorkel gear for a dollar (got to love pricing here) and made our way out into the cool blue water of lake Malawi. For the entire country, the lake is one of the biggest tourist attractions for people. At Mufasa for example there is a couple from Italy, holland, seven volunteers from the UK, a Portuguese couple, and a couple South African gentleman. All are here for the same reason, swim, fish and relax by lake Malawi.

As Kylie and I swam out to the nearby island (the owner recommended we swim to) we put our faces into our snorkel goggles to see the lake life. Unfortunately as we got out into deeper lake water, you really couldn’t see much of the fish (visibility was really only good near the shore). Because visibility was so poor my mind began to think ‘what if there is a hippo nearby? What if there’s a crocodile in the water?’ Your mind does crazy things when you’re swimming in an African lake. But nonetheless we made it to the other shore without incident. And I guess I should clarify, by other shore I mean the nearby island we could swim to. Lake Malawi is so big there would be no way for me to swim to the other side.

As we arrived at the island Kylie and I hiked up through jungle like terrain till we reached the top of the island, a high rocky plateau. The view was stunning, from the island you could see the clear blue of the lake below the clear blue of the sky. You could see the many inlets, bays, and other beaches that surrounded all edges of the lake. The bills were green, the landscape diverse – it was beautiful.

We only had one issue. It was noonday and the rocks we were hiking on were burning hot! We ‘hot lava-ed’ our way up the hillside to the top of the island jumping from the shade of one tiny shrub to the next one! And I should emphasize that these shrubs were tiny so they provided only a tiny bit of protection from the heat.

In the end, the pain was worth it. The view of lake Malawi from the top of the island was incredible. You could see in the distance the misty outline of the opposite side of the lake, along with a distant mountain range. You could see sandy beaches, blue lake water, and clear blue skies. I wish u had a camera to record the view, but a mental snapshot will have to suffice. If I could compare it to something it felt like I was on an island in Hawaii overlooking the view. The only difference is, I’m pretty sure Hawaii doesn’t have crocodile or hippos.

The climb down after the wonderful view was… Painful, but we made it off the burning rocks and into the cool lake water. We rested on the shore, and watched the fisherman as they caught fish nearby.

After we’d rested, we swam to the shore of Mufasa lodge and relaxed for a bit.

Since we didn’t want to miss out on the local experience we made our way into the nearby village to get dinner and explore a bit. As we walked the streets, ducked in and out of various thrift stores, and snacked on fruit and bread, I began to compare the lives of these people to what is considered the ‘norm’ by many back home. The wealth gap is sometimes quite astonishing, but more than anything it makes me appreciate the simple things in life. While some might assume that my comparison is one sided (the U.S. Has all and they have none) it is actually quite balanced. The people here have such a love for life, family, and nature that you hardly see back in the U.S. It was a good reminder that we should treasure the many important things in life (family, gospel, etc) and leave everything else to Heavenly Father’s care.

The evening was lovely too. We spent it relaxing on the beach, chatting with the Italian couple and the couple from holland about their travels and experiences in Africa. To top it all off, Kylie and I fell asleep to the sound of African drums and the crackling campfire outside our beach shore hut.

Our $16 beach private beach accomodation on Lake Malawi.