Malawi is easy

Trip Start Jun 20, 2007

Trip End Sep 04, 2007

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Flag of Malawi Nkhata Bay, Malawi
Sunday, July 29, 2007

after arriving in Nkhata bay after 2 days of serious travelling i got a double bed in my own private bamboo hut on the lapping lakeshore in big blue lodge.this was a really cool place with really nice staff. i found out i would be staying longer than expected when i found out that the PADI scuba course i wanted to take didnt start till monday. the weekend was spent relaxing and meeting new people and trying out the local club 672(soon became a highly favoured way for me to spend my time). the locals here are all so friendly, and it seems to be in a more geniune way than the rest of africa. after a nice recovery weekend i started the PADI course and moved from Big Blue to Mayoka lodge. this was quite a change of scenery from the near empty Big Blue to the tourist filled Mayoka.

the PADI course went on for four days and the early mornings clashed with the late nights but it was a great learning experience

big boat and the beach

. it was done in Aqua africa, apparently the cheapest place in the world to do your PADI course. lake Malawi was amazing, and suprisingly lived up to all expectations(which were quite high after seeing a planet earth documentary on it) it really did have countless brightly coloured fish that made bowl shapes for courting and kept them spotless and defended them with gusto, and we saw huge clouds rise over the lake every morning that were actually hatching flies, and at night fishermen went out into the bay with torches on their dugout canoes(which i tried and proved exceptionally hard) lining the bay with glimmering lights.

After Passing my PADI exam, which included going on some spectacular dives i planned on leaving that night but got nicely stuck for another 3 nights as i just could not bring myself to leave. and when i did i had a pretty rough journey to blantyre. it took 12 hours on non stop cramped minibuses without even food breaks. although the scenery at the start was very beautiful as we drove along the lakeshore with golden beaches and fishing villages on the left and rolling forest covered peaks to right, this soon wore of quick as the extreme sleep deprevation from Nkhata Bay was starting to catch up on me. by sunset i was in a royally sour mood just as enough space to breath opened up we pulled over and crammed in a huge group of children. they turned out to be a local gospel choir and they sang african songs amazingly well all the way to their destination. Maybe it was the combination of sleep and food deprevation, the lack of bloodflow to my legs and that i was arriving on my 11th hour of being sardined into a minibus but i found it to be an exceptionally moving experience as for me it epitimised what i had come to know of the Malawians huge spirit, pride and happiness