Honey, I ate the kids
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
1
244
272
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Nkhata Bay, Malawi
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Nothing against tropicals and sharks and corals and all that, but it was time for a change. And I can always do without gritty salt hair. Enter the cichlid capital of the planet. Yes, we did our first altitude and fresh water and lake dive in Lake Malawi. Woot.
So, as I said, diving is, like, totally awesome, and I was psyched for our latest dive adventure (a little withdrawl after our SE Asian adventures, too). Lake Malawi has more than 20,000 species of cichlids of all sizes and special means of survival. Add two species of bass and upside-down fish (which may also be cichlids - I wasn't totally clear, but the cool thing is that they live upside down), a crab or two, and dramatic rock floor, and Lake Malawi is the shizzle.
And it's pretty much the only place on the planet for you to see mouth brooders. These sweet fishies eat their babies to protect them. (WHAT?!?!) Yup, the mom fish lays her eggs and then gobbles them up, thinks that she missed one because the male has an egg-looking spot, eats the male's egg spot, and POOF, fertilization of the eaten eggs. Mom fish then waits for the eggs to hatch from her mouth, and when they do they stay near her for protection, because any time the babies are threatened she opens her mouth and they all swim in. If you are a diver you must be considerate of the fishies and not make a circle around the mom, though, because then she'll get scared and have no way to escape and swim off and leave the babies behind. They then get eaten by other fish. Apparently this is also cool to watch, but not terribly responsible.
We started our adventure at Aqua Africa (which is for sale, so if you ever wanted a happening dive center with everything included, this is the place for you...I'd buy it), our dive being $30 including equipment and coffee and tea. Also, the dive center regularly has delicious baked treats that Erin finds wholly irresistible, much to Travis's dismay. Our little boat took us out into the lake where we did the ever-so-famous James Bond entry (only actually done on little boats) and began our descent. Never did you ever see anything less like a tropical coral reef. Colorful fish, swim throughs, two mouth brooders, good stuff. At one point our Divemaster blew some bubbles under a rock because the upside-down fish like them, and I couldn't help giggling into my regulator, which felt rather odd. Best of all, the upside-down fish are a lovely purple. And they're upside-down.
To sum up: diving is excellent fun, Lake Malawi is awesome, and while it doesn't have the immense quantity of constant movement that tropical waters do, it's pretty all by itself. Totally worth the money we paid. I only wish we'd gone diving a few more times!
Erin
