Rest and Recreation - Part I

For the last couple of days I have been at Namiashi Lodge - a small establishment on the shore of Lake Malawi, between Luwuchi and Chitemba. I spent two nights there, a chance to relax and reflect before leaving Malawi. Tomorrow I travel down to Lilongwe, flying to Johannesburg on Friday and Bulawayo on Saturday. In truth, there was a lot of re-creation, but very little rest.

On Monday I traveled to the Lodge on the 06.00 bus out of Mzuzu, and arrived after a trouble free journey at about 09.30. After settling in to my small single en suite room it was time to start exploring. It was hard to tell which was the more interesting - the wildlife or the people. Running around the grounds there was a troop of Ververt monkeys - charming to the tourists, but a bit of nuisance to the locals. I saw one exchange where a family were chasing the monkeys with sticks and stones to prevent them stealing eggs from the chickens. And certainly they produced a very effective early morning alarm each day as they raided the fig tree - and dropped half eaten figs onto the tin roof. But the shot of the day was a beautiful butterfly. The large butterflies here tend not to settle - they just drift on the wind; and that makes them almost impossible to picture. But this one stopped for a drink - and posed for a snap. The other joy was to find a lizard lurking by the steps to the verandah. It had a bright orange tail, and a very cheeky look.

The main industry of the Lake is fishing - although that may change, as they are about to explore for oil. This is causing problems, as Tanzania and Malawi argue over the position of the border along the Lake. It could also cause problems in the future - an oil spill in the Lake would destroy a major source of food and water for all around the Lake - Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique.

The fishing here seems almost out of the New Testament. It is conducted from dug-out canoes, and uses fine drift nets - either between pairs of canoes, or by taking the net in a large loop from the shore and back again. While I was at the Lodge there were not many fish being caught. This seemed odd, as two weeks before, on our trip to Livingstonia, the drying racks had been covered with fish. When I asked about this, I was told that the catch is usually poor at the full moon - the fishermen use lamps to attract the fish, and this does not work at full moon. But still they try to find the fish. The group I saw casting from the shore could only haul in about twenty fish when they tried - and I doubt that any of the others who were out on the Lake did much better. Certainly the pair of boats which landed a short way don the beach from the Lodge seemed to have come back empty.

As evening fell, I went for a swim. It was a strange sensation. I was all prepared to dive into the sea - and suddenly found far less buoyancy than I was expecting. I had forgotten that this was fresh water, not sea water! But it was wonderfully refreshing after a hot day. Finally, as I was having some of the local fish for my supper, the moon rose - just past full, and bright red in the mist over the Lake. It had been a good day.