Before the kayaking trip, Tim cut his foot, it
wasn’t a bad cut but it had gotten infected from the lake and became very
swollen. Tim wasn’t able to walk very well with it but he decided to tough it
out since we would be sitting most of the day on the kayaking trip. We show up
in the morning where we would be leaving from and meet up with Kumbu and
Anderson, two brothers who would be our guides. They had been doing this
kayaking trip for about ten years so they took care of everything, food, tents,
sleeping bags, and water. We head out and start paddling. Our pattern on this
trip was about four hours of paddling in the morning and two after lunch. Great
exercise, at the end of the day we would always be tired and real hungry. Kumbu
and Anderson would prepare all three meals of the day and they were delicious.
Beans and toast for breakfast, sandwiches with tomatoes, onions, avocado, and
bananas for lunch, and something heavier for dinner. One night was fish,
another chicken. They really did a great job of preparing all the food and being
great hosts. I would definitely recommend this trip to anyone that goes up to
Nkhata Bay. They also do shorter day trips with a barbacue and longer two week
trips.
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| Anderson and I |
Along the way we got to do a lot of cliff jumping
(one was 17 meters/55 feet high!) and snorkeling. We would jump out of our
kayaks and start swimming around wherever we stopped and be able to see
beautiful fish. Each night we would camp out in a remote village. These where
beautiful villages as they were all nestled along the bottom of a mountain and
facing the lake. The coolest part was that all these villages had no roads
going to them. The only way to get to them was by boat. Of course wherever we
went children would get all excited and call out muzungu muzungu! It means white person, interestingly, it was the
same word that they had called me in Rwanda. In our part of Namibia its mukua.
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| 17 meters of fun! Didn't hurt too bad on the way down |
During the trip, Tim’s foot started to get more and
more swollen. It seemed like a second cut had gotten infected next to the first
one and it made it look like Tim had a nipple on his foot. On our last day the
foot was monstrous. Our guides said that this was a common kind of infection
and that what they had to do was to pop out all of the pus that had been collecting
in this cyst looking thing. Also at this point Lindsey and I had both gotten
other cuts infected but not nearly as bad as Tim’s. Lots of bacteria in the
lake, watch out for shistomiosis/bilharzia in the south part of the lake. So in
our last morning of kayaking we were going for our last haul. We were feeling
pretty tired and were moving slowly. Kumbu feels the vibe and stops us and
tells us that its time to take care of Tim’s foot. So we stop at a beach,
Anderson gets two reeds and starts trying to pop Tim’s cyst. Tim was in a lot
of pain at this point and he was yelling, cussing, and scaring the little kids
that came to wonder what we were doing. Eventually Anderson is able to pop the
cyst and pus explodes everywhere! It
even exploded onto Kumbu’s shirt and there was a large amount just sitting
there on Tim’s foot. It was really really gross. Anderson keeps squeezing and
more keeps coming out while Tim is groaning in relief. We took a picture,
laughed a lot and then we were off again. After that we felt re-energized and
we were able to make it to our final destination.
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| The Team |
Our final stop was a hostel nestled inside a bay and
under the cover of trees. This place was built by a former Malawian Peace Corps
volunteer. We did some more cliff diving here but fatigue caught up to us and
we stopped moving and just sat down and enjoyed the other guests’ company. We
were pretty tired so we turned into bed early. Next morning we were going to
take a ferry back to Nkhata Bay at 11. We had traveled about 90 km in the four
days of kayaking. We hung out, talked to the staff, read the newspaper, and as
usual, wasted time until the next transport was ready. We get into the ferry,
order some rice and beans from the kitchen and continue on our trip back to
Nkhata Bay. Kumbu and Anderson broke out a bottle of brandy so we enjoyed that
while we watched the beautiful lake go by.
We arrived in Nkhata Bay, said goodbye to Kumbu and
Anderson then headed back to Mayoka Village. We went to bed early as we knew we
were going to have a full day of travel. The next morning I ran to the ATM
first and got some cash for the trip. Something I forgot to mention, the
largest bill in Malawi is 1,000 kwacha. This is equivalent to a bit more than
two American dollars. I took about 80,000 kwacha from the ATM, so there I was
trying to fit 80 bills into my wallet. Fat Stacks. I felt like some kind of
drug dealer. I got back to the hostel, and we hopped onto a combi to Mzuzu.
From Mzuzu we hopped on an 8 hour bus to Lilongwe. At Mzuzu the usual mob
rushed us at the bus station. A few F bombs and shoves later we were able to
get on the bus. Warning for travelers, these guys will lie to your face, if you
ask if your bus is around they will tell you right away that it already left
just so you can get onto their bus. So be warned, it’s better to tell them you
know where you are going and walk around until you find your right bus.
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| Afternoon of our last day of kayaking |
We arrived in Lilongwe around eight and headed
straight to Mabuya Camp. Feeling tired and very hungry and thirsty we decided
to order pizza. While we were waiting a pretty girl comes up to me and asks me,
“Andre? Is that you?” I look at her and I can’t place her face. “It’s Sigal!
From Nido de Aguilas!” I was dumbfounded and realized that it was a classmate
all the way from Santiago, Chile. We had studied together while I was in
seventh and eighth grade. Somehow we had run into each other in Lilongwe,
Malawi of all places! Mom always told me that it was a small world, but this
was insane! Lilongwe! Probably the worst capital city I have seen in my life in
the heart of Africa and I was running into a middle school classmate from South
America. Super weird, it took me a good half hour before I could stop saying,
“I can’t believe this!” We caught up, talked about what we were doing in
Africa, talked about old friends and teachers, and shared travel horror stories
(always done with travelers here). At 9 I realized that I was starting to nod
off and couldn’t provide intelligible conversation anymore so I said good night
and crashed. Still can’t believe the coincidence!
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| Tim, Kumbo, and myself at the top of one of our jumps |
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