Malawi

Last weekend me and one of the other volunteers, Alex, went to Malawi for a little break. Unfortunately in O&G even if you're not rota'd on-call on the weekend if you're around you're still expected to spend Saturday and Sunday mornings in work doing the ward round, so leaving the country seemed a good way to get a few days off!

We went to Lake Malawi and spent one night in Cape Maclear and 2 nights on Mumbo Island.

Cape Maclear

Driving was relatively straight forward, by African standards, but we did have a few hiccups. When crossing the border we had to visit immigration in both Zambia and Malawi and then customs in both to import and export the car, as well as buying insurance. Unfortunately we accidentally missed one of the stations and didn't import the car to Malawi. Since we'd been waved through the border we didn't think much of it, but after a couple of hours driving we were stopped at a police check and this was picked up. Luckily we were stopped by the nicest policeman I have ever met and not only did he not fine us or ask for a bribe, but he came in the car with us on the long drive back to an immigration office in Lilongwe, found us the right person to speak to and explained what had happened so we didn't get fined there either. 

On the way back to the police stop we were driving behind a truck and the policeman (whose name I've forgotten) told us the driver was the most famous smuggler in all of Malawi. I asked him what he smuggled, expecting him to say drugs or guns or something impressive. Apparently he smuggles groceries! This is because they are cheaper in Zambia and this way he avoids paying tax. Alex asked why he was free if he was so well known. The policeman said that if you arrest him he will make you an offer (bribe) and if you don't accept it, then he will make an offer to your senior who will accept it, so there's no point in arresting him...

We got a bit lost on the second half of the drive. There seem to be about 3 road signs in all of Malawi, so it wasn't very easy! But eventually we arrived (in the dark) at Cape Maclear and found somewhere to stay.

The next day we went to Mumbo Island. Now Mumbo Island is 11km away into the lake - not the island (Thumbi) that you can see in the picture above. Alex had heard that you could kayak there and against my better judgement persuaded me to join him. I enjoyed about 3/4 of the trip! I only agreed to go if we went in a double kayak so he could do the work if I got tired! 

If you're ever anywhere near Malawi I would seriously recommend visiting Mumbo Island. It's SO beautiful. This is the view from our little cabin:

The island is privately owned and has about 6 of these little cabins on it and an all inclusive restaurant. Otherwise it is totally secluded.

There were a couple of South African ladies staying, and a South African lady who was hosting as well as about 5 Malawian staff who did the cooking and cleaning, but apart from that we had the island to ourselves.

It was so interesting talking to the 3 South African's about life. They were really lovely, but is it fair to say they were very colonial? There was a lot of "us and them" chat in terms of race, and it really surprised me when they referred to themselves as Europeans, despite being 4th generation immigrants. 

We went kayaking and snorkelling and explored the island and went on a sunset boat trip. It was so much fun! 

The drive home was difficult because there was torrential rain virtually the whole way. I think we must have been in a bit of a bubble out on the lake because it looked like it must have been raining all weekend for the rest of the country. There was almost apocalyptic flooding in some of the villages.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas from Zambia!