BootsnAll Travel Blogs

Rags, David and I left the Ilala at Nkhotakhota and had a reet laff getting ashore and to the hostel: we left the ferry by lifeboat (along with about another 200 others!) but that boat only gets so far and then you either wade the rest of the way to shore (not appealing at 10:30 at night) or you pay some guys with another boat who push that right into shore, once you clambered across form the lifeboat (MUCH more appealing) As we landed, some local women started to sing songs together, under the watchful eye of the poilce (well actually the watchful eye of the civvy driver of the police car, as the cops seemed to be otherwise engaged doing nothing in particular) we also got a ‘guide’ at this point to protect us “from the gunmen”….shades of Chamois here as the ‘guide’ was about 20yrs old and smaller than me. We also asked him later (the walk to the hostel took nearly an hour) about the gunmen “eh?” he answered ” theres no gunmen around here” ….typical

The hostel is just a rest house used by local truck drivers etc. me and David shared one twin room with Rags in another. pretty basic place, but at least it had an electric shower!…….sadly it didnt have any water though as I found out when I tried to shower in the morning. the guy that was kind of running the place brought a bowl of water to ‘shower’ with ….hey ho!

The 3 of us jumped in a minibus for the trip to Salima (in Davids case) and Lilongwe in mine and Rags.

not alot to report from Lilongwe other than we met an american guy who whetted our appetite for a trip into Zimbabwe and who generously gave us some extracts from a Lonely Planet to go with Rags ‘bible’ of info

from Lilongwe we minibused to the border and then thru to Chapata in Zambia, where we stayed at a hostel and met a dutch couple travelling thru to Vic Falls. Rags and me went for a walk to the bus station  to get tickets for the next day: what a nice bunch of people in Zambia!..lots of peoplecame over to say hello, WITHOUT trying to sell us anything and the guys in the bus station were very friendly and helpful, even giving me their phone number so I could check the bus was gonna be OK in the morning!

MEGA heavy rain that afternoon (Zambia are gettting their whole rainy season in 2-3 weeks it seems) and a canny night sitting with the dutchies and then bed ready for another early morning for a long bus ride to Livingstone (Vic falls)

 

well, we landed at Likoma in the dark at about 8pm, after the locals got off (you HAVE to see how many people you can get in a single lifeboat!) we were collected by 2 boats from Mango Drift lodge…I jumped in the one boat (captained by Lauren) but then jumped ship to the other boat captained by Anthony, where I was met by his plaintive “anyone got a flashlight” call for help, quickly followed by ” this is the first time Ive done this” …all in a California drawl. so off we went, the 20 of us in 2 boats (remember the numbers)

not long later we were still careering aorund the lake looking for the rocks we had to miss(!) fortunately (!!) there was a storm now so the lightning occasionally flashed up the scenery so we could see where we were going!….UNfortunately, it also whipped up the waves, to the extent that Lauren had to stop her boat to bale it out…..difficult when its already up the gunnels in water!!…it sank

everyone scrambled from their boat into ours, which of course made our boat overladen with the 15 people and their luggage, so we had to beach on a convenient sand bar we found! the 12 of us got out OK and waited for help….and drank vodka neat from a bottle that miraculously appeared!..anyhoo, help arrived in the for of a landie, however it would only carry 8 people, so some had to go out in the boat again (NOT I !!!!) eventually we agreed that 10 people could fit but it would be a squeeze. on arrival at the Landie up on the road the 8 of us got in OK.  As it happens the few that got back in the boat had to turn around and beach again as the waves were too strong/big to beach at Mango

WHAT A NIGHT!

next day, I went for a wander around the island -met a some great kids in the village : they HAVE to walk with you and hold your hand…if theres too many then they each grab a finger and walk with you! so friendly its amazing. adults too: I sat under a Mango tree eating the fruit that a young kid threw down to me and the guy catching the fruit…now THATS chillin!

New Years EVE! walked to the town and chilled around there before returning to Mango Drift -and the Lounge – for the party. we started drinking early and finished late (the electricity is normally knocked off at 10pm, but tonight was 1am WOOHOO!!) it all started nice enough with a few beers and then pizza, but once we started to play Buffalo Rules and ” I have never” then it all went a bit crazy: dancing on tables, ALL the guys had to go topless (the girls wouldnt for some reason) and sparkling wine flowed. to be honest I dont remember a whole lot about it other than we had a HOOT! Must have managed to get to bed (on the floor in the dorm) but then me and Rags had to get up again at 2am (I think) to pay our bar bill as were leaving early in the morning.

And so we left Likoma on a boat again at 5am on New Years day 2008….this time we had a proper local guy driving the boat (note: the boat that sank STILL hasnt been recovered as it was in such deep water that even with scuba gear, Lauren and co couldnt find it!) another trip on the Ilala ferry, this time with David (the Isreali guy) Tamara and her italian friend (Tamara is a yank living in Malawi) a couple of South Afrikaans (the girl of whch is a newly published author(ess?)) and Rags – a norwegian girl currently studying in Stellenbosch (SA) who I’m travelling with for a couple of weeks

so up early and after consuming a couple of Immodiums (mmm unripe peaches) I got a minibus to a little town then another to Monkey Bay onthe shore of Lake Malawi...long trip and though I left at ... [Continue reading this entry]