Malawi
Part 2Shabbos was - as planned - a quiet and relaxing interlude between two busy and tiring weeks. Fantastic seudas on the deck overlooking the beach and lake, actually waking up late for a change, and just generally recharging. I spent a few hours Shabbos afternoon on the porch alternating between a sefer, watching birds, and napping. Mostly napping.
Went for a nice swim Motzei Shabbos:
What a scam. I kissed this and all I got were warts instead of a handsome prince:
The moon was showing a
22° halo, which is a fairly uncommon atmospheric phenomenon. The bright spot at 4 o'clock is Jupiter:
Locals bathing in the lake on Sunday morning:
Had a bunch of visitors in the garden today. First was a rainbow skink:
One of the local vervet monkey troop:
Yellow-fronted Canary:
Red-billed Firefinch:
Tawny-flanked Prinia:
Wire-tailed Swallow:
A group of Village Weavers were flying back and forth building their nests. I could watch these guys for hours:
I'd like to see
you weave something half as intricate using just your mouth. Incredible!
The one on the right is freshening up an older nest with fresh greenery; a female will never join him in a dried out nest:
Around 9am our guide and driver had arrived, and we headed north to Lake Malawi National Park for a day on the lake.
Getting ready for Sukkos:
Here we are:
Cape Maclear is a little village on a peninsula jutting into the lake, and that's where most boats are based (Malawi is a former British Colony, hence many English place names). We had chartered the Mama Afrika, a lovely sailing catamaran, and the lake and weather were absolutely stunning:
Like I said in the previous segment, Lake Malawi is in the top 10 for largest, longest, and deepest lakes on earth. And indeed it is - it's over 350 miles long, has more than 11,000 square miles of surface area, and is 2,316 deep. But it's real claim to fame is what happens beneath the surface: the lake is home to more species of fish than any other lake on earth.
The locals were out fishing:
As were the Yellow-billed Kites:
This guy was out fishing on a dugout canoe - essentially a hollowed-out log:
The canoe was so narrow he literally didn't fit inside so he had to straddle it. Imagine spending your days like that in 2,000 feet of water!
Bailing out water:
We stopped for a chat - not that I understood a blessed word:
The skies were full of African Fish-Eagles patrolling the lake for fish. Every couple of minutes one would dive down at full speed:
Take careful aim:
And snag lunch:
Smoooooth:
Now
that's fresh sushi:
After sailing for a couple of hours and enjoying the sights, we pulled into a quiet cove for the main event.
I'm sure most of you have seen a fish tank full of African cichlids; they're the most beautiful and colorful freshwater fish around. And where do these fish come from? Lake Malawi, of course!
As mentioned above, Lake Malawi has more fish than any other lake - over 1,000 different species. More than 700 of these are cichlids - and it was time to go snorkeling with them!
Snorkeling gear on, jump off the boat.... and paradise:
This being a freshwater lake, there are no corals here of course; instead the bottom was covered in giant boulders. The cichlids love hanging out in their shade, so as we were snorkeling we would bump into fresh schools of fish behind every rock.
Snorkeling here was absolutely wonderful, and it was totally worth coming to Malawi just for this. I've snorkeled in the ocean countless times, and this was just a totally different experience (although a bit harder, being used to saltwater's higher buoyancy).
After snorkeling for an hour or two it was late afternoon, so we headed back to shore.
The town was mostly deserted, with countless empty tables and stands along the waterfront. Normally these would be full of vendors selling stuff to the few tourists who'd come, but Covid had decimated everything.
We did however find one souvenir stand open - selling, because why the heck not - British football club patches. Not sure how many Manchester United or West Ham fans pass through here, but what do I know. And of course, to make it even weirder, a carved wooden Magen David:
Yup, seems legit!
Pretty fascinating seeing Malawian girls play the same games my daughter does!
On the other hand I saw a couple of kids playing with a stick and hoop, but couldn't get a picture of it. I had thought that this is something which only existed in Dr. Seuss books:
Stopped by a soccer game:
Have a look at their "ball": it's a bunch of old plastic bags tied together with some string:
Once again, communal well. Mind-blowing how these women can handle this physical work... do you have any idea how much a bucket like that weighs?
I went to try out the pump, and honestly I was tuckered out after 60 seconds. That thing is HARD to pump! Especially while all ladies were laughing their heads off at "a man doing women's work", according to my guide's translation.
Back at the house, it's time to feel like a MAN again: let's grill some MEAAAAATTT for dinner:
After a delicious dinner it was off to be early - we had a 4am wake up call to get to the airport for our flight out. We had flown into Lilongwe, but there were better outbound flights from the town of Blantyre. Being that our house was nearly equidistant between the two, it was a no-brainer.
Fancy airport:
Maybe not exactly the best way to inspire confidence in your national airline, eh?
I couldn't believe it when Malawi Airlines allowed me to request a KSML for a 2-hour flight in Y, and I was extremely curious what it was gonna look like.
Feast your eyes and behold:
Lady next to me was wearing a blanket with literal, bona fide tzitzes. I was dying to ask her about it, but every time I as much looked at her she shot me a look of such pure loathing that I decided not to bother. Best I have is a sideways picture of it:
And with that weird episode, Malawi was behind us.
Next stop: Johannesburg!
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