The Beautiful Lake

Lake Malawi is the third largest lake in Africa and at its deepest is around 560m deep. It stretches from the north of Malawi and runs most of the length of the eastern border of the country, with both Tanzania and Mozambique on it's eastern shores. (Lake Nyasa on the map below, its previous name.)

So we left Mulanje on Tuesday morning with Cape Mc Clear as our destination, which is in the south of the lake, opposite Monkey Bay. We went via Thyolo and spent more time than intended at Satemwa Estate, through Limbe to Zomba and on via Mangochi to Cape Mc Clear.
Zomba is the previous capital of Malawi and is also famous for the Zomba mountains and plateau. As a hiking destination Zomba is a bit less spectacular and more tame than Mulanje. In fact you can drive all the way to the top of the Zomba plateau.

We had lunch at the legendary Uncle Dan's Cafe and Uncle Dan himself kept us company. He told us that the top of the plateau is beautiful, with lots of hiking trails, some streams and dams and forest.

We only arrived at Cape Mc Clear after dark and the manager of Gecko Lounge ,where we stayed, was waiting for us. We went for supper at Hiccups, where we were the only customers. Being a Tuesday, we were two of very few visitors to Cape Mc Clear.

I'm not sure what it was, but Cape Mc Clear's first impression on me was quite mixed. We were greeted by the same kind of friendly and helpful people as everywhere else we had been. But at Hiccups I got quite annoyed with the waiter/chef who couldn't tell us if lemonade was available or not and couldn't offer any alternatives when it wasn't. When we wanted to pay, we had to pay the waiter/chef for the food and then go to the bar ourselves and settle the drinks bill.
Then, when we got back to our room at Gecko Lounge, which we were paying $80 per night for the room, there was no hot water. And I wanted a hot shower after the long day of traveling.
While $80 is a very reasonable price, for a room with a view of the beautiful lake, it was more expensive than anywhere else we had stayed in Malawi. Also, everywhere else included breakfast in the price, not Gecko Lounge.
I went to bed feeling I had been duped, by the proximity to the lake, into paying too much for substandard accommodation.

By 8h00 the next morning I'd changed my mind, and mostly forgotten about everything bad. I'd had a hot shower and came out for breakfast to find it was a perfect day, with the lake sparkling and calm. I sat on the deck waiting for my breakfast to arrive, watching the locals on the beach doing all the things they do in the lake: washing dishes, washing clothes, washing children and washing themselves.

At this point Anna was engrossed in her book (The Book Thief). So I amused myself watching a group of naked children playing with a large piece of cloth in the water. Each one held a corner of it, they immersed it and then brought it up, scooping up water and laughing as they watched the water empty slowly back into the lake. They did this over and over again, until somehow things disintegrated into a fight over the ownership of the cloth.
Another little girl was trying to wash her younger sibling, who kept running away and rolling in the sand. Eventually an adult had to come out and take a bit of a strong hand with the little rascal. He howled all through the process.

We left Gecko Lounge soon after breakfast and headed for Kayak Africa reception, just a few doors down. From here we would be taken to Mumbo Island for 3 nights. We had obviously read and heard a lot about Mumbo Island, which is one of the two islands which Kayak Africa operates, but we weren't aware we were about to find Paradise!