After all this bustling travel and sightseeing we collapsed beside the lake in Nkhata Bay, Malawi. We swam, sun bathed – at least I did, and were taken to a nearby beach by boat.
view from the dining room
On our way to Nkhata Bay
On the way the boatman snared a fish from a nearby fisherman so the fish eagle would swoop down close to us to retrieve it. Being a natural showman held the fish in his mouth absorbing out delighted laughter. At the beach we watched as the villagers strung their nets across the modest bay. Then they hauled in the nets gathering them on the shore. While this was going on our showman
Our boatman
organized a jumping game then a puzzle game in
Game in the sand
the sand.
After Nkhata Bay we meandered our way north to the Tanzanian border taking in a visit to
Hauling in the nets
Livingstonia and a unique resort that grows all its own food by permaculture. A
The catch
visit to the garden was informative. At Mbeya in south central Tanzania we boarded the train for a 22 hour ride to Dar es Salaam. Only it ended up being a 60 hour trip. We were stopped while they fixed a derailment. The best thing was that it wasn’t our train that derailed. The worst was 36 hours with locked toilets and no water. TIA (this is Africa). At least we were stopped at a town – still no toilets though, well two cubicles one with a broken pipe so my legs were saturated – you know, squat toilets… Finally we started moving to great cheers only to stop again 35 minutes later and be told the rails were still not fixed. A delegation of us found the person of highest rank and he informed us that he couldn’t do anything. The orders had to come from Dar and his phone wasn’t working so he couldn’t call them and, and, and. If we had to wait many hours we at least wanted to go back to the town. Amazingly others phones were working and he did call Dar. We finally lurch forward an hour later and barreled into Dar faster than I wanted to go. We arrived at 3 am, tired, sweaty and needing a hotel. All I’m dreaming of is a shower. We climb two long flights of stairs, open the door to a clean tidy room and… yes you are already there – no water! Not until that evening.
Pitching cargo to waiting dockers
Hava banana
From Dar we flew to Mwanza with no difficulties. We had a lovely visit with Patrick, our friend and another volunteer while waiting to board the overnight boat that would take us home. That trip too was uneventful except for the cockroaches in the bed. As we docked at a town a little south of Bukoba we took these pictures of off-loading cargo and in Bukoba of the plantain waiting to be loaded.
Fourth blog today and I’m a little tired. Maybe I’ll be better at writing them as I go along.
All the best 