Lake Malawi - Lilongwe

After a bad, bad night with some dreadful dreams, I wake to everything hurting: my knee, my sacroiliac joint, my shoulders, neck. and hands when I move – in fact even just blowing my nose and coughing sends pain through my body. Hopefully, after I move around a bit, it will ease.

Breakfast

After a very refreshing fruit salad of bananas and papaya, I have some poached egg and bacon, whereas David indulges in a full English breakfast as usual.

Yet again we are moving on to pastures new, this time towards Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe.

We’re all packed and ready to go. While, as a photographer, I really struggle to travel light, we have spread our stuff over more bags than ever on this trip!

Cameras, lenses, stool, tripod, photographic accessories, medical bag, walking stick, water, Duty-Free bag....

Chembe Village

As we did on the way to the lodge a couple of days ago, we drive right through the heart of the small fishing community as we leave.

There are racks with fish drying all over the village, and many have small temporary ‘huts’ underneath them, where the fishermen who come from elsewhere live while they are here.

Preparing the nets

Charcoal and tomatoes - an unusual combination

Every day is laundry day in Chembe

Firing up the BBQ

Electronics store

Clothes market

I find it interesting that here in Malawi, what we would call ‘sweet potatoes’, they merely refer to as ‘potatoes’, whereas what is simply named ‘potatoes’ in the UK, here they use the term ‘Irish potatoes’. These are what we would call ‘sweet potatoes’.

Butcher shop

We leave the village behind and make our way through Lake Malawi National Park on our way to Lilongwe, the country’s capital, for our last night here in Malawi before we cross over into Zambia for the next part of our adventure.

A man herds his goats across barren land

Floor mats

Jim (our driver-guide) spots a man on a bicycle carrying some woven mats and stops him. The salesman unrolls his wares, and after careful consideration, Jim buys three of them for the princely sum of approximately US$3.

These girls are carrying straw that will be used for thatching. Usually, it is put on the roof at the time of the first rain, as when the grass is wet, it is held down easier from the wind.

Most of the roads we have driven on between parks here in Malawi have been in a bad state: often just a series of potholes held together with bits of tarmac. Here they have made a concerted effort to repair the road, leading to a patchwork pattern.

Donkey cart

Cattle in the road

Loofah

I have always been under the misguided impression that the loofahs we use in the bathroom came from the sea. How wrong could I be! It is in fact a creeper in the cucumber family, and when the fruit is small, it can be sliced, cooked, and eaten as a vegetable.

The plant with the typically loofah-shaped fruit

Loofah flower

Baobab Tree

As they get older, the centre of these iconic, and extremely versatile, trees starts to die out, often creating a large hollow where animals have been known to make their homes.

Here is a few other ways the baobab is useful:

We see another baobab tree later, whose bottom part of the trunk looks like an elephant’s foot, complete with nails.

Beautifully colour coordinated!

Tobacco plants. They need to be processed before they are turned into cigarettes, although some plants can be smoked straight away, which are favoured by the locals.

Lots of activity at the week

Drying rice on the side of the road

KuNgoni Centre of Culture and Art

Based under Mua Mission, the centre was founded by Father Claude Boucher Chisale who came to Malawi as a missionary in 1967. The centre started as a cooperative for wood carvers. Later, the Chamare Museum was opened to promote Malawi culture with ethnographic collections on the Chewa, Yao, and Ngoni peoples who make this area their home.

We are allocated a guide called Chikondi, who takes us through the three rooms of the museum and explains the origins, differences, and customs of the three tribes.

The chameleon is the symbol of eternal life

The matrilineal society of Chewa are Bantu people who came from Nigeria, Cameroon, and Congo, and now make up the majority. The Ngoni are descendants of the Zulu and are patrilineal, as are the Muslim Yao who hail from Mozambique.

Much of the museum (where photography is unfortunately not permitted in an effort to preserve the local culture) focuses on the secret society of initiated men known as Gule Wamkulu. Dancers wear costumes and masks made of wood and straw, representing a great variety of characters, such as wild animals, spirits of the dead, and slave traders. Each of these figures plays a particular, often evil, character expressing a form of misbehavior, teaching the audience moral and social values.

I am not going to go into great detail about the dances and rituals (it took Claude Baucher Chisale 40 years to compile his information), but you can read more about the various characters here.

Gule Wamkulu has been inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Wood Carving Workshop

Exit is through the shop, where work from numerous artists is displayed, with the Mission acting as intermediaries and selling the art on behalf of the workers. We buy a mask to add to our already large collection.

Beautifully crafted items for sale

Lunch

We take a picnic lunch in the grounds of the Mission, under the shade of a tree.

I’m impressed by the beautifully decorated – inside and out - toilet facilities available here.

Ebony tree, also in the grounds of the Mission

In the local village, we stop to buy an empty crate to assist me in getting into the high back seat of Jim’s car.

Road Checks

Every few miles, the road is blocked for a police check. The people manning those checkpoints have just one speed: dead slow. They wait until the car has reached the barrier, when they will slowly get up off their chair and saunter over towards the car, check us out, and open the road for us. Every. Single. Time.

Jim suggests that taking pictures is not a good idea, but I sneak a little covert photo anyway

Overloaded cars such as this one is one of the reasons for the police checks

Cattle along the road

Spooky

We see a couple of the aforementioned Gule Wamkulu walking across the field and as I open the window to take some photos, Jim warns: “be careful, these people are dangerous”. I fire off half a dozen shots and we are on our way. When I look at the pictures on the back of my camera, not a single one has come out. “I am not surprised,” says Jim, "they have hidden powers" (there are over 200 different characters, some more approachable than others).

Soon afterwards, we spot another, lone figure, who Jim is more than happy to stop and talk to and ask if I can take a photo. He obliges, and I slip him a small banknote as thanks.

Two more Gule Wamkulu later come along the road, this time Jim does not stop, so I do some drive-by-shooting (take photos from the moving car).

Africa House

Our Hotel for the night is on the outskirts of the city, so we don’t get to see much of Lilongwe, the capital.

The entrance to Africa House

An inner courtyard leads to the rooms, each one named for an African destination. Ours is Zanzibar.

The courtyard

Our room

David thinks it looks like a warehouse and isn’t overly impressed, whereas I see it as a quaint boutique hotel.

The bar

A huge wooden dining table with beautiful hand-carved chairs, each one different

There are lots of little nooks and crannies where you can sit and get away from the other guests. There doesn’t seem to be many people staying, however, although we do see a chap on his laptop.

Everywhere we look there is African-inspired art.

Around 15:40, there is a power cut, so we sit outside on the covered terrace with a cider while we check our emails.

The terrace overlooking the gardens

South African Airlines flight changes

We are dismayed to find an email from South African Airlines informing us that our flight next week has been cancelled.

The fact that they are suggesting we travel from Zambia to SA one day later means that we will only have one night in Johannesburg, not two as pre-booked and paid for. It also means an extra night in Zambia we have not planned for. I message Mark of Undiscovered Destinations to ask his advice.

This is one of the many reasons we keep returning to Undiscovered Destinations when booking our trips: all pressure is taken from us, which is what you need when you are travelling in places with very limited internet and no mobile phone cover. Thank you, Mark.

At 17:30 the power is finally restored, and we return to the room with a couple of Coca-Colas from the bar to go with our Duty-Free rum. It’s only when we get to the room that we notice we’ve been short-changed on one of the Coke bottles.

Some rather nice mood lighting in the room

Dinner

We arrive just as the only other diner is just finishing his meal (probably the same chap we saw earlier on his laptop)

David's chicken curry - slightly sweet with a bit of a kick

My spicy stir-fried chicken with peanut sauce - while it is tasty, I would not class it as spicy, and I can only just taste the peanuts

Lightly fried bananas with cinnamon and a shot of Amarula - the combination works very well together and is a nice finish to the meal

Thank you to Undiscovered Destinations for all the efforts put into arranging this Great Africa Trip 2024 for us.