View from my room on Lake Malawi in Kande
We have spent the last 3 nights in a resort campground called Kande, and I decided to treat myself by upgrading to a room. I chose a non-ensuite room that was directly on the beach, with a balcony overlooking the azure water and just steps from the long white sandy beach. At $29 it was a steal of a price for beachfront accommodation.
Lake Malawi is the most bio diverse lakes in the world and contain hundreds of species of cyclid fish. At 28 degrees year round, it also makes for very pleasant swimming and diving conditions, no need for a wetsuit.
On our first evening in the camp, after we’d settled into our accommodation we enjoyed a meal of bangers and mash and someone suggested a dancing game involving a giant square divided into smaller squares that one had to dance in, not allowing your feet to step outside your respective box. Somehow, and inexplicably, this game kickstarted one of the best nights of drink fuelled fun our group has had yet. Within a short amount of time, we were blaring music from the truck, lip syncing songs from the truck’s “stage”, pole dancing on one of the campground support structures, and dancing/laughing all together.
It was a revelation.
My own balcony on the beach
Unfortunately, another truck of Germans clearly did not appreciate our effusive joy at this social breakthrough that we were having. Some difficult exchanges occurred when several drunker members of our group decided that they should invite that group over to join us, much to their amazement and incredulity. Once things had started to die down, I did approach them again and offered my sincere apologies for the noise and offering the explanation that this was honestly, the first time our group had connected this way, which they seemed to only half-believe.
I went diving for the first time in freshwater the next day and rather strangely, in the afternoon, after hearing that for the lake, the visibility tended to improve later in the day. The rest of the group decided to attend the killing of a pig that we were going to roast for our costume party themed hog roast that evening. I couldn’t understand why people would want to go watch a pig being slaughtered, but then again, I have to ask myself why then I eat meat if I’m so uncomfortable with the killing of an animal.
Diving in the freshwater was certainly a different experience and the buoyancy was rather different, weights not even being required. Unfortunately, the visibility on this particular day was very weak, only about 5 meters total. The murkiness of the water did add a certain enjoyable dimension to the dive, a certain eeriness, but of course, I would take crystal clear water over that any day of the week. Certainly the fish population was rather unique and plentiful and there were some interesting rock formations that we could dive through, under and around that made for an interesting dive time.
The cabins at Kande Resort
We swam over to the rocky atoll after our dive and climbed up to a rock about 7 meters above the water and took a jump into the water below. It certainly was one of the higher jumps I’ve taken in my life, enough of a drop to really feel the free fall in your gut. Good fun.
We enjoyed an incredible meal of the fresh pork together with potato salad and coleslaw. It was rather delicious, and after dinner we presented the costume that we had purchased to our secret member of the group (we bought costumes for each other in a secret santa style.) It was hilarious and of course, most of the guys received a woman’s outfit of skimpy mini skirt and revealing tops. Unfortunately, most of the women had guys buying their outfit for them and most of us received frumpy, sack-like creations which were totally unflattering. Mine didn’t even have buttons on the front blouse section, so I decided to rock my red bra in an attempt to make the outfit work.
Fancy Dress Hog Roast Party
Overall, the night was a lot of fun, and we danced until about 1am. A few of the younger members of our group hooked up with members of the Aussie truck and hopefully, no new people were created that night. Not that we’d ever find out – nothing more than first names having been exchanged in addition to bodily fluids.
Today being our last day here in Kande, I took the day to catch up on writing the blog thankfully borrowing a Surface from Benoit (it has been excellent, and makes me want to buy one when I get back to the States), swimming in the lake, reading and taking a very long nap. It has been lovely and re-humanizing.
Tomorrow we drive to Lilongwe.
