Kande Beach — Livingstonia on the western shore of Lake Malawi
Day 17, Nov.10, Thursday. ~32°C.
8am border. Alex from Austria had some minor trouble, because her visa is transit, which should be a regular holiday visa.
Well tended fields. More rectangular brick houses, less round much huts.
Long wait at petro stations (cheaper than in other countries, but limited supply). The queue is often so long that it often block the road, while other stations are completed empty: exhausted.
Stopped for shopping in Lilongwe, the capital. Things are a bit cheaper: local beer 50c + 10c deposit.
Our truck received a fine of ~$10 at one of the numerous police checkpoints in Africa: one of our windshield wipers wasn't working.
The lake is immense (550km x 50km), a little hazy, lined with fields and tiny villages. 
Arrived at Kande Beach 1 at Nkhata Bay, as the sun went down. After setting up my tent under the twig roof, went to check out the immense lake. WARM! However, my walk was cut short by peddlers.Dinner: Anj cooked Indian chicken curry.
Day 18, Nov.11, Friday. >35°C.
Already hot at 6am! A blue head Tree Agama on the branch above our breakfast. A pit was dug for roasting a goat later in the day.
All of us but one went for a $10 guided tour of the village just outside of the camp ground. As soon as we exited the camp door, a group of young men immediately surrounded us, each found a target and followed us for the entire ~2 hours. At least when Mel Gibson (our guide's name - many of them have strange names, including one Mr. Fantastic. ) was speaking to us, they quickly found a shady tree and waited. As soon as he stopped, they'd be hovering us again. My peddler tried to sell me things, when I showed no interested, he invited me to his home so one of his sisters could braid my hair. After all tricks been used, he asked for my T-shirt and sandals as souvenir. 
Apart from these pests, the tour was not bad. We were showed 2 water pumps donated by CIDA, raised chicken coups, cassava fields and drying pans. We visited Mel Gibson's home (3 shoes were placed on top of a mud partition wall, why?). We then walked to Kande F.P. School at the other end of the village. It has ~1500 students and 10 teachers (paid by the government). At its library with donated books, the principle lectured us, who were seated on white plastic lawn chairs. After asked for donation to send his students to secondary school where they need lodging (10km away), he invited us to write down our names and amount in a thick notebook one by one. Impossible not to comply. He claims that 68% of his pupil go to secondary school. Primary education is free in Malawi. We were then lead to a classroom with 40 ~ 50 kids, no desk, no chair. The poor teacher had already lost her voice by the time we arrived ~11am. She has another 7 ours to go! Classes here run in 3 sessions: the first starts at 7am, the last finishes at 6pm. Next to school is a small clinic. A guy in charge collected money in a jar for mosquito nets. On the way back to the village, a few kids clang to our hands. The girl walked all the way with me is Diana Chavula, whom I left a pen and a notebook. Our peddlers were not happy with the kids. Last program in the village is lunch: rice, bread, cat fish in tomato base, banana on a mat. Much better than our usually fare.In the afternoon, Gianni and I urged Don (who's a canoe expert with some rusty sailing experience) to get a sail catamaran (4000 Kwacha), so we could check out the little island 800m out. Don took a short lesson with its owner, and we took off on our own. Breeze was light and the lesson wasn't sufficient. Our boat was so slow that the owner rowed over a dugout canoe to correct our course. However, we had trouble understanding him. Gianni abandoned the ship soon. Don and I continued to fiddle with the sails and rudder. The island turns out too rocky to land after circumnavigating it. I decided to jump into the lake and snorkel, but forgot to take off my sunglasses. The result was a leaky mask, lost of the sunglasses and enough struggle in water to bring back my headache. Didn't even see a fish!
After stumbling back to land, I asked Anj about my illness. She made me do a set of movements and pronounced nothing serious, at least no broken nerves.
Costume party at night with a roasted goat and many accompaniments. I was too sick to eat. Tried some soup at Anj's insistence, which I threw up later in the night. Vernon got me a glass of juice and water, and I went back to my tent. Difficult to sleep with a pounding headache and continuous sound of merriment. I was miserable at 3am trying to wash up my vomit in the tent with an unrelenting headache.
Day 19, Nov.12, Saturday.
Sick. Fever. Got to lie down all the way to our next stop: Chitimba Beach 2.
We arrived early enough to have a late but same lunch at the camp.
Dinner: beef stew in a cast iron pot. As we just started eating, Peterson called to our attention: the rising moon was bright orange.
Day 20, Nov.13, Sunday. >35°C.
Paid $150 for a truck tour to Livingstonia @7:30am with Anj, David, Don; while Gianni walked up at 5:30am. 16km one way, out of which, 15km is unpaved and in bad condition. Good views of Lake Malawi and Nyika plateau along the zigzag bumpy drive. A surprising number of small family farms dotting the slope. And we ferried some locals up and down in our truck. First stop was a small drinkable all season creek, which our local guide claimed to be holy. Next (200 Kwacha), Manchewe Falls and the ancestor cave behind. The guys swam in the cool but brownish natural pool next to the falls, local women wash clothes. Gianni caught up with us on our way out.
The slope eased as we approached Livingstonia. This town looks much better off than those villages by the lake: a large percentage of nice stone houses, some with multiple floors, porches and satellite dishes. Town folks sell fish, mango here in a small market, otherwise, everything seemed closed. Robert Laws' stone house 3 is closed on Sundays. But the 2 ladies working there opened the door to sell us cold sodas (80 Kwacha a bottle). Dr. Laws was the leading missionary who established this community far from the plague of malaria, due of the higher elevation, thus cooler air. David Gordon Memorial Hospital is large and super nice: landscaped flower beds, long roofed corridors.
Back to the camp ground, had tortilla and beer from the bar under the straw roof. Then idled about in the shade. Swam a bit when a cloud passed over. A chewed up mango floated by. As the sun set, I tried to take some photos of the beach, when a group of cattle came to drink water. The local kids immediately came over, and posed for photos. One of them wrote down an address for me to mail them the photo later. I hope they received 7 photos by now.Vernon baked bread for dinner. Stuffed chicken cooked under fire + boiled squash.
The owner of the campground sat on the bench out on the beach waiting for the moon rise. Again, splendid orange.
Alister decided to shoot off two rocket fireworks (bought at Lilongwe) on the beach, all but the Canadians sat circling the rockets. The first one exploded in the sand, shooting sparkles at us. My right hand received a black burning mark. 2nd rocket was thus loosened up before alight with all of us farther back. This one shot straight to the lake and disappeared. As we turned to leave, the shining colors sprang from the water. Alister's IPhone was facing the wrong way, hence only captured his own face at the last seconds.
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