Nhkata Bay and Livingstonia

Almost immediately after walking into Butterfly Space, we ran into Jason, who we’d met in Cape Maclear.  He briefed us on the surroundings and told us about his plans to dive in a couple days.  We wanted to do a dive with him and a night dive to see the dolphin fish hunting.  After coordinating it with the dive shop, we found out that we’d have to stay an extra night.  We had hoped to do a morning dive and then leave for Livingstonia that afternoon, but due to the altitude change, we’d have to wait at least 11 hours before departing.

 

We took advantage of the extra day to hike up to see nearby villages.  Our only instructions were to go up so we followed the road up and up.  We passed houses along the way and could see the lake in the distance.  Once we reached the plateau, we stopped for a break and watched kids play.  Several people asked what we were doing and after we started walking again, we had 3 young boys approach us.  They had just gotten out of school and wanted to guide us up the nearby mountain.  We declined, but spoke with them for a bit before carrying on.  In our conversations, we named a few people we’d met the night before.  We didn’t think much of it and carried on.

 

As we were walking past the primary school, one of the boys came back and said that Joseph ‘Honey Man’ wanted to see us.  So we followed him through the village until we saw a familiar face from the day before.  He was helping a neighbor make bricks and explained the process as it looked like they were using ordinary dirt.  Apparently someone’s home had deteriorated to the point of it collapsing so they were reforming the bricks to build another structure.  They needed to wait for them to dry in the sun before baking them.

 

 

 

It was getting close to lunch so we said our goodbyes and walked back down towards the town.  We wandered around, which didn’t take long as there were only a few streets.  Tico took advantage of the shoe repair to fix his flip flop that had come apart.  Then, it was time to make the trek back to the hostel.  We grabbed a couple beers and sat on the patio to watch as the sun disappeared behind the hills. The next day we’d do 2 dives so after dinner we crawled in.

Scuba Diving in Lake Malawi

Since Jason was a dive instructor and a friend we wanted to experience a dive with him.  The boat from Aqua Africa came to pick us up and take us to the shop.  We found the right gear and then had our briefing.  We entered the water from the shore and slowly made our way into deeper waters.  There were some small fish and circles in the sand made by the males to attract the females for mating.  We followed the slope down and found rock formations as we went.  There were large towers and other boulder designs that appeared as if we were out of water.  The visibility wasn’t great as the sediment was easily lifted with our fin kicks.

 

 

It was very different from other dives as there was no coral (as it was fresh water) and very few fish.  We swam around the different formations before making our way back towards the surface.  The dive ended in shallow water as we admired the minerals in the sand sparkling in the sunlight.

That evening we’d return for a night dive so we coordinated things to make it easier for later on.  We walked back to the hostel and found Dorothee not long after.  She caught us up on her travels and then we sat down for lunch together.  The food took longer than we expected and we weren’t sure if we’d have time to digest before the boat came back to pick us up.  As the sun set, we gathered our things and waited for our pickup.

 

We found our gear already laid out and we checked to make sure it was the same sizes as the morning.  They briefed us on the dive and the backup flashlights in our vests.  We talked about the signals as we didn’t want to blind each other with the lights and were off.

We made our way into the lake and dropped anchor.  Once we put all our gear on, the boatman counted down and we plopped into the water.  We descended to the floor and saw cichlids floating as they slept.  Once the dolphin fish found our lights, the joined us and used us to help them hunt.  They swam in groups and maneuvered around the rocks to find their prey.  This type of fish is known for its poor hunting abilities and it was obvious.  They’d snap their jaw in the vicinity of a fish and missed every time we were looking.  Occasionally, we could hear the sound as their jaw clapped against itself as they came up empty handed.

 

 

 

We rose to the surface and as Tico was unloading his gear to hand to the boatman his ring came sliding off.  He watched as it slowly floated down and I tried to shine my light to help see where it was going.  Craig, our dive master, quickly put back on his mask and headed down with a description of the ring.  He came up with the ring in his hand and everyone was happy.

We turned off our lights as we headed back to shore so we could admire the sky full of stars.  There was no light disturbance in the middle of the lake and the view was incredible.  We’d done a night dive in Lake Travis to get certified, but this was a completely different experience.  Especially having the chance to watch the fish hunt.  They dropped us off just in time for dinner and we spent the evening celebrating Jason’s last night in Nhkata Bay.

The road to Livingstonia

The next morning we also packed up our things and headed to the minibus stand in town.  As we approached the station, it looked empty.  There were some people hanging around, but very few cars.  One of the taxis told us there was a minibus strike, but we didn’t know if we should believe him.  We wanted to get our dive logs stamped so I walked back to the dive shop while Tico stayed with Dorothee and our bags.  They confirmed that there was indeed a strike and said it might be best to stay another day.

 

I walked back to the station and shared the news.  We were determined to leave as we were already slowly cutting down our time in Tanzania as we had a set date to fly to Madagascar.  I asked a group of people that looked like they wanted to travel to see about a shared taxi.  There was conflicting information on the situation in Mzuzu and 3 of the people who had agreed to share the car with us backed out.  Once we finally had a group, the taxi increased his price and we backed away.  After some time, a taxi appeared and while we were trying to get our bags in the back and arrange a price 2 people slipped in and took our seats.  We were beginning to lose sight of the idea that we’d leave during the strike.  But moments later another taxi pulled in and Tico loaded our things while I made sure we had a seat.

 

The trip was relatively quick and the taxi left us just outside of the city.  With the increased police and the uncertainty of things, the driver didn’t want to go to the normal bus stop.  We carried our packs the 1 km to town and found a Shoprite to do some shopping.  We’d need supplies for our upcoming hike and we assumed that Livingstonia wouldn’t have that many options.  Tico stayed under a tree with our bags while I got everything on our list.  After spending so much time only buying items from little shops, it was quite overwhelming to have so many options.

Once we were loaded, we walked towards the minibus station only to find people hanging around.  Some were arguing and there was police in riot gear, but nothing was happening.  We communicated our destination and were told to wait under a tree for the bus.  After 20 minutes and no sign of an incoming bus, Tico walked to the gas station to see if there was more movement there.  He came back and we decided to try and hitch a ride there as nothing was happening at the station.

We put our bags next to the road and stuck our thumbs out.  Many of the locals stopped to talked to us and actually blocked our view of cars.  We tried to move around them and eventually decided to haul our bags down the road to see if we had any more luck.  As we walked, a bicycle taxi found and followed us while telling us of a better spot to find a bus.  We ignored him at first, but finally gave in as it was worth a try.  He found a friend and we were pedaled to the next village.  There was a line of people on the side of the road who were also looking for transport.

 

As we waited, we started seeing busses pass by.  We asked what happened and were told that the strike had lifted.  While we didn’t get the first bus that passed, we managed to get on one not long after.  We curved along the road dropping and picking people up.  It was starting to get dark by the time we reached Chitimba and we still needed to get up the mountain to Livingstonia.  We called the hostel we planned to stay at and they suggested we find a place to sleep and move in the morning.  There was a hostel not too far away and we walked in its general direction.  We hadn’t gotten very far when we noticed a sign that said accommodation.  

The owner showed us a room and then cooked us dinner.  He was a Rastafarian so while we ate he taught us about the religion.  The next morning we got up and waited for the cars to start going up the hill.  We weren’t happy with the price we were given, but we didn’t have much choice as there was only one option.

 

They’d packed in as many people as they could and we slowly curved up the hill.  It zigzagged back and forth and while we couldn’t understand much of the conversation, we did get that a car had rolled down the previous week.  They dropped us at Mushroom Farm and we immediately understood why we’d heard such good things about the place.

 

It was an eco-hostel nestled in the trees on the edge of the cliff.  They had their own garden and took self-sustainable to another level.  We got a cabin with a view of the lake and enjoyed the sunset over the water.  They served their vegetarian dinner family style so we sat with other travelers and heard about their experiences.  We’d leave the next day for a multi-day hike in Nyika Plateau, but for now we were loving the little slice of paradise.

 

 

Helpful tips:

• We chose to scuba dive in Nkhata Bay instead of other places due to a recommendation. While the night dive was worth it, the other dive was nothing spectacular.
• No one mentioned the difficulty in getting to Mushroom Farm, but it’s worth the hassle.