Adventures with Julia

September 4, 2016

Final Thoughts

First, I must correct my spelling error.  Several times I have referred to Likomo Island as Lipomo. Please accept the correction.

We are now on board United Emirates between Johannesburg and Dubai, an 8 hour leg, which will be followed by a 4 hour lay over in Dubai and 14 hours to SFO. Then the drive home. Don’t know how long I will be able to think clearly so am beginning this missive while I can.

Earlier today, Mark asked me what was my favorite part of this trip. I have been thinking about that and come to the conclusion that it was all great. Each place we visited was unique and special and everywhere people have been warm and friendly. When I asked Mark that question, he agreed. We continue to enjoy and appreciate every destination we visit. We double checked our count and have concluded that we have now visited 27 African countries of the 54 possibilities. We are hard pressed to come up with additional countries we can visit safely, except for Mozambique. Sad to think that half the African continent is reasonably unsafe to visit. With time and better governance, we hope that will change.

I am glad we went to Sudan first and got the extreme heat and heavy rain out of the way early. We are glad to have learned about the Nubians and their archeological history and seen many of the 130 different pyramids. Meeting and interacting with a nomad family was an unexpected and special treat. Having been to the source of both Nile rivers, it was fitting to see the convergence of the White and Blue Niles in Khartoum and nearly in flood stage at that. We barely got to experience the Souk, but enjoyed what we did see and appreciated the help we received from locals when the torrential rain nearly swamped the place.

Uganda was very special for us in many ways. To see all the many changes in the hospital, the nursing school and the Bata Development Project that have occurred in the last 14 years was exciting and inspires hope for continued improvements.  Mind boggling to imagine what the next 15 years will bring?  To get caught up in Scott’s attachment to the Batwa is just as infectious as it was on our first 2 trips in 2002 and 2004.  It was especially humbling and powerful to be able to make a real difference with the new hospital wing both for patients and for the medical and nursing staff.  We remember fondly our visit with Jonathan and our stay at Wild Waters and Clouds, which we would not have known about without his booking them for us. Finally, the beautiful drive through the Ugandan countryside to Rwanda.

Rwanda was a short visit, but a powerful one. Learning the details of the genocide and the way the people on both ethnicities have recovered.  They refer to themselves as Rwandans now, rather than as Hutus and Tutsis.  It is a great testament to their spirit, to pick up the pieces, forgive one another and move forward; not to forget, but to heal. I hope it is truly happening as our guide and the museum have stated. The capital city of Kigali was very impressive for the progress and modernization that have been accomplished; new businesses and many new housing units at all income levels.

What can I say about Zambia? It was wonderful to get back to bush lodges, game drives, watch animals live their lives, enjoy sundowners in the jungle; even our sleep out, which I would not repeat, unless I could be guaranteed a wind or sand free night, was a good experience to have had.  All the lodges and hosts were interesting and unique. It makes sense to visit several for the variety of settings, accommodations, birds and animals, staff and conditions. We even liked the walking safaris. Our most extraordinary siting has to be the buffalo kill. A terrible thrill. Then Mark caught a tiger fish and let it go, giving back life.  However, by the time we left Zambia, we knew we had had enough. We were both getting bored. Where, oh where, were those wild dogs?

Then Malawi, the sleeper. I had no expectations or knowledge about the country as I had not had time to delve into what to expect. But we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of every place we stayed, including our very brief night at the Latitude 15 Hotel in Lilongwe.  Stacey pulled out the stops in this country and we did way more than one would plan to do.  We stayed in three very different lodgings on Lake Malawi, each with a lot of character and attraction. We went for a sunset ride on a dhou, rode motorcycles, kayaked, sailed on a catamaran, road in old and new motorboats, did a good bit of bird watching and some snorkeling. Could have done more, but felt like being lazy. As luck, and maybe Stacey, would have it, we ended up in our favorite place of the whole trip, Kaya Mawa. Could have stayed there several more days.

After 2 years of planning and agonizing about weather my mother would survive until our return, we said good bye and went anyway, finally putting her in God’s hands.  Should have known that she would still be here and doing well.   The 40 days have flown by.   They have added up to a collection of very successful adventures providing us with many happy memories.  We are already finding ourselves mixing up the events, places and people.

Above all, we return home with even more certain knowledge that the USA is the best place in the world to call home. The main concept is FREEDOM.  We are blessed beyond understanding at our good fortune.   There is only limited freedom and dramatically reduced services in much of the world, including, and especially, the African nations we have visited on this trip and in trips past.  The worst problem as I see it is in the lack of careful, considerate, honest leadership.  A benign dictator is sometimes better that a dysfunctional democracy.   Meanwhile, there is a great deal of physical beauty everywhere we have visited, that by itself could easily qualify as a desirable home and people everywhere are generally good neighbors to each other.  If we could all live in the UCW – United Countries of the World – with good leadership, we could all live in freedom, harmony, good health and security. Such are my dreams.

Thank you for taking the time to read my posts.  Your comments kept me going.  I have never thought of myself as a writer.  Is there a new career lurking under the surface?  Maybe I will have to continue to travel to keep writing.  Not a bad thought.

God bless you all and happy travels,  even if only in your dreams,

Julia

We have had a wonderful trip and have met hundreds of  people. To look at us side by side you would think what different people we are but in the end we are all the same.  We go through our day trying to make our lives and those of our family just a little bit better.  They are building new houses and they are putting their kids through school. They get up in the morning and go to work too. So in the end we are more alike than appearances would suggest and I am so lucky to be able to meet these people. I think I am a better person for having the opportunity to meet the people that appear so much different than me.

Mark

September 1, 2016

Sorry I was so hasty in sending the last post. The next morning, August 30, 2016, I remembered how to fix the formatting issue. Could have fixed it and sent it then. A function of being overtired. Hope you were able to read it anyway.  On the Malawi map, we started at Lilongwe, the capital in the south central part of the country and traveled east to the Cape Maclear area on the southwest side of the lake.  Pumulani and Mumbo Island are in the same general area.  then we flew north to Likoma Island, where you can spot a circle around it, separating it from Mozambique.  Lake Malawi is 1/5th the size of the country, which is about the same size as North Korea.

I left off wanting to tell you about the fish species called cichlidae (pronounced “sick-lid-ee”) that are endemic to Lake Malawi. They occur in other freshwater lakes in Africa, Central and South America and parts of Asia and are endemic wherever they occur. They are small perch-like fish, that very considerably in shape and color and are delightful to snorkel among. They are not fearful of us and will feed out of our hands when we have a piece of bread to crumble.

Cichlids from the surface.

A colorful Cichlid catch still in the bottom of the fisherman’s boat.

After a thoroughly enjoyable snorkeling experience in a lagoon on a small, uninhabited island called West Thumbi, I looked them up in a fish book and learned that they have many unusual features including; complex reproductive habits, a highly developed facility for looking after their young and the potential to evolve very rapidly into an array of species capable of taking advantage of a wide variety of habitats and situations. The most notable of them is the algae-eating mbuna, a spectacularly colorful group of which 300 species are known from Lake Malawi alone. All Lake Malawi Cichlids, except one, are mouth-brooders. The mother carries 10-300 around in her mouth, depending on her size, until they are ready to fend for themselves. In most species, the male establishes a territory, that may be very small, into which he attempts to lure a female, and then defends it fiercely. Cichlids are exceptionally quick to mature, resulting in a very rapid turnover of generations. They also appear to have a genetically malleable anatomy with structures that readily modify over a relatively small number of generations. The explosive specification that has occurred among Africa’s cichlids is like Darwin’s finches amplified many times. Evidence suggests that cichlids have a unique capacity to erect non-physical barriers between emergent species. All this from “A Guide to the Fishes of Lake Malawi National Park”, by Digby Lewis, Peter Rental and Jasper Trendall, 1986.

Lake Malawi National Park boundaries. Pumulani Lodge is where the park meets the green area on the left side of the image.  Mumbo Island is in the upper left corner

During a leisurely boat ride back to the lodge, we passed slowly by the fishing beach at Cape Maclear and then watched our boat driver throw small fish in the air to lure Fish Eagles out of the treetops to snatch then. He threw a lot of fish, but attracted only 2 Fish Eagles and one Kite. Back at Pumulani, we were served lunch on the beach. Mark and I hung out at the pool the rest of the afternoon and enjoyed a very good BBQ dinner. He went to bed and I worked until I crashed, as you know.

On the 31st, we were up early for our much anticipated adventure to Mumbo Island. Eddie picked us up and drove the bumpy, dirt road from the lodge until we hit pavement. There to meet us were 2 motorcycles and drivers whom he had arranged to drive us to Cape Maclear. Mark was very happy not to be riding on bicycle taxis we had been told to expect. Must admit, I was glad too. The motorcycles were more comfortable and faster. Our drivers spoke a bit of English and we had a few good laughs with them.

The motor cycle gang on the road to Cape Maclear.

Half way to town, we stopped at a locally famous rock called “Rock of Tribal Face Scars”. The 10 meter high rock is crisscrossed with lines that the locals think were done by ancient ancestors. In fact, the incisions are a natural geological phenomenon created by uneven weathering. The boys, including Mark, got a kick out of climbing to the top, while I watched. Shortly, we were at the village of Chembe, next to Cape Maclear. We abandoned the motorcycles, while Eddie paid the drivers, and walked slowly through the village taking many photos of kids, people at work in their shops, market stalls and whatever attracted our attention. It was a delightful experience with most everyone we encountered.

Chembe village market

Very few people said no to photos and those were all women. After passing through the business part of the village we passed through a residential area and encountered a variety of styles and conditions of houses from very basic to painted and well tended with gardens in front.

Children loving to be photographed

Mark has a new friend.

An old man in Chambo village

Eventually we arrived at the Cape Maclear beach. Eddie introduced us to the manager of Kayak Malawi that handled transfers, scuba diving and kayaking. He made us sign a waver and instructed us in the plan that had been arranged for us. We would kayak 5 kilometers to a point on a nearby island, where we would transfer to a catamaran ride to Mumbo Island, another 12 kilometers away. We could have kayaked all the way across open water to Mumbo, but were sure glad we opted not to do that.

We will be kayaking straight across the lake to the middle of the island in the distance.

Soon we were in our 2-man kayak with another kayaker beside us and a boat following. I wonder if they thought we were decrepit. It sure seemed like they did not expect us to manage the distance. However, we did it in less than the hour they said it would take. Mark was pretty uncomfortable as there was no back support, but he kept paddling. At the small beach where we met the catamaran, we jumped off the kayaks and were on the cat in a flash. We relaxed.

Enjoying the catamaran ride to Mumbo Island

The cat crew served us a prepackaged lunch and off we headed for Mumbo Island, one of the famous Lake Malawi islands we had heard about. The breeze was very light so we motored most of the way, but did enjoy about half an hour of sailing before arriving at the small protected beach.

The attraction is being on a nearly deserted island in a cabin

A cabin at Mumbo Lodge

literally built into the boulders and overhanging the lake. The one we were assigned was no exception. We walked up a long, narrow, elevated boardwalk over sand and water to an even smaller islet where our unit was situated over a rock precipice. It had a setting fit for a travel magazine cover including a small porch with 2 chairs and a hammock.

Over coffee we watched the Kayak Malawi boat flail around in the water and nearly sink a small row boat in the process. I wondered how we would manage the rough sea on the return trip to Cape Maclear. After bangers, beans and toast, we said goodbye to the camp host and went to sea in the pea green boat. The waves made good sized rollers, but no chop. By the time we approached the cape, the lake was flat. Another adventure survived with a smile, if not enthusiastically enjoyed.

The Mumbo islet our cabin is located

It is now September 1 and we are getting close to the end of our trip. Eddie was at the dock to greet and deliver us us to the local airport, Club Makokola. We understood that we would have to fly to Lilongwe and then change planes to fly to our next and final stop, Likoma Island, midway up Lake Malawi. We were thrilled to learn that the pilot of the 210 was intending to fly us directly up lake to Likoma, saving a lot of time. Super news. We said good bye to Eddie and were off, flying over Mozambique most of the way and landing, an hour later on the isolated Malawian island, called Likoma. Although it belongs to Malawi, it is immediately adjacent to and surrounded by Mozambique and its part of the lake. When Africa was being carved up by the colonialists, the British wanted the island for a holiday retreat and so drew a circle around it and assigned it to Malawi.

Watching bamo being played in Chema. It is a popular game all over Africa

Our suite at Kaya Mawa

There are 11,000 people on the island, an airstrip, an Anglican cathedral, a town and several villages and a few cars. Of the 18 million Malawians, 80% are Christian, mostly Protestant, Anglican and 7th Day Adventist. About 13% are muslim. Our last home on this trip is a place called Kaya Mawa that means “maybe tomorrow”. It is a 15 minute bumpy ride over dirt roads through palm, mango, fig and baobab trees; frangipani, plumeria and bougainvillea bushes and the small town. The facility is sublime and our room glorious, with all the conveniences we are used to and more. The space is painted in pastel colors that bring thoughts of the Mediterranean. It has an indoor/outdoor bathroom, a small plunge pool, outdoor lounge area and separate dining area overlooking the lake.

Lunch in our room at Kaya Mawa. Note pool in background.

We are glad we chose Kaya Mawa as our last stop. There is a good sized bay with a grainy sand beach and generally calm water. Our first request was for a large green salad served in our suite. We enjoyed the place so much we did not leave until dinner, which was served on the beach by candlelight. Then we trundled back to the room and bed for a wind free sleep.

September 2, 2016

Coffee delivered at 6:30 and breakfast on the veranda overlooking the beach at 8. Lots of birds make music everywhere. Mark is identifying most of them so far and watching the weavers build  nests.  Very tedious process.  Only the males do the building and they quit work shortly afternoon.  Perhaps they take a siesta.  There is an especially cheeky, large pied crow, who barges right in for snacks and squawks loudly, almost like a screech.

About noon, I took a break from the blog and we went kayaking around the bay.  Too rough to venture further as the wind has not completely left us.  Had another delicious salad for lunch and am now finishing this message.  Hopefully, I will get one more off at an airport before returning home.  Meanwhile, here is a map Mark found for you to contemplate.

A map of Afric with the major other countries overlaid. Sure gives one a sense of scale.