Chapter Twelve
Getting to Nkhata Bay
Nkhata Bay is a charming place to experience the enchantment of Lake Malawi. To get there from Lilongwe take the Axa bus to Mzuzu and from Mzuzu take a minibus to Nkhata Bay.
Where to Stay
I’m sure you could find a local guest house, however, most people stay at either Mayoka Village or Butterfly. My hosts from Lilongwe are friends with the owners of Butterfly so I had the opportunity to stay there for free.
Butterfly is less expensive than Mayoka Village. A dorm bed at Butterfly is 4,000K where it is 9,000K at Mayoka. However, Mayoka includes free use of kayaks and paddle boards in their price. Otherwise, these two places are side by side, and you get just about the same view of the lake so you might as well save some Kwacha.
Butterfly
Butterfly has a hippie, eclectic, forest vibe. The grassy hillside leading into the lake is decorated with stained glass trinkets. The dorms have rustic wooden decks and the compost toilet has an incredible view. My only complaint is that when I asked for hot tap water so I could add my own instant coffee mix, they tried to charge me. They claimed it was for the electricity yet there are outlets in our room and no limit on how much we can charge our electronics. Needless to say, I had cold coffee and then refused to buy any drinks or food from them in protest.
Street Food
I took daily walks down to the village to buy food. For 50 kwacha I could get mandazi. Mandazi is fried bread that tastes like a plain donut. There was also a street market with avocados and pineapple for insignificant amounts of money.
Herb
While on one of these food adventures I met a Malawian that called himself Happy Pineapple. He is a an artist that has a stand where he sells his own original paintings. We got to talking and became good pals and soon enough I was making an herb transaction. What a guy!
Beer
Carlsberg is the only beer brewed in Malawi. The Dutch company has a 200 year contract with Malawi. You can find imports like Savanna Cider but they are way more expensive. If you are at a backpackers you will buy a Carlsberg for 1,000 Kwacha. If you go to a street stand you can get one for 800K. At the supermarket they are 500K.
Livingstonia
I left Nkhata Bay in order to hike a mountain. I went to Chitimba which is the village at the base of Livingstonia. I stayed at a hostel called Hakuna Matata. I stayed there one night before and after my hiking expedition in order to leave a bag with the majority of my things down below.
This lodge is right on the beach. The kids that live nearby play on the beach, running up to any mzungu they see and immediately grabbing their hand to walk with them. Before long a group of children were touching my tattoos, and playing with my hair. Their physical touch sent tingles through my body. After traveling alone for so long, my body forgot what it was like to be touched by another human. High off the oxytocin from their physical touch, the kids and I made up a song and dance. They kept singing the song and to my surprise they remembered it three days later when I returned from Livingstonia.
Somebody else visiting the area must have given the kids a pen because they suddenly had one and were excited to use it. They didn’t have any paper to write on so they took my arm and each one of them wrote their name on it. They kept sayine, “give me pen, give me book.” It was my first instinct to be offended by the direct question without a please attached to it. I reminded myself that they have been taught the words to communicate their point not the etiquette we deem so necessary.
Having a Guide
I had planned to walk up Livingstonia on my own, however, as I left the hostel a local man named Mike Malawi attached himself to me. He told me he worked as a guide and actually needed to go up the mountain that day anyways. He said I could pay him a small tip instead of the standard guide fee. I tried to shake him off but he told me that since it was the rainy reason and the bush was overgrown, thieves might be hiding in the bush. If they saw me walking up alone they would try to rob me. Apparently something like this had happened recently. Sufficiently freaked out, I agreed to let him walk with me.
Before we left he showed me the price list in the office where his picture was up on the wall (I think he did this so that I would know he really worked as a guide). The price for a guide was only $4 and if he carried your bag it would be $5. Even though he had told me to pay him less than that, the price was so reasonable that I ended up paying the $4.
I’m happy I took a guide because he was able to show me the shortcuts. If you just go up the road the hike would take 4 hours but if you take the paths that cut directly up the mountain you can shave 1-2 hours off the hike. Plus climbing over rocks is much more exciting than walking up a road.
I did, however, decide to walk down on my own. I carried my broken umbrella handle as a weapon and occasionally swung it around in a fierce manner, just in case anyone was watching me from the bush. I got down safely and in retrospect I realize that Mike Malawi was probably doing the classic Africa tactic of scaring someone into paying for an unnecessary service.
Mushroom Farm
I stayed at The Mushroom Farm. My hosts in Lilongwe also knew the owners of this lodge, so I got more free lodging! I brought my lawson hammock and hung it under a patio. The view was incredible. This place has delicious food and they grow it all organically.
The Mushroom Farm organizes tours to the waterfall but they are far too expensive. You can walk to the waterfall yourself and only pay the entrance fee. The children of Livingstonia are entrepreneurs and will guide you for a small fee. I had decided to walk to the city of Livingstonia one day, not realizing that it was miles and miles away. A little barefoot boy came up to me and offered to show me the shortcut. Had he not helped, I wouldn’t have reached Livingstonia before dark, let alone made it back. The shortcut took me on a tiny dirt path through farms and up fields. There wasn’t much to do in Livingstonia. I had airtel service and bought some mandazi.
The next day when walking to the waterfall I met the same kid that helped me the day before. He insisted on taking me to the waterfall and all of his friends joined us. After seeing the waterfall I went to pay the little boy and the kids demanded more money because there were so many of them. I told them I had given them all I had, and eventually they accepted it.
The children of Chitimba and the hike to The Mushroom Farm were highlights of my entire Africa trip. If you are going to Malawi do not miss this inexpensive opportunity to hike a mountain!
Chronicles of a Wandering Soul 