Where the Malawi are we?

Known as the warm heart of Africa, Malawi is an incredibly beautiful country albeit one of the poorest in the world.

It has a huge population for its land-size and serious food shortages because of the lack of arable land. Lake Malawi is over 29,000 square kilometres, takes up a large percentage of the country and has been over-fished to the detriment of the nation’s food supply. 

Our flying trip through here unfortunately coincided with the first-ever national protests against the current President.  On our first morning here at a sparse campsite on the north of the lake, the locals were full of excitement for the protests and assured us the police and army were on their side so there would be no violence. Later that day as we drove through Mzuzu hundreds of people lined the streets and were telling us to turn around. In the distance we could see crowds scattering like ants as smoke rose from several places amongst them. We found a detour around the back of the town and continued south to Kande beach. That evening we learned 10 people had been killed in Mzuzu and others had died in protests further south.

Our two days at Kande beach were relaxing though somewhat marred by the events going on around us. Sick of sleeping in a tent, I upgraded to a beachfront hut, the view from which could easily have been any beach at home.

From here we had a long drive to Zambia, stopping briefly at the capital Lilongwe to pick up one of our group who had been away for a week. Despite the negative media reports there was no sign of any trouble in the city’s outskirts.

our first campsite on the beach

Lake Malawi is more like an ocean

Protests in Mzumzu

Water-front huts...