Satellite
  • Day 135

    Likoma Island

    January 28, 2020 in Malawi ⋅ 🌧 25 °C

    Early in the morning, the Ilala moors up alongside Likoma Island, a small island a stone’s throw from the Mozambican shoreline (though, I suppose, everywhere is a stone’s throw away when you have muscles like mine).

    The boat is too big to get to the shoreline, so anchors a few hundred metres from shore. To disembark, we need to get into one of the ship’s lifeboats. The problem is that the more experienced passengers have already started queueing, and they can only fit around 30 people into a boat (despite the carrying capacity being advertised as 20); there are MANY passengers crammed into the lower deck (alongside sacks of cassava, fish, entire household belongings etc.), so this could take a while. However, it is possible to get a seat on a fisherman’s boat for a small fee- we take this option, as one of our group is heading to work on the island.

    On the island, we pile into a shared pickup and bounce our way to Mango Drift (there are no roads on the island, only potholes), and we arrive just in time for a typically monumental storm. This one is so ferocious that water spouts rise up out of the lake towards the heavens. I am glad we are safely on dry land, rather than out on the rustbucket Ilala (I joke, she’s a fine vessel).

    After the storms subside, we see unfeasibly large swarms of lake flies patrol the waters. There are five clouds, and each inky blot has millions of flies. It is disgusting on an unfathomable scale.

    Now that the skies are blue, we are able to try our hand at the local dugout canoes (sometimes called makoros). The hostel offers a free night’s accommodation if you can make it about 100m out and back with your legs inside the boat, or a free drink with your legs outside. The problems with these boats are numerous- the stern frequently dips under the water and fills the boat, it is incredibly heavy, and there is no keel- it is literally just a tree trunk that has been hollowed out. After a lengthy period of slapstick attempts, I manage to complete the challenge for a free drink- beer please barkeep!

    In the evening, we seem to get caught in one of the lake fly swarms. The entire bar is filled with thousands of the little critters, and the beams of lights become plumes of flies. Luckily, it passes after a short while, and we can safely play drinking games until bed.
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