Nkhata Bay and Likoma Island(or Chizimulu)

Posted in Travel, The Lake by Dom on August 24th, 2007

So I went and got scuba certified. Pretty sweet. Went at this place called Aqua Africa, supposedly the cheapest place in the world. So I’ve now done six dives in Lake Malawi. It was really sweet. I did it in hopes of doing some even better stuff in Mozambique and Zanzibar when I finally make it there.

Jenn and I went out to Likoma island. That was a bit of a trip. We got on the boat, The Illala, at 6pm on Monday, it left Nkhata Bay around 8, and we got to the first island, Chizimulu, around midnight. We stayed at that island until 6am and then went the last hour and a half to Likoma in the daylight. A good bit absurd I thought, but whatever. We got lucky and met an former VSO couple that was doing it right and had bought a cabin to likoma but decided to get off at Chizimulu and so they let us stay in their cabin the remaining time. We didn’t realize it would be another 8 hours until Likoma so we kept waking up in a panic only to find out that the boat hadn’t left. Then we get there, there’s only two ports with an actual pier so they drop the life boats to ferry people to shore. It’s everyman for themselves at that point and what a pain. Jenn got a fishhook threw her foot while waiting to get on the little boat.

We finally get to shore and have no clue where we’re going. So we start asking how to get to Mango Drift, the backpackers lodge we hoped to stay at. (I say hoped because there was no means of contacting them for prices or reservations so you just have to hope it all works out). It turned out to be almost an hour walk. But we made it with the help of a random kid guiding us. It was kind of hidden tucked up under a little ledge right behind a few village houses. I’m not sure what we were really expecting but the place was sparce. There were a few huts with nice concrete floors and bamboo walls and one big straw roofed pavilion where the bar and tables were. The only people staying there were the seven of us that just walked up.

The staff turned out to be less than pleased to help and, we found out later, there was an electricity problem on the island and so there wasn’t much food to be had. So after the un-welcomeing welcome we decided to try to get back to Chizimulu because it sounded much better. But it turns out we couldn’t use credit cards at this place, which honestly does seem a bit ridiculous but we were so reassured we believed. So therefore we were a bit strapped for cash and couldn’t afford the ferry over and just decided to go back and suffer through.

It turns out the only real problem with the place was the staff and not all of them at that. The hut was fine, the beach was beautiful, and the food we could get was pretty good (no cheese, no fruit, no oatmeal…) we ended up just getting the same thing every meal, except dinner. Dinner was a one kind thing meat or vegetarian, and everyone got the same thing.

After a day or two the others who had come with us had gone off on further travels to Mozambique or to Chizimulu and so we had the place to ourselves. It was really nice, I did absolutely nothing. There supposedly was a really nice cathedral on the island, never saw it. The most I did was go to the other really nice resort twice. Once to complain about the staff where we were and the other to get first-aid stuff for Jenn. She had the good fortune to almost rip her pinky toenail off from hitting a rock in the water. She’s doing good now though.

So she did that on the last day we were there, so I guess that’s some kind of luck…then we were waiting for the Illala again. It’s suppose to arrive at 4pm. We paid K600 to be ferried to the Illala whenever it does decide to show. We ended up getting on around 3am, after another stop in Chizimulu we finally made it back to Nkhata bay around 5pm. So our 12hr initial trip was trumped by the 14hr return trip. yay. There were 10′ seas coming back too that boat, though fairly big was rolling.

The VSO couple we met came to Likoma a few days later and also realized the error they made. The stories they told of the other place with it’s two bars, one for day and the other for night, and it’s multiple little paved alcoves to lay out in at different times of the day, and more food options and cheaper prices made us realize what to do next time. Chizimulu’s a shorter trip on the boat both ways too. I think the highlight of the unwelcomeness was when we asked to get a fire started under the water in the outdoor shower and the guy said only if there was already water in it because he wouldn’t get water for just two people, and then, I guess there was enough water, he yelled at Jenn in Chichewa to help him carry firewood. Good times.

All in all though it was still a solid vacation and if we wouldn’t have gone we’d still be wondering “what about Likoma” but now we know. Chizimulu’s the place to go.