During my first four months in Malawi, I only made it as far north as Ntchisi Forest, just a two-hour drive from Lilongwe. For this past three-day weekend, I headed up north to Nkhata Bay with Austin and Savvy to experience a new part of Lake Malawi. I had heard that it was the most beautiful part of the lake and I was definitely not disappointed.
We set off at 7:45am Friday morning, expecting the drive to take around 5 hours. Just as we were about to follow our Google Maps directions and drive off the main Malawian highway onto a side road, we realized the directions were telling us to drive 100 km on a dirt path. After getting stuck in the mud while dozens of local children looked on, we decided to keep going to see if the road got any better. A few kilometers later, we hit a dead end... We turned around and drove back to a fork and decided to take the other dirt road to see where that led. Thankfully, it led us back to the main highway before we ran out of gas in the middle of the forest. Not so thankfully, a police officer down the road alerted us to the fact that our little adventure had punctured one of the tires. I had seen someone change a tire before, but I officially learned on the side of the M1 highway from Austin and a Malawian police officer.
I decided to look at the Maps app that comes programmed on an iPhone, which I often don't use because it needs cellular data, to check where we had just gone. Just as expected, here's the road Google Maps told us to take:
We set off at 7:45am Friday morning, expecting the drive to take around 5 hours. Just as we were about to follow our Google Maps directions and drive off the main Malawian highway onto a side road, we realized the directions were telling us to drive 100 km on a dirt path. After getting stuck in the mud while dozens of local children looked on, we decided to keep going to see if the road got any better. A few kilometers later, we hit a dead end... We turned around and drove back to a fork and decided to take the other dirt road to see where that led. Thankfully, it led us back to the main highway before we ran out of gas in the middle of the forest. Not so thankfully, a police officer down the road alerted us to the fact that our little adventure had punctured one of the tires. I had seen someone change a tire before, but I officially learned on the side of the M1 highway from Austin and a Malawian police officer.
I decided to look at the Maps app that comes programmed on an iPhone, which I often don't use because it needs cellular data, to check where we had just gone. Just as expected, here's the road Google Maps told us to take:
And here's the road we actually took - dead-ending to the right, then back to the fork, where the road took us back to M1:
It's still unclear if the road we were supposed to take even exists, but lesson learned: save Google Maps for the US, stick to the Maps app in Malawi.
Without the option of taking the shortcut, we headed up M1 a bit more until we hit Mzuzu, one of Malawi's larger cities. Our first stop was a gas station to see if we could get the tire repaired. For twenty minutes, we watched a random guy at the gas station find the hole in the tire and repair it with what looked like a sticky twizzler. Better than not having a spare tire, I suppose... I was glad we were able to drive through Mzuzu, because it's quite pretty and has a very different feel than Lilongwe. We stopped at an Indian restaurant and at a coffee shop before heading on a winding road to Nkhata Bay.
We hadn't looked up accommodations before leaving home, on the assumption that no matter what we'd be able to find a place to pitch our tent. Once we reached Nkhata Bay, we saw signs for several lodges, and randomly chose Mayoka Village based on how much we liked its sign over those of the other lodges. We would later find out from other ex-pats that that's the "only" good place to stay in Nkhata Bay... Lucky intuition we had.
Mayoka has a dozen buildings built right into the side of the cliff, creating a beautiful view of the lake from all around the hostel. We offered to camp, but the staff upgraded us to chalets for the same rate. We spent Friday evening relaxing, eating a barbecue that the restaurant had prepared, and chatting with Dave, a boat tour operator.
We hadn't looked up accommodations before leaving home, on the assumption that no matter what we'd be able to find a place to pitch our tent. Once we reached Nkhata Bay, we saw signs for several lodges, and randomly chose Mayoka Village based on how much we liked its sign over those of the other lodges. We would later find out from other ex-pats that that's the "only" good place to stay in Nkhata Bay... Lucky intuition we had.
Mayoka has a dozen buildings built right into the side of the cliff, creating a beautiful view of the lake from all around the hostel. We offered to camp, but the staff upgraded us to chalets for the same rate. We spent Friday evening relaxing, eating a barbecue that the restaurant had prepared, and chatting with Dave, a boat tour operator.
On Saturday morning we set off in a canoe to explore the lake on our own. We headed out from the true Nkhata Bay and headed south to explore some of the other bays, stopping at one to do some snorkeling. There weren't a ton of fish, but some of them were beautifully blue. The paddle back to Mayoka was a lot more difficult, with the canoe being swayed by the winds much more than we expected. As we zigzagged into the shore and out towards Tanzania and Mozambique for half an hour, we sang out Disney songs and almost cried from laughter, so I can't complain too much.
We were unfortunately kicked out of one of our chalets because another group was coming, so Savvy and I shared a double bed Saturday night. It was an uncomfortable night, and I was awoken at 6;15 Sunday morning to water on my face. I looked up to see a small hole in the roof that was letting in some of the rain that was pouring outside. To top it off, we looked next door to see that the group that was supposed to take over our other room never showed up. I was not the happiest of campers, but tried to laugh it off as best as possible. The staff at Mayoka, though, didn't seem too concerned about the leaky roof...
On our way back to Lilongwe, we stopped in Nkhotakota, another beach town where some friends had spent the weekend. Nkhotakota seemed worlds different from Nkhata Bay despite because just 2.5 hours south on M5. The water was much dirtier, there were far fewer people and the rocks of Nkhata were replaced by sand. I was glad we stopped to see it, but happy with our decision to head all the way to Nkhata Bay for the long weekend. Overall, it was a great trip, with the usual Malawian bumps along the way.
We were unfortunately kicked out of one of our chalets because another group was coming, so Savvy and I shared a double bed Saturday night. It was an uncomfortable night, and I was awoken at 6;15 Sunday morning to water on my face. I looked up to see a small hole in the roof that was letting in some of the rain that was pouring outside. To top it off, we looked next door to see that the group that was supposed to take over our other room never showed up. I was not the happiest of campers, but tried to laugh it off as best as possible. The staff at Mayoka, though, didn't seem too concerned about the leaky roof...
On our way back to Lilongwe, we stopped in Nkhotakota, another beach town where some friends had spent the weekend. Nkhotakota seemed worlds different from Nkhata Bay despite because just 2.5 hours south on M5. The water was much dirtier, there were far fewer people and the rocks of Nkhata were replaced by sand. I was glad we stopped to see it, but happy with our decision to head all the way to Nkhata Bay for the long weekend. Overall, it was a great trip, with the usual Malawian bumps along the way.