Chizumulu & Likoma Island - Malawi

Saturday 20.04:

At 7:30 am we arrived at the small ferry dock to catch the local ferry to Chizumulu Island. In a chaotic system the small boat which looked like taken from a Bud Spencer in Africa movie was loaded heavily with everything with alive chicken, caught fish, mattresses, barrels of oil and plenty of people.  We were the only tourists on board. After 6 hours we arrived at the island.

We were paddled to the pirate like lodge of Nick. Originally from England he had been staying on the island for the last 19 years. A bit like Robinson Crusoe he is the only white person on this tiny little island and he seems to be as desperate to leave it as soon as he finds a potential buyer. However this seems to be difficult without any business. We were the second visitors in this month. We walked once around the island. In the main village we watched a football match were all islanders seem to be watching the only two teams playing against each other.
At night we had plenty of beers with Nick who told us all about his misery.

Sunday 21.04:

We stayed the whole day on the island. Again we walked to the village and had lunch at a local “restaurant”.  It took a while until all ingredients where brought by the neighborhood. One lady brought rice, a fisherman brought the fish and a young boy brought the eggs.

We rushed back to our lodge just in time to catch a heavily overloaded small ferry boat to the neighboring bigger island Likoma. After 3 hours we arrived in the dark at the small harbour. With the full moon lighting us the way and with the local boy Alexandri guiding us we still had to walk 1 hour across the island to the beautiful beach of the Mango Drift Lodge. We pitched our tent at the beach.

Monday 22.04:

We spend a nice day relaxing at the beach , reading books, snorkelling, kayaking. Ju was also job hunting for the time when we are back. In the evening Christine and Peter from Cologne arrived to our surprise. Now we have met them for the fourth time on our trip.

 Tuesday 23.04:

At night we walked to the local village and had dinner for a few euros at the local restaurant seriously called “hunger clinic”. Together with the guys from the village we watched Bayern wiping out Barcelona by 4:0!!!
We spent the night at a mosquito local guesthouse close to the harbour sharing the room with plenty of mosquitos.

Wednesday 24.04:

We took the same ferry that brought us to the islands back to Nhakata Bay. The waves on the lake were up to 2 meters that day. It took uncomfortable 9 hours until we could step off the boat.
A Taxi brought us back to the lodge were our car was waiting for us. I watched Dortmund win 4:1 against Real Madrid together with the lodge personnel. Unbelievable! It looks like Bayern will play Dortmund in the final in Wembley.