Chitimba Beach

I pulled myself out of my sleeping bag at 4:00 this morning, had a quick breakfast and packed up my tent, then piled into the truck with the 21 others on the Gap tour and headed for Malawi. I've heard a lot of great things about Malawi over the last few years and I've really looked forward to coming here. While getting my scuba diving certification in Koh Tao, Thailand in 2006 I talked to a Belgian kid who had been traveling for seven years, over a year of which was spent in Malawi. I listened in awe as he told me about living for several months in a guesthouse which the owners had left for him to manage while vacationing in Europe. The guesthouse was at the top of a cliff and he'd spend hours watching large birds circle overhead and wild animals wander hundreds of feet below. Malawi seemed like such an obscure, out-of-the-way place to me back then. I never imagined that within two years I'd visit the country myself.

Our South African tour guide, Elbie, told us that Malawi is the poorest country in Africa but also has the happiest, most laid-back people in Africa. So far that has turned out to be a pretty accurate description. The truck pulled into Chitimba Campground on the shore of Lake Malawi at 1:00 this afternoon and after having lunch and taking a quick nap I spent a few hours wandering nearby the place.

Malawi is dominated by Lake Malawi, a large, long body of water which runs the length of the country and occupies 20% of it's area. The culture and economy of Malawi are both closely tied to the lake and many people subsist entirely off of fishing from it. I walked from the campground out to the shore of the lake and followed the shoreline South a few hundred yards until I passed by a local man fishing, a lady doing her laundry in the lake, and a handful of kids playing nearby. It's always interesting for me to get away from the crowds as much as I can and see the local culture for what it really is. Wandering a short ways from a campground isn't much, but I'm sure that many of the people in Malawi live the same way as the few locals that I saw today. Hopefully I'll get a better feel for that during the few days that I'll be in the country.After coming back from the coast I wandered down the dirt road leading away from the campground. I passed by a few huts made of straw and adobe, several very small plots of farmland, and a whole lot of local kids. Before coming to Africa I always envisioned the stereotypical African landscape of long yellow grasses blowing in the wind and scraggly brown acacia trees. I think that kind of scenery is found mainly in Tanzania. While walking down the dirt road today I looked into the distance and saw lots of brush and a few tall rocky plateaus. That image of Malawi probably is exactly the one my Belgian friend was trying to describe to me in 2006.