Snorkelling didn’t happen today in the end, as the lake is still too rough, which is a shame as it was something that I was really looking forward to. I’ve heard that the marine life of Lake Malawi is incredible so I brought my own snorkelling equipment, planning to do as much snorkelling as possible.
However, y you can’t account for the weather and the view from my room when I woke up more than made up for it – even if the sound of the waves did take some getting used to overnight.
Swimming in Lake Malawi
The new plan was to go for a village walk after breakfast, to get to know the local area. However, as we were preparing for that, it started raining again so we postponed the walk until after lunch.
I made the decision to head back to my room to just relax and catch up on notes for this blog and I only just got back in time before a massive rain storm came through.
I’m definitely glad that we postponed the walk as getting caught in the storm would have been miserable. However, it didn’t last too long and so a few of us decided to go for a bit of a swim before lunch. It still wasn’t possible to snorkel – the waves were too big, and the water would have been too murky – but we had travelled this far so we were swimming in the lake one way or the other!
Swimming in the lake was a challenge as some of the waves were still quite big, even though the wind has reduced quite a bit since yesterday.
Due to the conditions, and the lack of emergency services of lifeguards, I made sure that I identified where the rips were so that we avoided those areas. I’m a strong swimmer, so I found the chance to swim in these conditions exciting, but it was still a challenge and so we only lasted 30 minutes before making our way back to shore to get ready for lunch.
Kande Village Walk
Our main activity for the day was the village walk, which finally took place after lunch. It is run by the local community to build bridges with visitors and to help raise much needed funds for the local area.
During the course of a couple of hours we were shown around the local village to see what life in the area was like and were shown houses, farming areas, chicken coops, the village water pump, and had a chance to speak to the residents.
Speaking to the residents, especially the young guys who work in the local craft stalls, is part of the marketing strategy for the village as we would find out towards the end of the walk. However, it was nice to have a chance to chat to people who are in a completely different situation to us to learn what life was like in Malawi.
We walked up to the main part of town on the main road which contained lots of different shops, bars, and all of the facilities you would expect in a town. Then, after crossing the road, we made our way up the hill to visit the next stop on the tour – the local secondary school.
We were given a tour of the facilities before being taken into the school library by the Head Teacher. There he told us about the challenges that the school was facing and about what it was like to work in education in Malawi.
One thing that stood out for us, as it was different to the system in many countries, is that teachers and other people who work in education in Malawi are contracted to the education system itself not to a particular school or local education trust. This means that they can be moved around all over the country depending on where particular skills are needed. This would put a bit of a strain on families, I would imagine, but we were told that accommodation was provided for most teachers as a result.
At the end of the talk the Head Teacher asked us for donations which was a little bit awkward – especially as he was standing right there by the donation box. It did feel like the village walk was more of a money making enterprise, however Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world so I can understand why they would be looking for funds at every opportunity.
Returning to camp
After spending some time at the school chatting to both the Head Teacher and some people who live in the local area it was time to head back to the lake.
The opportunities for locals to solicit money from us continued as we walked back to our camp as the young guys who work at the craft stalls re-joined our group and continued trying to sell us things. They have an agreement with Kande Beach Resort, and they have various craft stalls just outside the gates of the camp which are a community enterprise to provide job opportunities to young people. We were asked to look at the stalls before returning to camp.
It did feel a bit overwhelming, to be honest, as there were 6 of us and more than 30 of them, but they were really friendly.
I spent some time talking to the guys and decided to buy some small souvenirs including carvings and a game. Coincidentally it turns out that one of the people who works at the stall I went to was the brother of the person I bought the painting from in Mzuzu yesterday. In Mzuzu the guy told me that his brother worked at Kande but I didn’t expect to actually run into him.
In total, including the price for taking part in the walk itself, I ended up spending way more money than I was expecting to today but it will all go directly into the local community at least rather than a big company. However, had I known that the walk was basically just a money making enterprise I probably wouldn’t have gone on it.
So, if you go to Kande Beach yourself, my advice would be to avoid the walk and to just spend money at the stalls directly yourself – they are right by the camp anyway. You could also just go for a walk up to the main road, and go to one of the bars, yourself.
The walk took around 2.5 hours so we still had some time before dinner. As the wind had been calm since this morning the water had calmed down a lot and we decided to go for another swim. The conditions were a lot less challenging this time so a few more people joined us and we spent another 30 minutes relaxing in the waters and just enjoying the view.
It’s still a shame that we couldn’t go snorkelling today but I really enjoyed the chance to swim in Lake Malawi a couple of times.
After this second swim I relaxed in my room for a while before picking up my purchases from the local craft stalls (they were custom made) on my way to have dinner with the group.
An evening in the bar at Kande Beach
Over dinner we were honest with the Intrepid crew about how the village walk made us feel uncomfortable since it was just a way for solicit funds from us. We told them that we didn’t mind that, as the community is desperate for funds, but that they should have been honest about that in advance so that it didn’t create awkward situations.
The crew were grateful for our honesty and said that they will feed that back. However, since it’s the main business model of the community, I’m not sure that much will change.
The day finished with a few of us having drinks in the bar with some of the owners of Kande Beach Resort where they told us about the origins of the resort, what it’s like living in the area, and about the challenges that they have faced during COVID.
It was great to talk to them – they had some great stories to tell and I learnt a lot from them – but we have an early start tomorrow so I had to call it a night earlier than I would have done otherwise.
You can read more about Kande Beach Resort, and the stories that the owners told us, on this page.