25th May

I suppose it is a good sign that I haven't written for so long - I'm in a supreme state of chilled-out-ness!!

Jon and I are still in Nkhata Bay, having found a fantastic backpackers' lodge with dents in the sofa that have our names on them... Every time we thought about leaving there has been some reason not to, but we will definitely be going on Wednesday with the owners who are going to Lilongwe.
Last week were the Malawian elections, which engulfed the whole town. Hearing that the result had been challenged and that riots are common place, we decided to lay low for a for days. It's good to see people so fired up by politics - it's been the centre of conversation for weeks - until you find out that one of the candidates was stood at the poling station bribing people to change their votes! It doesn't sound that different to the first elections my grandfather helped organise (in Zomba) in the 1960s where the candidate went 'unopposed' - pole sana Papa...

Let me bring you up to date a bit.

Taking the advice of The Lonely Planet and the Tourist Information office at Mbeya, we took the MV Songea from 'Itungi Port' to Mbamba Bay. The port was, in fact, not at Itungi but at the end of a dirt track through a small village; we would never have found it if it wasn't for the cheeky taxi driver. It was fantastic! The major port consisted of: 1 rusty portacabin (booking office), 1 reed hut (departure lounge and cafe), 1 rickety jetty and 2 old, slightly rusty, ferries.
Thankfully we had one of the 6 cabins on the top deck; if we had not splashed out we would have been herded like cattle into the oven-like hold with the other 100 or so passengers. So we rather guiltily enjoyed out 21 hour trip down the most stunning lake. We skirted the Livingstonian Mountains (Tanzania side) for the majority of the journey, stopping at tiny beaches to deliver a crate of coca cola or sack of grain. They are hugely craggy mountains that were wrenched in two (part of the Great Rift Valley). Consequently, they look like beautifully baked bread that has been torn apart.

Mbamba Bay seemed a bit bemused at our arrival - "tourists? Really? I remember those..." It certainly wasn't what we were expecting (all hopes of an ATM quickly vanished) but was one of those utterly fantastic jewels you stumble on by accident.

To be continued...