Malawi

Our next stop, Kande beach pronounced Candy beach, conjured images of powered sugar sand, fairy floss trees and waves of melted chocolate. While this was not quite the case, this beach on lake Malawi was certainly not disappointing, with beautiful white sand and refreshing calm water.

During our stay at Kande beach our guide, Darlington, organised a much anticipated party night, consisting of a pig on a spit. As a group we chipped in and complemented this sensational meal with an old uni favourite of an alcoholic 'punch.' While our years of jungle juice are long behind us, we were determined to not feel our age and caved into the peer pressure, despite a mix of strange alcohol called cane. I can comfortable say neither of us where keen to try the cane again (ever), we had an excellent night even though we didn't quite manage to stay up as late as the 'young ones' on our tour.

And the famous Kande beach slogan speaks for itself - The bits you remember, you'll never forget!

The major highlight while staying in Malawi was a village tour we were taken on by a local man called Roger, and a massive group of local men 'practicing their english.' We started out visiting Roger's house, with a hearty wave from his mother, doing the landry in the yard. While giving us a tour of the house he explain the local customs, how men find a wife, how malaria is affecting the community and the issues surrounding HIV. Roger then took us to visit the local clinic, where we met the community midwife and a beautiful baby born the night before. Next up we went to the local school where we were explained the local education system with a request of a small donation. While sitting through this explanation we notice large crowds of children gathering outside and much to our delight they practically tackled us as we came out side. Each guy in our group ended up with one or two children hanging per arm, and maybe one or two around the neck or clinging to their back. Fortunately, as the girls were not quite as strong it was a child holding each hand. After lots of photos, as the children loved seeing their picture on the screen, we began to head back to the campsite with our entourage of children and local men. The local men where actually great at this point, explaining to us that the children would proudly tell their parents that they got to hold our hands and also making sure each child went home rather then getting lost by going back to the campsite with us. Once the children had dispersed and we were back at our campsite our new local 'friends' brought out the things they were selling, which was a great opportunity to see the local wood work and 'art' before making a purchase or two.

After our stay on Kande beach we had one more night at another beach in the north of Malawi before crossing (slowly) the boarder into Tanzania.

- Louise -