Club Mak
A morning swim in Lake Malawi. A beautiful, luxurious lakeside resort. The frustrations of yesterday well and truly passed...

Apparently this place even has its own airstrip! ... Errr - hello? We're doing a charity fundraising challenge right? Remember that old chestnut?! This is obviously an expensive and exclusive hotel, well out of the reach of the majority of Malawians. In fact it seemed to be only white people who were guests while we were there.

Truth be told, I was fully enjoying my stay and quite happy to luxuriate in my surroundings to which I justified to myself as helping balance out the frustrations and physical exertions of other aspects of the trip. However an uneasy feeling crept into the group. Something I did not know previously was that Malawi was the only African country that maintained relationships with the white Afrikaans government during apartheid. Malawi - under Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda - benefited greatly from South African Afrikaans investment. Club Mak was a whites only resort, run for white Afrikaans holidaying from South Africa ... Of course this place has its own airstrip!!!

Some members of our group felt strongly that it was inappropriate for us to stay there. Others noted that this was part of the history of the place, and that things have changed and moved on since then. A couple of weeks later, I discussed this issue with some Malawians who work for ActionAid. They did not see anything wrong with us staying at Club Mak, told me that (affluent) black Malawians do frequent Club Mak during the holiday season, and indeed pointed out that as an organisation ActionAid itself sometimes uses the place for group meetings.

Even now I find myself with mixed feelings about the place, but on balance I suppose I probably would choose to stay there again.


Cycle to Cape Maclear
We cycled for a couple of hours this morning to Cape Maclear. Although a short distance, this road had a few extremely steep hills forcing the majority of us to get off and push our bikes up! But as we came over the hills and progressed up the Cape, the views of Lake Malawi got better and better. Eventually we arrived at Kayak Africa's base on the shoreline. What a superb location. Sandy beach. Amazing clear, warm water. A wooden hut and small pier. I joined with many of the group to dive and swim in the water, while we rested and stocked up with another fantastic picnic lunch. It was very tempting to think about upping sticks in England and settling here instead!

Kayak to Mumbo Island
The heat of the sun made the sandy beach unbearable to walk on, so I was glad when after lunch, it was time to swap our bikes for our kayaks. Having never kayaked before I was happy to let Alex take the rear seat and responsibility for steering our two person kayak... though that left me with the onus of setting pace! We had 10km to kayak out to Mumbo Island where Kayak Africa run the accomodation and kayaking concession on the island. Fortunately the water was fairly calm, so we only had a couple of incidences of feeling the kayak was about to tip over! The sun was relentless, there were new muscle groups to engage (I missed the kayaking session on our Nottingham training weekend!), and the island in the distance never seemed to get any closer... It was hard work! Made much easier because this was - like the hiking before - another opportunity to spend some time chatting and getting to know better another member of the group... Thanks Alex for not complaining about my "un-rhythmic pace"! ;-)

Perspective can play tricky games. For what seemed like hours, Mumbo Island stood stubbornly on the horizon and refused to move towards us, as we struggled to make out where the other kayakers were on the water and what approach to land we were supposed to be making for... Then suddenly it was upon us, and we turned into a quiet bay to land on another sandy beach. Greeted with a helping handshake out of the boat and "Welcome to The Island". It seemed as if we were the cast members of the latest Ewan Macgregor movie, won the lottery and escaped to the mythical paradise getaway.

Mumbo Island was setup as part of a kayaking concession, and while still used for that, it has been kitted out as the perfect honeymoon destination. Another wooden walkway leads off the quiet, secluded sandy beach, over the water to a lush rock outcrop where large, luxury tents and hammocks provided our accomodation. (Though some chose to sleep on the beach that night.) Oil lamps were laid out to guide us around the beach and island at night, enhancing the wonderful, atmospheric location. I've never been to Richard Branson's Nekker Island, but this made me think of that. Luxury which felt in tune with our completely natural and peaceful surroundings.

This was a perfect place to unwind... Another wonderful meal, a late night of keeping the bar open, and the moonlight breaking across the bay... And suddenly 20 people made a dash into the water for a midnight skinny dip! Another adventurous first for me, and certainly the perfect place to let my hair down and let go of any inhibitions. Lines of bodies jumping the breaking waves and screaming "Weeee! Weeee!", which almost became an anthem to make us giggle about afterwards.