The Big Carrot

Despite the early delays (cancelled connections and lost evenings spent at Emperors Palace for the Zini Posse) and lost baggage - we did finally make it to Lake of Stars!! I had hoped to post this last weekend - hoping to be speedy off the mark - but (un)surprisingly that didn't happen.

It was an amazing holiday - had four days of madness: dancing under the stars on the beach by the lake and another 3.5 days of chilling in one of Malawi's National Parks (Liwonde): my mind finally went quiet for the first time in recent memory, a feat for my mind at the best of times.

After a few unexpected days in Lilongwe (visiting markets and wild life sanctuaries, playing uno by the pool) we headed down in our shuttle, cruising with (ken nearly lost his head with excitement when it became clear who our shuttle buddies were) The Very Best posse (Esau, the-rather-unfortunately-named-RadioClit, Kingston - the entourage - and Molaudi the MC from Polokwane now living in Europe and hanging with Justice and co) to the Festival site (near Mangochi for those interested in the geography). Lake of Stars is less of a music festival and more of a beach party - an Amazing Beach Party. While I was expecting more southern African music discoveries, and certainly some of the big names in Malawian music played (Lucias Banda & The Black Missionaries to name a couple), it was more European DJs and MCs. Having said that, dancing on the sand to the early hours, drinking Malawi Gin and Pineapple Fanta and hanging with the Zini Posse was so much fun. Then you wake up and nurse the sleep deprivation while combatting the heat hanging out on the shore and swimming in the lake - when its 40 degrees and the gin is hurting: Bilharzia be damned :) once recovered you head back over to the festival site to do it all again... and Repeat.

Then it all comes to an end and Ken and co have to head back to Lilongwe so Kerry found a new friend in the toilet queue at the Fest (Jenny from Northumberland) who, thankfully, was also keen to leave the party behind and head down south away from the revelry to Liwonde and Chinguni Camp - recommended and an easy trip from the festival site. We were all supposed to head to the park before the festival together but SAA's errant and unpredictable flight schedule scuppered that plan. In retrospect I am so glad I got to go to the park after the festival to chill out and regroup. So after a few hours on the mini bus, kids and chickens were very well behaved, we arrived in Liwonde and arranged a ride to the camp. Chinguni is simply beautiful, breathtaking. There is no electricity and the only sounds are fish eagles by day, hippos in the eve and hyenas at night. The food was amazing! And the bar/fire pit overlook the water estuary where water buck and elephants graze all day long. The camp is run by a wonderful afrikaans couple from.... Potchefstroom! Mariska and Pieter were awesome. So much fun reminiscing about Oppi with them and learning more about Malawi. My camera battery died so I have very pics from this part of the trip but no pictures I would have taken could possibly have done it justice anyway.

Malawi

Suffice to say, I want to go back and see more - it just isn't enough. Malawians are warm and welcoming, it is easy to get around and there are so many different areas to explore. Thinking a drive through Mozambique and then heading to the north of the Lake - who's in?