An inland sea

Coming to terms with Lake Malawi is not easy. All that huge body of fresh water!  It's mind-boggling for anyone brought up in an arid region. The waves, the beach, the crash and splash and the absence of an opposite shore - it's all quite normal, in a fresh and beautiful way, as shore-lines are. But after a swim to find there is no salty stickiness is as odd as not seeing shells on the beach.

Scramble over granite boulders tumbled between the sunset and the Lake, listen to the hush and suck of waves on this inland sea, where granite kopjies are studded with baobabs and dassies. The ubiquitous fish eagle calls and a pair of redwing starlings abseil down a rock-face, searching out who knows what. Across the teal-green wrinkled water, the drab splattered rocks on any of the many offshore islands are conjured into a sudden bright confection as they catch the last of the sun.

A silky dark flank heels and slips under the water. The movement was so like that of a seal as to bring confusion - are there freshwater seals? There are salt-water hippos in North Africa.
 
Oh, of course! An otter!  If this fascinating body of water was only a simple stream or even a raucous river. But disguised as a sea this enormous lake misleads and deceives the eye. It’s a geological sleight of hand that leaves the viewer ill-equipped for rationality.

The silver sands of Chintheche

The nearest part of ‘mainland’ Malawi to Likoma is Chintheche and the shores of Lake Malawi. North lies bustling Nkhata Bay and south, the serenity of Bandawe and Kande Beach. It is on this shoreline that the tourism planners of Malawi have been seen most in the past years. Silver beaches of the whitest sand distinguish this stretch as much as the verdant foliage, which in many places rolls down right to the waterline and envelopes tiny rocky coves in a close green embrace. It is a powerfully attractive scenic combination but one where future development will need the most careful present control.

Much of the population of the area around Chintheche was displaced in the seventies - to make room for an ambitious pulpwood scheme and harbour facility, all of which eventually came to naught in the cold light of economic appraisal. Their return was encouraged by the democratic government elected in 1994 but that new population, combined with the impact of the new Lakeshore road allowing easy access to trucks seeking firewood, has meant that they tend to stake their land claims by chopping down the trees. The very same trees which make up the powerful tourism appeal of this area of Lakeshore!

Stories and pictures courtesy of Central Africana