Diving with Lake Malawi's cichlids

Sunrise at Mushroom Farm overlooking Lake Malawi and the mountains

After a good night’s rest at the Mushroom Farm I woke and it dawned on me that it was already the 5^th day since I had arrived in Malawi. The sensation was strange realizing that I only had a little over two days left in the country. The feeling was the time in Malawi was drawing to close too soon.

The lodge was such a lovely place that I would have stayed for another day doing nothing other than eating good food, interacting with other travelers and soaking in the views but, I had to push on. Lake Malawi was in sight and the last thing on my to-do list still beckoned.

Usipa fish: The staple protein for Malawians 

To get down the escarpment to Chitimba, from where I would be taking a ride to Mzuzu, I had to call in a motorcycle taxi and it wouldn’t be wrong calling the ride down as a little adventure in itself. There are about 20 steep hairpin bends and the road is largely unpaved and strewn with rocks. It’s requires concentration and strong arms to stabilize the motorbike so when the driver suggested I “squeeze close” I quickly followed suit.

Tried some myself at Nkhata Bay

The bottom of the escarpment leads directly to Lake Malawi and the change from cool-temperate to humid-hot climate is immediately apparent. Once the motorcycle driver dropped me off at Chitimba the only option was to take a minibus taxi to Mzuzu. Until then I had avoided minibus travel in Malawi and with good reason. The one I was in was full of passengers, a goat, and baskets of small usipa fish and mangoes.

The taxi stopped frequently to pick up passengers and every time it stopped I thought there is no way another person can fit in... but to my utter amazement the conductor somehow managed to make it work every single time. At one stop a petite looking man wanted to hop on but there was no place for him, immediately a robust lady motioned to him to sit on her lap which he promptly did. It bought out a few giggles from the other passengers and I couldn’t help but shake my head with and laugh at this impromptu hilarious incident.

Lake Malawi

Rainbow Skink

That funny incident aside the ride wasn’t exactly comfortable and was painfully slow with constant stops. To numb the body the mind was already trying to imagine me reaching Mzuzu…but alas, it was still a couple hours away.

Luckily at one stop a kind gentleman who was sitting in the front seat by the driver offered me his seat when be got down. Without his help that journey from Chitimba to Mzuzu would have been an extremely unpleasant memory. Once in Mzuzu I made sure that for the ride to Nkhata Bay I took the much more comfortable option of a shared taxi.

Ilala...the ferry that plies Lake Malawi

There are a handful of lodges at Nkhata Bay and they all came highly recommended among the backpacker community so I just picked one...Mayoka. Since I had a tent I decided to pitch it rather than get a shared dorm. In hindsight I should have taken the dorm because the first tropical storm tore through the following night and it made an uncomfortable night’s rest and a messy tent to clean up the following morning. It’s the first time my Big Agnes tent has been through rain and overall it help up well although water did leak in through a couple spots but it might be more user error than the tents design flaw.

With easy access to the clear waters of Lake Malawi, the lodges are located superbly on the rocky shores of the lake and the best about them was that they have snorkels, paddleboards, canoes and kayaks all free for guests to use. It was time to pack away the hiking gear and bring out the swim shorts and sunscreens and go snorkeling.

To explore my fascination with Lake Malawi I have to go back a couple decades ago when I first dreamt of having an aquarium. I started with the usual guppies, fighter fishes and the hardy sucker catfish. This interest only intensified in college where I sought more exotic fishes often saving money from my motorcycle fuel allowance so I could go shopping for the exotic varieties.

Early ones of those were blue cichlids with vertical lines that turned into horizontal black and yellow bands as they matured. Although I eventually grew weary of maintaining these aggressive fishes, their color and trait make a lasting impression.

Thanks to TV channels like NatGeo and Discovery my eyes were opened to the real home of these fishes and the mindboggling fact that there was a lake in Africa where there exist hundreds of cichlids species all evolving from probably a single one – seemingly a place where Darwin’s theory has gone on overdrive.

An excellent complimentary article on Lake Malawi and its fishy evolution is found on Smithsonian Magazine article here.

The following morning, I teamed with a German volunteer from Mayoka Lodge and paddle boarded the calm waters of the lake to Aqua Africa on the opposite site of the bay to go diving. Luckily, she had a GoPro so all the underwater pictures and videos are her courtesy. I had infact purchased a GoPro just for this trip but it arrived too late for me to figure it out and I eventually decided to leave it back in Liberia when I was packing.

Mere snorkeling in Lake Malawi’s waters is good enough for an introduction to the myriad varieties of cichlids but diving just gives that opportunity to go deeper, see more species and observe behaviors better. Lake Malawi is an amazing diving destination due to the unique combination of its colorful fishes, good visibility, lack of strong currents and amenable water temperatures.

The ubiquitous Malawian bicycle taxi 

I wanted to dive again the next day but it was overcast and the waters was disturbed from the tropical storm the night before. An additional dissuading factor was the fact that I had to wait a minimum of six hours before starting my journey back to Lilongwe via Mzuzu which sit at an altitude.

Malawian

Once in Lilongwe it was time to hop on the plane to India just as the rains had ushered in this smallish African country. Seven days in Malawi had passed fast…perhaps too fast but I was ready. In a couple days, my cousin was getting married and the festivities had already started as I looked forward to meeting family and friends I had not met in a long time.

My time in Malawi was spent primarily experiencing its nature but the country is called as “the warm heart of Africa” due to the kindness of its people and in my limited time I had come across nothing but genuinely friendly people. It might be a poor country and a population that that continues to face hardships but their geniality is undoubted. I hope to return to Malawi someday not only to complete the southern circuit but also to perhaps spend more time with its people.