Grandma's Adventure

Jamie’s mom visited and took us on vacation. We stayed in the Sunbird Nkopola lodge at Lake Malawi, located just past Mangochi.  While there we took a one hour speedboat ride to small Bird Island. We fed the fish eagles and snorkeled with cichlids. On the opposite side of the island we viewed cormorants and five foot long monitor lizards sunning themselves on rocks. It was fun to feel the wind and the sun, and I wondered why I have not boated much in my life.

Fish Eagle

Cichlids

However, that was not enough “adventure” for Grandma.

The next day we drove up to Cape Maclear. She wanted to eat at a place called Danforth Yachting. Upon arrival we encountered a locked gate with a call button. Pressing the button and stating our intention, we were greeted with a stiff British voice stating that the restaurant was for paying hotel guests only. Grandma didn’t really seem to like the sound of that, and she is always ready to try something new. This was the perfect setup for what happened next.

Driving from there we passed the entrance of a national park. About five men were standing there who seemed to be doing nothing. As we slowed around the turn, they ran up to the truck. It went something like this.

“We can give you a really good deal!” they shouted.

“What’s that?” Grandma asked. Oh brother, I thought.

“When you enter the national park, we can give you a very nice tour of the lake. You can feed fish eagles and swim with the cichlids. We’ll take you to a natural aquarium.”

“We did that yesterday,” Jamie said.

“But our tour is very good. We are tour guides from an association. He’s the president, he’s the treasurer, and he’s the former president.”

“We don’t want to pay the national park fees,” Jamie argued.

“No problem. We’ve got a boat near Danforth Yachting, ready to go. No fees there. There’s a place to park your car.”

“At Mgoza lodge today they told us that if we wanted a tour, they could call some tour guides for us…” Jamie began.

“IT IS US!” A jubilant proclamation! Grandma’s eyes were dancing. I could tell where this was headed.

“It’s 12:30, the children are hungry.” I attempted to be a voice of reason.

“Don’t worry about that. Don’t worry for anything. We’ll cook some food for you. We’ll have it done by 2:00. We are PROFESSIONALS!!”

“It will be four,” I muttered.

And that’s how we found ourselves driving behind some guys who were running down a dirt road leading us to their parking lot. Dan announced himself as captain and promptly disappeared. We saw him only upon return.

And how we boarded the stalling Nety and sailed for Diamond Dust Beach, which was really a very dirty looking tiny beach on an island that had a black section of sand. It appeared to me to be charcoal from their cooking fires. They, however, assured me that it was diamond dust.

The Tour Guides and their vessel

Natural Aquarium was really a tiny rocky stop on the island. Bird poop covered everything. An old German guy in speedos arrived shortly after us, and sat on the only other rock directly below ours chain-smoking. I took the children to sit on a rock at the water’s edge. Grandma went to talk to the old guy. The cichlids were beautiful.

And that is also how we found our vegetarian selves in the Nety anchored at dirty Diamond Dust Beach, devouring nsima and vegetables made with the biggest packet of beef flavoring that I have ever seen, with our hands on dishes borrowed from naked boys swimming nearby. At four o’clock.

Our cook

“That was so fun!” Grandma said as we left. After she returned to the states she emailed, “That was so much fun, but it probably wasn’t the wisest decision. Don’t take any more African adventures like that. At least not without me!”

Monitor Lizard

--shallena