Senga Bay, Malawi

Caught a minibus from outside our guesthouse to the minibus station in town where we were hustled onto a bus going to Salima. After one and a half hours we arrived at Salima where we were mobbed by touts and they kicked each other and punched each other. It was chaos. We had read and been told that Malawians were friendly people but we regularly saw a lot of aggression especially at transport stops. Eventually we were pushed onto the back of a large truck. It was loaded with planks of wood and bags of maize were stacked on top of them and then our 4 packs were tossed on to the sacks. The locals sat on the rails on the sides of the deck and we moved off a few metres. More people climbed on and everyone had to reshuffle where they were sitting as 3 huge bags of mangoes were dumped into the middle of the deck. Linda and I ended up with babies on our knees as the mothers were getting squashed. I managed to sit at the end of the deck on my pack but at the next stop I had a large lady sitting on my hips squashing me for the rest of the bumpy 20 km ride on the potholed road to the coast where the 28 of us all bailed out.


Some loud pushy local youths met the bus in Senga Bay where we planned to spend some days resting up.


The guesthouse was right on the lake edge and had a lovely soft grass area where we all camped as the rooms were all booked up and far too expensive for us. We were able to eat an evening meal in the restaurant but had to eat in the camp area if we had our own food. It made us feel unwanted like second class citizens!

It was a pretty dusty place so we were thankful for the green grass. The locals were selling boat trips and jewellery. A lot of Lake Malawi has bilharzia but a sign in the guesthouse said that none had been found in the water outside.

When we walked around the village the children asked for money and pens and followed us about. The young men with their Rastafarian hairdoes followed us to sell jewelery or boat trips.

The owner of the guesthouse was a 40 year plus old, Zimbabwean (we were told), woman and had had the place for 9 years. She drove us to the Salima bus station when we left and waved like the Queen as she drove through the village. She is involved in many activities in the village, the hospital, children's clinic, palliative care, and supporting locals with small businesses as well as trying to educate them on HIV/Aids care so she is well respected.