Day 283 / 48

Date: 20 January 2023
Sleeping location: Butterfly Space, Nkhata Bay, Malawi
Distance (km today/total/total Part 2): 0 / 17376 / 2539
Estimated climb (m today/total/total Part 2): 0 / 150600 / 32600
It’s a: pangolin
Day in three words: Lakeshore lounge lizard 

The morning was very lazy as befits a rest day. I had a shakshuka breakfast, which wasn't really shakshuka but was very tasty, and a massive pot of coffee which slowly restored my energy levels. C&AC had planned to get the boat south down the lake via an island, but the timings don't work so we will cycle together for a little longer. Finally, African Santa AKA me dropped off the gift that I had carried, all the way from Kigali, to Staphy* who worked on the reception here. She seemed very pleased with it, as did Max with the reliable delivery service. Four weeks is approaching Royal Mail levels of speed, and I didn’t leave a “sorry you were out” card when she wasn’t there the first night. 

Butterfly Space is in a lovely setting on a steep hillside that slopes down to the lakeshore. There is a restaurant serving nice mzungu style food and below that, on decking above the water, a very picturesque bar area. The accommodation is dotted around the trees above and to the side of this, and C&AC&I had adjoining "tree house" cabins towards the top of the complex. The lake is the main draw, the water is delightfully clear and fresh and I made repeated trips in whenever I got a bit hot - as it's fresh water you can just dry off in the breeze without any salt being left behind. 

They had snorkels and paddelboards that you can borrow for free, so we did some snorkeling and then hung out on a floating platform called Floaty McFloatface. Charles pointed out some big clouds in the distance which he assumed to be smoke from boats, but they were actually lake flies, which are so numerous and swarm-y that people catch them, squish them together and make a kind of burger with them. “Unfortunately” this was not on the menu at the lodge. The snorkeling was fun, there are more than 700 species of cichlid (a small to medium fish) in the lake and they seemingly all hang out together in a dazzling array of different colours and patterns. They are all quite closely related so maybe it's sort of like a constant family gathering.

Back on land there were also colourful lizards skittering around and monkeys in the trees. As I was writing my blog I caught something out of the corner of my eye and turned to see a bright green chameleon moving very slowly across the decking, as if he thought I wouldn't see him. When I went to take a closer look he suddenly sped up but whilst employing the same "sneaking" style movement, just sped up. It was absolutely hilarious. When he reached a tree he turned himself much more brown and began to climb very slowly up, swivelling his little eyes at me. Animal of the trip so far.

In the afternoon C&AC took a nap and I took a stand up paddleboard ("SUP") out for a spin. It was quite choppy, plus I am crap at SUPing, so when I tried to SU I twice immediately fell in and subsequently reverted to KDPing** which was still fun and a surprisingly quick way to get around. I scooted round the bay and the next bay before retiring to Floaty McFloatface for a lie down on top of the board. Later we went into town to buy things and pickup my repaired shorts and saw dogs going mad over monkeys in trees. Nice to know that, like with squirrels back home, dogs here also have unrealistic expectations of catching arboreal creatures. Some of the monkeys were screeching back at the dogs, hopefully saying in monkey "come up here and say that to my face" or similar.

Dinner was a decent pizza in the dark as the power had gone out, then after this Geminy ran a quiz which we entered along with two Austrian cyclists whose names I have completely forgotten (Sandra...?). A local guy helping with the quiz did not seem to understand the format and during a round where you had to name the animal from its picture he repeatedly shouted "it's a pangolin" when a picture of a pangolin was shown. We cyclists won, perhaps thanks to our globetrotting experience, but there was a torrential rainstorm right at the end which meant everyone rushed inside and in the chaos C&AC&TheAustrians went to bed and I had to accept the prize (four shots) on my own. Unfortunately for the comic narrative I shared them with Geminy, Hollie and Toz instead of having them all myself and waking up on Floaty McFloatface at 5am.

Malawian Signs Corner

Also on a rest day

*Pronounced “Stephie” so I’m not sure if Staphy herself or Max got the spelling wrong here

**Kneel Down Paddleboarding, not Kevin Davey paddleboarding, as sadly I don't think I am anything like the first to invent this technique