Lake Malawi for Rookies

                                                                    By

                                                            Chuck Rambo

 In Oct. 2003 my wife, Carol and I, were fortunate enough to attend another Cichlid Press promoted cichlid safari led by Ad Konings to Lake Malawi. We already had our passports from last years trip to Lake Tanganyika and Malawi does not require a visa since we were from the U.S.  As far as additional shots go, all I required was a hepatitis booster. We got our Malaria prescriptions renewed and we were medically ready to go.

We were given the flight number, dates and times by Ad from London’s Heathrow airport to Lilongwe, Malawi.  We booked that part of the trip first since it only flies once a week. Luckily that flight did not leave until 10:00 P.M. in the evening. This mean’s we did not have to stay the night in London. Most flights from the U.S. to London are overnight flights that arrive usually in the morning or early afternoon. We booked a flight out of San Francisco straight to London and arrived around 1:30 P.M. Our African flight was late and we left around midnight. Unfortunately our flight to Lilongwe was not direct and we had a two-hour lay over in Nairobi Kenya. We could not get off the plane and had to remain at the gate for around two hours. After 20 hours in the air and twelve plus hours at airports we finally arrived.

We were very concerned about our bags. With the present security at airports we were not allowed to lock our luggage before leaving.  We were able to take four large trunks that contained all of our dive gear and clothes for the trip. I secured all the trunks with cable ties and placed a note inside each one with a replacement cable tie inside. Two of our trunks with the dive gear had been opened by inspectors and secured with tape and the additional cable ties. Everything arrived intact and ready to go.

When we arrived at the airport Stewart’s Grants drivers greeted us. One van took half the group to Stewart’s compound with the rest of us waited for Ad to arrive from Zambia a couple of hours later.  A total of fourteen participants were on this particular safari. Three Americans, two French, two Brits, four Germans, a Canadian, a Swede and a wild Dutchman from El Paso Texas. The compound was only two hours away from the airport. The roads were very good with the exception of the last couple of miles getting to Stewarts place. As you enter the compound you pass a gate with a large brightly painted sign with a large cichlid painted on the wall with his name and address of the site. I think the whole compound is around 10 acres or so. Many of his workers live on site.

The compound has been around for approximately 30 years. There is a six-foot high brick wall surrounding the compound. Stewart’s place is also called the Red Zebra Lodge.  It is really a very beautiful place. The grounds are well landscaped maintained by a trained staff.  As you come in you notice the many concrete vats on both sides of the road. The compound is broken down into three section, mbuna, utaka and peacocks. There is the main fish house in which fish are brought in from the vats and given a final review before they are exported and a second fish house in which special fish are housed for promotional purposes. Stewart lives in a beautiful home in the center of the compound with his wife Ester and his children. Next to his house is the bar/dining room building. Here is where the meals were usually served and most of the drinks. Next to that building were the guest rooms. They were constructed of block walls with vaulted ceilings and concrete floors. Windows had screens and glass and best of all the rooms had electricity all the time with a fan.  My wife and I got a room with a twin bed that was comfortable and complete with mosquito netting. We also got a dresser and a desk. Overall the room was very nice. Each room had a bathroom with hot cool running water.

Delicious meals are served family style. Normally there is a choice of meat with numerous side dishes. An eager staff waited on us getting our drinks and whatever we needed. The cost of the rooms is $100 for room and board. Beer was an extra 50 cents a bottle. Although many different local beers were available I ended up liking Carlsberg green or brown the best. Mixed drinks were available too. I would personally recommend the MGT (Malawi Gin and Tonic). Can’t remember how much they were, maybe I had too many? All the drinks are cold and very refreshing.  Stewart’s wife Ester really tries very hard to please her guests and it shows. We were all very tired on our first night and turned in early.

In the morning I had an opportunity to see the fish in the compound and in the fish houses. Wow! I had been in the hobby for over 30 years and was really taken back by the outrages colors of wild Malawian cichlids in the sunlight. All the fish seemed to glow like they were electric. The fish were kept alive with air driven box filters and a pumping system that changed the water with new lake water on demand. All the concrete vats were covered with sunscreen to prevent them from overheating and to keep birds away from the fish.

An English style breakfast is served around 8:00 A.M. each morning. It usually consists of eggs, sausage, beans, fruit, toast and tea or coffee. On our first day we took a short boat ride to Nakantenga Island to dive and make sure our equipment was working properly. This is where the red top zebra is exported. The water was much cooler in Malawi than Tanganyika. In the shallow bays of Tanganyika I recorded water temperatures as high as 84 degrees F. In Malawi the temperatures in the open water were averaging around 77 degrees F. In Tang my 3mm wetsuit may have been a little too thick, but in Malawi it worked great. The water is clearer here too.  Probably because we are diving at an isolated island away from shore, I would expect less sediment. The diving in the lake is awesome! Many cichlids of every color and shape are found all over. You don’t have to go looking for them because they seem unafraid and are much easier to photograph. There were many red top zebras to be found. Some were better than others. The amount of red and intensity of the color varied from fish to fish.  This is important in obtaining wild fish that you understand that not all fish are alike, even if they are collected in the same area. So far everything is working fine so we are ready for our 10-day cichlid safari around the lake tomorrow. To be continued………………

                                               Lake Malawi for Rookies II

While at Stewarts place we made a couple of dives in the southern part of the lake. Since you cannot really dive out in the front of Stewarts place unlike Toby’s in Lake Tanganyika, a boat ride was always necessary to get to a site. Before our road trip we had a dive at Nakantenga Island. The boat ride was a little over an hour. This gave us a chance to try out our dive gear before we went on our 10-day camping trip.  The water was very clear and the cichlids were everywhere. This is the main collecting area for the red top zebra. The zebra types were always very close to the rocks, while the Cynotilapia afras were always hovering well above the rocks. This made differentiating them very easy. The afras feed on the plankton floating in the water and doesn’t necessarily make them tied to the rocks. Everything checked out well and we were looking forward to our road trip to Nhkata bay tomorrow.

We got up early and had breakfast and repacked all of our gear. Since we were going to be gone for such a long time we needed to bring almost all of the gear we had brought to Africa. We were packed up in a few vans to head up to the bay. Our boat called “Lord Justin” had left the day before with the crew, food and supplies. We drove from Kambiri Point, Stewart’s place, and headed north along the coastline to the bay. We saw numerous villages and towns along the way. Not many cars, a few trucks and lots of people walking near or on the roadway. One of the places we did stop was a medium sized bridge crossing the Chia lagoon. There we saw many fishermen in and along the inlet to the large lagoon catching mainly cichlids. They were not the pretty mbunas or utakas that one would normally think of as Lake Malawian cichlids. Instead they were tilapia types. The fishermen were using large dip nets and wide seines to catch the small fish. They were usually only 4 or 5 inches in size. It was amazing to see the fisherman work in these small dug out canoes. Unfortunately the longer we stayed the more attention we attracted. This usually meant numerous small children begging. We learned from our previous trip to refrain from giving them anything. We have seen well wishing tourists toss candy to small children only to have the larger kids forcefully take it away. We got back in the vans and we were on our way. There were only a few checkpoints along the way. Stewart’s drivers knew the roads very well seemed to know the policemen at the checkpoints too, we had no problems clearing these checkpoints. On our way up we stopped by a rubber plantation and saw latex being drawn from rubber trees.

Eventually we got to Nhkata Bay. It took most of the day and it felt good to get out of the van and stretch. The bay was a busy place. Lots of little shops. People were getting on the lakes largest ship, an old freighter than ran between this bay and Monkey bay in the southern part of the lake. As were getting on the boat the vans we were being filled with fish from some of Stewart’s divers to be taken back. Nothing gets wasted here. We went around the southern part of the bay for a quick dive. It was late in the day getting dusk. The cichlids were getting hard to see and I didn’t take any pictures because it was getting too dark, but we did see lots of the large bagrid catfish. Some were up to 5 feet long! We quizzed Ad if they were anything to worry about. He assured us that we had nothing to fear. That night we stayed at Chikale Beach Bar and Lodge. They had cold bear and a restaurant too. Our modest room consisted of a mattress and box spring laid on the floor with a mosquito net. We had running water and electricity. We didn’t notice any bugs because we had three different species of ants living in our room. They ranged in size from 1/8 of an inch to a little over ½ inch. The chicken I had for dinner was not much more than skin and bones. It came with fried potatoes too. It was filling. We were all pretty tired and we soon went to bed getting ready for our trip tomorrow to Likoma and Chisimulae Islands.