An Excursion to Cape Maclear

Last weekend, after a month of being in Malawi, Jesse and I finally traveled outside of the 10km radius around MCV.  We had received many recommendations about places to visit while we are here in Malawi, and the closest of these was Cape Maclear, so that was where we headed.  

Getting to Cape Maclear was easier and cheaper than our colleagues at the school had led us to believe.  Instead of a 250 kwatcha matola ride from MCV to Monkey Bay and a 500K ride from there to Cape Maclear, we managed a series of three free rides; the first was with a Malawian music producer on a business trip up from Blantyre (the commercial capitol) and the next was an Italian man who oversaw the paving of several of the area’s roads.  The Italian dropped us off at the point where the dirt road to Cape Maclear intersected the main paved road to Monkey Bay.  A matola to and from Cape Maclear only runs a few times a day, so after waiting at the end of the road for about twenty minutes awkwardly surrounded by a group of children silently proffering their jewelry and carvings for sale, we decided to start walking up the road until the next vehicle happened by.    After only a few minutes, a shiny black pick-up came racing down the road. Once again, we hitched yet another free ride, this time with an Icelandic man who was working with an NGO that provides education and clean water in the area around Monkey Bay. 

The drive to Cape Maclear along the 18km dirt road was beautiful.  Rolling hills were covered in boulders that made me regret my decision to leave my climbing shoes back in the United States.  There appears to be tons of climbing in the area, but I doubt that anyone has take advantage of it.  The rocks are just waiting for some adventuresome climber to spread the news to the rest of the world’s climbing community.   The road through these hills was scenic and quite rustic.  At first the road itself did not seem as bad as I had been led to believe.  I did not realize until our return trip in the bed of a matola truck that this was because of the padded seats and new shocks of the Icelander’s truck.  Several times on the way back I bounced so high that I felt as if I was riding on a wooden trampoline.      

When we arrived in Cape Maclear we were immediately set upon by the dozen of so crafty salesman who haunt the beach waiting for white tourists to leave the safety of their resorts.  At first they seem friendly, with greetings of “How are you sir?  Where are you coming from?  Have you made any arrangements for dinner/snorkeling/insert tourist activity here yet?”  A simple “No we’re not interested” does not suffice to keep them at bay.  One young man wanted to sell us a “local” dinner on the beach of fish and rice for 1500 K (a price that will normally buy a nice dinner for two at a resort).  When we laughed and said “no” he kept pestering us to name our price until we were forced to rude tell him to leave us alone.  These interactions gave me quite a negative impression of the town itself and made me understand why tourists often hide in the resorts where security keeps vendors like this away.  It is unfortunate that the situation occurs, but I am not sure if there is a good solution.  Since I did not come to Malawi to hang out with the other tourists at the camping resort where we had rented a tent for the night, I took the next best escape route and headed out on the water. 

Cape Maclear is a point of land that juts into Lake Malawi so that the view of the lake from this town is just gorgeous.  The sunset over the water was particularly beautiful, though difficult to capture on film.  There are a few small islands within kayaking distance (or swimming I suppose), and it was to these that we headed when we rented said kayak and a set of snorkeling gear.  Under the rays of the burning bright sun (whose unfortunate effects I didn’t notice until much later that night) we paddled out to the closest of these islands and beached our kayak on a rocky outcrop.  The rocks were covered in a thin layer of very slippery algae, which made exiting the kayak a bit interesting, but made the snorkeling absolutely phenomenal.  The algae growing on the rocks attracted all sorts of brightly colored fish for which the area and Lake Malawi are famous.  The iridescent blues and greens and reds would not look out of place on a coral reef, but here there was no coral in sight.  Instead, the fish dart back and forth through clear blue water that surrounds numerous underwater boulders.  It was quite a sight to see thousands of these colorful and varied fish swimming all around.  The clear water is certainly a testament to how well they do their job of algae-harvesting.  (Jesse has posted  video of our kayak outing on his blog that you should definitely check out.) 

With such a wealth of fish, it was no surprise to see all sorts of fishing birds such as the Kingfisher who would hover backwards, hummingbird-like, then plunge down toward his quarry, or the eagle who looked remarkably like our own American bald eagle dip her feet into the water and snatch out dinner.  The lake was also covered in human fishers, out in their white dugout canoes and armed with nets.  Some of the canoes would work in teams, with a net stretched between the two boats.  One such pair of canoes decided to pull in their net in using our rocky landing as a base.  Not knowing that they were there to fish, at first I was afraid that the canoe headed straight toward us was yet another irritating vendor intent on capturing our tourist dollars.  After a brief introduction (Muli bwanji?  Ndili bwino, kaya inu?  Ndili bwino.  What kind of fish do you have?  Yes.  Fish.) it became clear that their English was in no way up to the standard of a ruthless salesman and they wanted nothing more than to be left alone to pull in their net.  They did oblige us with a few photos though. 

All said, the trip was a balance of pleasant and unpleasant, but I am very glad that we went.  Despite its proximity, I’m not sure if I will return to Cape Maclear anytime soon, but I did learn from a teacher today that we missed the best part which was the National Aquatic Park nearby.  I will have to return at some point to see that since I heard that they offer quite a lot of information about the various species of fish that are endemic to Lake Malawi.  I look forward to that and to our next adventure.