Right now, I’m sitting in a hammock overlooking Lake Malawi, listening to the waves crash against Domwe Island’s boulders and waiting for Terence to wake up. I was trying to read and take notes on articles about girls’ education in Sub-Saharan Africa for a research proposal I'm writing, but I don’t think you’re supposed to do real work in a hammock. They don’t really seem to be designed to be work stations. So I’ve decided to write a blog post instead.
Terence and I arrived at Domwe Island, a small island off of Cape Maclear, Saturday morning after staying a night in Cape Maclear. Domwe is a national park with no electricity, running water, or permanent inhabitants. We’re camping in one of the (maybe four?) tent shelters Kayak Africa, a travel and safari company, has constructed here. Our shelter is hardly visible from the lake -- it blends in so well with the trees. But from the shelter, we have a fantastic view of the expansive lake and two nearby islands. We can even see the mountains of the Northern lakeshore.
This is such a great break from Zomba, where both Terence and I have been managing to keep quite busy. The travel to Domwe definitely made us feel that we’ve put some space between us and Zomba-- it involved four types of transport (minibus, big bus, matola, and kayak) and about nine hours, in total. We enjoyed the kayak trip over, and have since used the kayak to paddle close to the shore of the island. We’ve been able to see quite a few fish eagles, kingfishers, and other cool-looking birds. We also rented some snorkeling gear and have had a chance to see about one million brilliantly-colored cichlids.
At this point, though, the only mammal we’ve encountered is a giant rat-like creature. We tried to explain it to Felix, one of the workers here. We were hoping he’d be able to tell us what it is. The conversation went something like this:
Terence: We’re seeing these big rodent creatures.
Felix: Yes, there are rats here.
Alyssa: I don’t think they're rats. They are just so big.
Felix: Yes, those are the big rats.
Thankfully, some British travelers later disabused us of this and informed us that they are rock hyraxes, or dassies. We looked them up - they’re not even rodents! Too soon, though, we'll be taking a boat out of the land of the dassies to resume our Zomba lives.
Terence and I arrived at Domwe Island, a small island off of Cape Maclear, Saturday morning after staying a night in Cape Maclear. Domwe is a national park with no electricity, running water, or permanent inhabitants. We’re camping in one of the (maybe four?) tent shelters Kayak Africa, a travel and safari company, has constructed here. Our shelter is hardly visible from the lake -- it blends in so well with the trees. But from the shelter, we have a fantastic view of the expansive lake and two nearby islands. We can even see the mountains of the Northern lakeshore.
This is such a great break from Zomba, where both Terence and I have been managing to keep quite busy. The travel to Domwe definitely made us feel that we’ve put some space between us and Zomba-- it involved four types of transport (minibus, big bus, matola, and kayak) and about nine hours, in total. We enjoyed the kayak trip over, and have since used the kayak to paddle close to the shore of the island. We’ve been able to see quite a few fish eagles, kingfishers, and other cool-looking birds. We also rented some snorkeling gear and have had a chance to see about one million brilliantly-colored cichlids.
At this point, though, the only mammal we’ve encountered is a giant rat-like creature. We tried to explain it to Felix, one of the workers here. We were hoping he’d be able to tell us what it is. The conversation went something like this:
Terence: We’re seeing these big rodent creatures.
Felix: Yes, there are rats here.
Alyssa: I don’t think they're rats. They are just so big.
Felix: Yes, those are the big rats.
Thankfully, some British travelers later disabused us of this and informed us that they are rock hyraxes, or dassies. We looked them up - they’re not even rodents! Too soon, though, we'll be taking a boat out of the land of the dassies to resume our Zomba lives.
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