Lake Malawi – Palm Beach

We were like children keeping the nicest sweet for last.  We were on our way to Cape Maclear but at the last moment decided to turn of at Palm Beach. George from George, said on his blog that it is a really nice campsite and not too expensive. We camped on the beach a few meters away from the water. Palm Beach is situated about 9km north of Mangoshi at the end of Lake Malawi before it runs out to become the Shire river and Lake Malombe.  We were at last at Lake Malawi! We had the usual magnificent Malawian sunset and sunrise the next morning to make us even feel more at home  Riette and her husband are good hosts and we even spoiled ourselves by eating in the restaurant that night. (The 1st time since we left Johannesburg) Very affordable even on our low budget and delicious. We paid 3000MK camping per night and 1500MK each for dinner. (R300 in total) We were the only campers (again). We just love this out of season thing….it’s cheaper and you have the whole campsite exclusively for yourself

We stayed 3 nights before going to Mangochi to update our airtime, which by the way is very cheap. We paid 1200MK for 1 week BBI for the Blackberry.  This means that we haven Internet, emails, BBM’s and Whatsapp available (free) and thus has contact with children, family and friends. We also bought tomatoes and onions on route at a village stall. Tomatoes looking beautiful when you buy them but is surely not long-life….must use it within 2 days even if it is kept in the fridge. 50Kwatcha each.

The clock tower in Mangochi erected in honour of Queen Victoria and dating back to the early 20th century

Mangochi was called Fort Johnston in Colonial times. The town was founded by Sir Harry Johnston in the 1880’s as a British colonial defense post. After this Fort Johnston was an important slave market and administrative center.

The old scenic bridge is gone….this is the new one

The population is about 60 000 and about all of them are on the streets at the same time.

We see village shops with very funny names but this is one of the best

This is the one next door. See the “Pick n Pay” sign