There is a national pride here in the “warm heart of Africa.” They like to “show off” their country. A spectacular lake that is over 500 kilometers (about 300 miles) in length separates Malawi from parts of Tanzania and Mozambique. There are mountains. Mt. Mulanje, an easy drive east of Blantyre, is one of the highest mountains in Africa. We have already described the beauty of the tea plantations of that area. The Lower Shire valley has a uniqueness of its own. Each day here is an adventure and we never know what we will see on the next trip.
On Friday we took a long automobile ride to see Cape Maclear, near the southern end of Lake Malawi. Claude’s wife, Mercy, who is a nurse, was off and we invited her to join us on this trek. Claude seemed intent on showing us this area and assured us it would be about 2 hours away and great fun. After the four-hour plus ride including two hours over partially washed out highway, washboard side roads seemingly in the middle of nowhere, we finally got to the cape. Claude maneuvered the car through the tiny rutted lanes of Chembe village to a neat little lodge with a delightful open air restaurant on the beach for lunch. The fishermen at Chembe still go out in their canoes of hollowed logs to throw and set their nets, bringing back their catch to dry on platforms in the sun.
Along the shore, we found fishermen untangling their nets, women washing clothes, laughing children bathing and jumping about in the water, and a young man who wanted to take us to the island that lay in this cove. After arriving at the price, the young man went off to purchase some bread and fish. We will explain their part in the story later.
The sturdy boat with an outboard motor and canopy to shield us from the burning sun picked us up and headed for the point on the island. Once we arrived at the boulder strewn beach we looked down in the water and saw the brilliant blue flash of hundreds of small fish. One of the boatmen got into the water with handfuls of bread, attracting even more of the fish. They were a sight to behold. Lake Malawi is known for its huge variety of fresh water fish.
When the bread was gone we headed around the island to see the fishing eagles. Very soon we spotted the white head of an eagle in a tree at the shore line. One of our boatmen waved in the air one of the ten small fish he had purchased for the journey. He whistled as sharply as an eagle, then tossed the fish high in the air. In a moment we watched the eagle leave the tree, making a circular flight path before swooping down to the water just beside our boat to grab the fish and take it back to the tree. A few moments later two eagles crisscrossed in flight in front of our eyes while heading for another fish.
As the boat puttered us back to shore, we sat there dreading the four-hour bone-rattling drive ahead of us but quite aware that we had seen another beautiful part of God’s creation that the Malawians are proud to call their nation. Claude says people come to the Cape to see the fish and the eagles. Yes. And Mercy had her first boat ride.
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