The Ilala

4/16/07 - 4/18/07

On Monday night, we left Nkhata Bay aboard the Ilala steamboat. (Actually, this was after we rode a minibus, for an hour and half each way just to go to an ATM in Mzuzu, since no place takes credit cards here, and you have to carry around gangsta rolls of cash to pay for anything.)

We took the Ilala all the way down Lake Malawi to Monkey Bay, about an hour drive from Mangochi. The boat took 2 days and 2 nights, and we got to see some beautiful scenery on the way. We slept on the upper deck, (which you can see in the second picture), which was quite comfortable except when it rained, and we had to hide behind the bar. This was considered first class, and was considerably more comfortable then staying below where accomodations resembeled a floating minibus. One night, when Nick and I were getting soaked, and unable to sleep, I shouted above the storm, "First Class!"

The boat was definitely a truly African experience in other ways as well. The kitchen almost ran out of food, despite the fact that there were only 6 first class passengers. We arrived in Monkey Bay, predictably, several hours late. The main reason we were late, was that we stopped at an island called Likoma for several hours and picked up fishermen (in their boats), and later dropped them off at a remote island in the middle of nowhere for better fishing. Apparently they will return to Likoma when the rains start again. As you can see from the picture, it was quite an event picking them all up.