“Look out for a bank, buddy!”was the call down the neck breaking hill into the bay!
“Remember we are broke!”
Salvation found, we drew as much cash it allowed.
Our destination was Mayoka Village Beach Lodge. After an adventurous and tiring trek over a footpath (not all footpaths are cycle friendly), we reached it.
Beautifully situated on Mayoka point, which towers over Lake Malawi, the lodge is terraced with steep stone steps leading to each level and finally plunging into the water. Thick natural vegetation hangs over the terraces giving you the feeling that at any moment the world was going to slip into the deep clear waters of Lake Malawi.
We were welcomed by Maria who showed us around. We chose dormitory beds to save ourselves the embarrassment of possibly ending our tour on the steps to camp on the lakeshore. Anyway, it was better to have the bikes comfortably out of the elements, they needed a rest too!
That night we met Gary and Kathryn Wiggil who are the owners of Mayoka Village, as the lodge is commonly known. They had just arrived from Cape Town and knowing of the NSRI, insisted we stay for a few days as he was not going to charge for our accommodation.
He added that we would not leave before the weekend anyway, since there was to much to see and do. With a beer or two overlooking the sunset, we opted for the dinner special.
Most places have specials to get rid of overstock, but Mayoka Village has become infamous in the backpacking world for there special nights, fresh home cooked meals, every night! Our first night had us tucking into one of the finest rare beef roasts I’ve experienced, laden with vegetables.
Staff at Mayoka greet you by your name and the atmosphere is so homely that you often have to remind yourself where you are. Not at home, but 4000km north in Malawi. After our dinner we learn’t a quick lesson in Malawian pool. The Malawi white wash.
If you sink all your balls before your opponent sinks one of theirs, you automatically win without needing to sink the black ball. Terrible rule when you playing special staff at Mayoka and local pool hustler. This resulted in a close call of a glory run which Marc narrowly avoided.
The instinct of sinking the first potable ball comes into play when your fate could be running around a pool table without pants!
Surprises are frequent at Mayoka. The next day every visitor was treated to a free traditional lunch of beef stew and nsima (pap), followed by a free boat trip to go feed the fish eagles and go cliff jumping.
This was an amazing experience where we met a group of people which were to become very close friends, aka The Sachet Squadron.
Both Marc and I agreed that it was time to take a break and enjoy the diversity of people here.
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