Put Foot Rally Day 12 and 13 - Luminous Lake Malawi

The big drive on the previous day had afforded us some much-needed chill time on Lake Malawi, and I couldn’t think of a better place to spend it. Senga Bay is all kinds of magic. I spent the early morning watching the onshore wind create fragile, psuedo waves that ebbed erratically as fisherman dragged their pastel-shaded boats out onto the lake.

The rest of the day was filled with beach soccer, a fair amount of relaxation and a drive through some of the nearby villages with rally teams Kif and the Arus and Goofy Gophers.

The Almost Full Moon Malawi Checkpoint Party was upon us and teams started rolling into the campsite thick and fast. I fuelled up on some Marmite on Provita, courtesy of Kif and the Arus, before Dan Nash and I set about furnishing The Rewards Bar, which turned out to be heaps of fun for anyone willing and able to perform a task for anything from a cup of punch to beach balls and glow sticks (check out the pics from the Checkpoint Party here).

Just before all the crews whipped out the lumo body paint and got dressed to the flourescence, some of us were entertained on the lake shore by Shane Hodges from The Put Foot Chicks with what (I now know) is called poi … I think.

As with my blog on Etosha, I felt a little wordless about my surroundings as the last light left the bay, finding it a little difficult to explain the way the moon trickles over the slow surf, or how the colours creep their way, ever brighter up to the shore. Hopefully this image will do.

Anyway, before I get too emotional … at around 19h20 it was time to tuck into another epic buffet before crews got down to some serious partying. There seems to be a precedent for the Checkpoint Parties on the rally, and I’m not sure where they find the space, but teams have been pulling out all sorts of wild costumes. The Almost Full Moon Party was no exception. Here are a few action shots (check out the rest of the Checkpoint 4 album on Facebook), most of which were as a result of the Rewards Bar that got the party started.

The following day we packed up and left Malawi for the treachery and buggery that is Mozambique’s roads, but more of that later.