our first view of the lake as we drove over the mountain

one of the small coves that make up Nkhata Bay, a base for the local fishing trade

a traditional dugout, or log boat, used by most of the local fishermen

Nkhata Bay was our first stop in Malawi and a welcome change from the dirty, dustiness of Zambia. Malawi, although it is much poorer than Zambia, is a lot cleaner, not nearly as dusty, the roads are in excellent condition by African standards, and the people are genuinely friendly. they are super amped to have visitors in their beloved country. for example, where the cops at the Zambian roadblocks are aloof or grumpy, especially if you are an expat, the Malawian cops are excited to chat to you and enthusiastically advise you on the best spots to visit.

coming from Zambia, the first thing we noticed, besides the better roads and friendlier locals, is that the women don't wear wigs (almost all the women in Zambia wear wigs, even in the bush) and are far less obsessed with fashion, make up and image - the Malawian women are more natural and in our opinion all the more beautiful for it. the other big difference for us was that there is a lot less obvious corruption - a welcome change.

back to the bay: there are various beaches and coves that make up Nkhata Bay. the lake is so huge and the beaches so beautiful that its easy to forget you are in a landlocked country and not on a tropical island in the Carribean.

the water was so warm that sometimes you don't even feel it, going in. it's also so clear you can spend hours watching the fish and other abundant lake life swarming around your ankles and in the rock pools. in addition to the water creatures, the lake has a huge variety bird life. our favourites were the Fish Eagles and Pied Kingfishers. you can go on paid tours to view these birds of prey but they are so common that it's not necessary, in my opinion - just spend enough time on the beach and you'll see them in action.

on one of the 'short cuts' - stopping for cattle herds is common on the bush roads

kids playing in the rubble of a roadworks site - we had to change our route at this point

birds aren't used to vehicles this far into the bush

our Land Cruiser has a sun roof which makes for a great picture taking position

we weren't going as fast as it looks here - we averaged between 40-60km p/h in the very remote areas as the locals aren't used to vehicle and a lot of them run out into the road to investigate you

but the animals run away from the vehicles

some are scared of the camera, others love it and strike a pose for us

over the Christmas/new year holiday we did a road trip from Kitwe, in Zambia, down through Malawi and back to Kitwe again.

we chose to use the little known border post of Katumbi, in the north of Malawi, and then work our way down along Lake Malawi, and back out via Chipata. the roads are pretty bad on the Zambian side but it was a great 4x4 challenge with our Land Cruiser - nerve wracking in the best way.

it took us about 16hrs on the road (we slept one night in a super dodgy 'lodge' a few hours before the border) and although we used a friend's GPS to help guide us, we had to do a lot of guess work as quite a few of the 'roads' (basically just dirt tracks in the bush) we traveled didn't exist, according to the GPS's maps...

if you have a 4x4, a GPS, and don't mind being almost permanently out of cell phone signal range, then this is a great route to take. the Katumbi border post is TINY. there isn't even a border post on the Zambian side, probably because it is hardly ever used. because there's no traffic, the passport and vehicle export process is quite speedy (as 'speedy' as things get in Africa...) and the Malawian's are probably the most genuinely friendly African's we have met so far.