Mbamba Bay

I dreamt I was doing a challenging dive at night in an ocean with my eyes closed in strong currents surrounded by whales. My eyes opened (in the dream) in a brightly lit tunnel as I emerged from the water. The Dutch dive instructor congratulated me for passing what had apparently been part of some intensive training programme.

Analyse that. Perhaps I’m entering stormy waters and don’t want to face it. Night dives are rarely a topic on my, or many people’s minds. Although perhaps my dream was reaching deep into the subconscious memory as today we had planned a day trip to Lake Nyasa (Niassa in Portuguese and known as Lake Malawi in English), around three hours’ drive from Songea. Lake Malawi is the only place I’ve ever done a night dive, from the Malawi side in 2007. It was remarkably underwhelming as the only thing we experienced was muddy sludge. Not even a hair-raising encounter with a hippo or crocodile.

Today the drive through the coffee-growing Matengo Highlands which bear down on Lake Nyasa was very enjoyable. Quite soon after arriving in the small town of Mbamba Bay on the lake we clambered into a boat to check out the shoreline and scenery. Muggins here was asked to commandeer the tiller, which was amusing as my boat steering experience is practically zero. Despite having to concentrate hard, the backdrop was truly stunning with the lakeside framed by mountains, clear blue water, plentiful birdlife and rock hyraxes scampering about.

Sundays in Mbamba Bay are very quiet. The little activity on the beach consisted of a few fishermen mending their nets, and women and children cleaning up piles of pots and pans.

After a very lovely day we did the return road journey to Songea.