The bulk of our time in Malawi is spent at Kande Beach, a pretty stretch of coast along Lake Malawi. It’s a three hour drive from our previous lodge, Chitimba Camp.

We’ll be here for just two days — barely enough time, in my opinion. There are easily a half-dozen activities to pick from and no way to squeeze all of them in. Highlights include a village tour, pig roast, scuba diving, snorkeling, canoeing to a nearby island, and riding horses in the water. But honestly? The best part is just relaxing on the beach with a book. My advice to Nomad Tours — add one more night at Kande Beach, even if it means a longer day of driving elsewhere on the itinerary.

Our guide Norman plans every meal and those of us on cooking / cleaning duty pitch in to chop up veggies and set out plates and utensils. That’s our ‘chores chart’ on the right below — everyone is assigned to two or three days of duty.

Lunch is simple and tasty — cold cuts with sandwich trimmings. We all stock up on personal snacks (chips, chocolate, juice, fruit) during our near daily visits to the grocery store, so those items supplement our main meals.

This campsite at Kande Beach is my favorite so far — we are mere steps from Lake Malawi. (See that island in the distance? While scuba diving I swim all the way back to shore from there.)

Some of our mates traveling on the accommodated tour package get these huts right on the beach.

There’s an on-site cafe, as well as a bar and scuba shop.

Once again, the internet is painfully sloooowwww… I mentally kick myself the first afternoon for spending hours chained to a decade-old P.C. (there’s not even wifi) instead of lounging on the beach. But this blog doesn’t write itself and I have photos to edit and posts to upload! A strawberry smoothie perks up my afternoon.

I finally emerge around dusk. We don’t have a view of sunset (only sunrise because we’re on the west side of the lake) but the muted colors are quite pleasant at this time of day.

Locals playing volleyball on the beach:

That evening Norman whips up a delicious dinner over the campfire.

After dinner the merriment continues over drinks around the fire. Again, I spend too much time editing posts in the overland truck (where there’s a power source), but I come out to take some quick photos.

This is the night that Klaus and Renate reveal that they take daily “medicine” — a shot of vodka to keep any potential stomach bugs from taking hold. Bottoms up!

The next morning I get up around 5:30am for sunrise. While I’m hardly a morning person, we are practically camping on the beach so I have no excuse for not rolling out of my sleeping bag. Plus sunrise over Lake Malawi is rumored to be incredible.

A look down the beach in the opposite direction:

Before long, the sun peeks out to say hello — it’s bold, intense, and pink.

My tour mate Renate snaps this shot of the photographers on the beach:

This dog below belongs to the camp owner and follows us around in search of attention and food scraps (we are strictly forbidden from giving the latter but very encouraged to give the former).

A local on the beach teaches my tour mate Elisa from Italy to play this game.

And here’s what the beach looks like drenched in afternoon sunlight:

Our group sunbathes:

We have a fabulous family from Denmark on our tour — two parents and their son (around age 18) and daughter (around age 21). They’ve done a lot of traveling and camping, and even lived in Greenland for several years. They are funny with adventurous spirits, and the mom and dad are so in love — that’s them wading in the colorful water below:

Kande Beach is beautiful and I see why so many overland tours stop here. But if you have more time to explore Malawi on your own, there are other parts of the lake that are even prettier — check out this post from fellow travel blogger RTW in 30 Days. Her visit to Cape Maclear is especially scenic.

Here’s a shot of Lake Malawi that I didn’t take, but you can see why it would be worth it to hang out and explore this area more thoroughly. That water is gorgeous.

[image via]

Back on our tour…

Ienough people are interested, we have the option of roasting a pig for dinner — a local will cook it over the fire and then carve off the meat, for around $10 per person.

Despite the fact that I ate a pile of bacon for breakfast, I have to pass on the pork dinner for moral reasons. I’m super upset at the thought that one unlucky pig is alive and running around this very morning but will be killed in a few hours specifically for our group feast. I eat all kinds of meat but there’s a usually a disconnect between thinking of the animal as a living creature and seeing it on my plate — but with today’s roasted pig, there’s no getting around the fact that this poor guy was killed just for us.

(Perhaps scroll down past the next three photos if you’re a vegetarian.)

Speaking of food, here are a few more miscellaneous photos from the area — our overland truck stops at this veggie stand near Kande Beach so Norman can stock up on tomatoes.

Look at how artfully these onions and tomatoes are displayed — I wish I could get out and take closer photos.

A game of checkers in progress at the veggie stand:

And to balance out all those veggies, here’s a shot of my candy purchases from the grocery store. I LOVE buying chocolate bars that are only available in other countries — various combos of nougat and caramel and coconut and marshmallow.

So I’ve glazed over how we spent the full day in Lake Malawi — in upcoming posts I’ll detail our tour of the local village (including visits to the school and hospital) and my afternoon scuba diving.

Thanks to Nomad Tours for discounting this tour in exchange for blogging and photography. Opinions are my own.