Namakomo Bay - Malawi (see Nov for photo's)

Our first morning as lodge managers and it was very cloudy with some heavy rain showers, not what you want when you have guests to entertain! As part of the room price the guests get all their lake activities for free which means a boat trip for snorkelling in the morning and a sundowner cruise in the evening, in between which they are at liberty to use the kayaks and windsurfers on the lake.

Of course this is all much nicer when the sun shines so it was lucky we had no guests in today however we were expecting some to arrive tomorrow so we hoped the weather would brighten up by then. After an early breakfast I took Lemak, the lodge handyman, to Monkey Bay to pick up some cement and other hardware, one of the tasks while Taffy was away was to finish off building a new laundry room, in Africa you need to be a jack of all trades! 

Taff & Jen have five cats which we had also promised to look after, we had relied on Taffy & Jenny to make up the shopping list in Lilongwe so we were amazed when Crispin, one of the cooks told us during the day that we were nearly out of dried cat food, how had they overlooked it!

Gerald, another of the kitchen staff, assured us it couldn't be bought in Monkey Bay but we drove in again anyway to check but sure enough there was none to be had anywhere, at this stage we didn't know what we would do as the cats have never been fed scraps so most won't touch them, even fish!

On the way back from Monkey Bay we received a phone call from a couple wanting to stay that night, our first new booking! Back at Norman Carr we organised dinner with Tom & Gerald, the cooks that day and then had a late lunch on the sundeck. We had just finished when the couple who rang arrived, Allan & Colleen, originally from Zimbabwe but now working in Blantyre, Malawi's second city in the South. 

After a welcome drink on the sundeck, they retired to their room for a rest, unfortunately there was no rest for us as we had plenty to do before meeting up again for pre-dinner drinks. Sadly the weather was still very cloudy so we would not be going out on the boat but they didn't seem to mind. Dinner is served at 7pm, roast chicken with roast potatoes, green beans, carrots and butternut followed by chocolate pudding with custard - the guys had done well on our first night in charge.

It was a very pleasant evening as we watched a stunning moonrise over the lake, making up for the miserable sunset. The cloud had finally cleared and the lake was living up to it's nickname 'The Lake of Star's'. Allan & Colleen were a pleasant relaxed couple but as we sat overlooking the lake night caps in hand we suddenly noticed Tom, Taffy's new kitten chasing something in the shadows close by, when we went to investigate we were horrified to discover it was a small scorpion!

If Taffy or the locals had found it they would have killed it outright but we don't believe in doing that without good reason so we trapped it in a glass and I let it go much further up the beach, away from people, soon after Allan & Colleen went to bed and we headed off to Mango in need of a good sleep ourselves.

Up at 6am to a lovely blue sky we had a quick shower then went over to open up the office and check everything was ok. Now we had guests we would have to be up early every day, by 8.30 the guests were having breakfast and we had organised Capt Crispin (cousin to Crispin the cook) to get the boat ready to take them out on the lake to do some snorkelling.

Lake Malawi at 350 miles long and 50 miles wide is the second deepest lake in Africa and home to more species of fish than any other lake on Earth. The fish all belong to the Cichlid family which vary from one inch to three foot in length. The ones we take guests to see are known locally as 'Mbuna' or rock dwellers, very small and brightly coloured they are lovely to swim amongst as they dart in and out the rocks.

Normally we don't go out with the guests as this is one time we get to ourselves but as it was such a nice day we went along, it  was lovely crossing the lake with kingfishes and Fish Eagles flying around the boat, passing the odd fisherman in their dug out canoes.

Back for lunch at midday we ate with Alan & Colleen and then they left around 2pm to drive back to Blantyre. It's hard work entertaining guests but at least we had the rest of the day to ourselves so letting the staff go off early we spent the hot afternoon in the outdoor Jacuzzi with a beer and a book. The Jacuzzi overlooks the beach and has magnificent views of the lake and mountains in the distance so it's tough but someone has to do it!