Times of the Islands Winter 2016/17

eakfast of grilled pork and salad with hot coffee, while
watching the village butcher kill a goat for the evening’s
feast.
At Mapinhane, it’s back to the N1, the artery of this
journey. It has been a part of this route since Cape Town
and will continue all the way to Cairo, Egypt. In the town
of Inhassoro, 100 km further north, Mario is literally
greeted by hundreds of curious people and the town’s
chief—all wanting to see the walker. Another 500 km
further at Beira, things turned the other way. Mario had
to take a ride in a truck due to civil unrest. Opposition
groups were trying to take over bridges in the area. The
military got involved in escorting Mario’s ride and that
was when he found himself in the firing line.
Mario did write that there was a moment in the grass
where he’d never felt more lonesome, but he was still
OK—despite the awfulness, people were still trying to be
good people. He did note that there was one more conflict
zone—Tete—nearly 600 km ahead in Mozambique,
but otherwise he was off to Malawi and expected an end
to wars and xenophobia until Sudan.
Nearly 4,000 km from his start point in Cape Town,
Mario reached Lilonge, Malawi safely. Now he needed a
kayak or boat to row the entire length of Lake Malawi.
This is one of the world’s largest lakes with the most
diverse fish species. Using the GoFundMe.com site that
he set up to support this journey, he manages to get
himself a kayak. So all is well in Malawi, which Mario sees
as the heart of Africa: a welcoming place with smiles all
over.
The first day’s crossing of Lake Malawi (Lake Nyasa)
feels wonderful and in five hours Mario finds himself
camping out on a tiny remote island. It’s during this
stopover he realises his feet need attention, as they are
covered in worm-like leeches, a 30 minute job to deal
with. He continues and enjoys great peace at Salima on
the lake. Kids are excited to say hello to Mario and the
world.
It’s during these peaceful times he thinks about the
good memories of people met traveling, “some just stand
out and leave a lasting memory.” Bear in mind that these
“people experiences” are precious to Mario, when at
times during this journey there are weeks lacking human
interaction.
The mission at this point is to cross all the Great
Lakes of Africa along the Rift Valley. Add in a seemingly
impossible stretch of majestic land all the way to
Uganda—climbing mountains, kayaking and walking.
From there Mario would continue his path past Kenya to
Egypt.
The distance between Salima and Nkhata Bay on Lake
Malawi is 300 km and on that journey from villages to
beaches he has to meet the chief, who decides if he is
welcome to stay. Some people along this massive lake
have never seen a foreigner. Imagine how it must be to
them, meeting a man with a black face speaking English.
The journey of Lake Malawi could really be called
“surviving Lake Malawi.” There was a time when two km
out in the lake the kayak nearly sunk to be lost, and there
were three to four metre waves (which are fun when all
is in order but not when adrift.) Mario managed to swim
ashore and save his kayak, though scraping himself head
to toe along rocks in the process. The pace he is trying to
meet is 30–50 km a day, and whilst rest times would be
good, it’s hard when bombarded by hundreds of children
on land.
A notable moment was docking on an island full of
hippos. Hippos can be aggressive animals, but Mario
found them “cool if left alone.” Human fear and aggression
is not as easy to bypass. A chief decided to call the
police to Mario’s camp one night; the welcoming party at
3 AM holding AK47s proceeded to handcuff Mario and
place him in a concrete cell full of other people with no
82 www.timespub.tc