4th September 08

Date: 4th September 08
Location: Nhkata Bay, Malawi
Weather: Clear blue skies and sunshine…..again!!! 35°c
Status: Ready to descend to the depths of the lake!

Poked my head out of the tent at 5.45am and the sun was just starting to show its face above the horizon of the lake in the distance with the sky all around a stunning red colour. Had a bit of a shock as I looked at the front bumper of the truck as I’d left my towel and boardshorts out to dry overnight….and they were missing!

Felt stupid for leaving them out in a new location where I wasn’t sure of the situation and setup and cursed even more when I realised that Bre had told me o take them in the night before and I’d dismissed the idea, shucks.

Walked down to the bar area and reported it to the barman who asked me if they were “missing” or actually “stolen”. I replied I thought they’d been taken and, after he’d wound me up for a while, insisted that they were in fact missing. The night watchman had in fact walked past the Colonel that night, seen them there and handed them in to reception in case someone decided to steal them!!!! Lesson learnt.

Packed my things up for the day and started what I thought would be a half hour walk around the bay to Aqua Africa, the site of my dive school for the next five days, it took me 12 mins to get there so I caught up on the reading I needed to do for my PADI course.

Belinda, SA and Chris, NZ are the two who’re on the curse with me and we chatted at length about our separate travels throughout the day, headed out for lunch together at Papaya for Thai Chicken and rice and got on really well.


The course started with two chapters on the basics of diving, the equipment and the safety processes involved in learning to plummet to the depths of the world’s waters. In the afternoon we were fitted up with the relevant gear and learnt how to correctly don it all, then made our way to the water to learn the basics of breathing, clearing the mask and other basics.

Once the day was finished we packed our things into the lockers and decided to swim back to the camp, 500m away on the other side of the bay. It was superb to swim a distance again and it made me realise how much I miss the early mornings I put in at the Taro centre in Petersfield!

Dinner was the local butter fish from the lake and then bed before an early start again tomorrow.

End of day location: Nhkata Bat, Malawi
Distance covered: 0kms