Figuring I'd been in the dusty mountains long enough, I spent a Saturday morning riding three crowded buses and cramped dala dalas before walking for thirty long, hot, sandy minutes to reach a secluded guest house on Matema Beach.
I stayed in a simple but comfortable bamboo banda. There was an outdoor shower which was perfect so long as you showered in the afternoon when the sun was at its hottest in order to turn the cold water to your advantage.
Lake Malawi, or Lake Nyasa as it's called in Tanzania, is a beautiful, freshwater lake. The water was chilly in the mornings but had warmed up beautifully by the mid afternoon. It was generally calm but the waves picked up surprisingly quickly when a strong breeze rolled in. The lake was very shallow where I was and I would walk out for thirty or so meters for the water to reach my waist. The Livingstone Mountains came right up to the lake on the north end, creating a beautiful background.
I had some great company my first night there. A group of Estonians, Norwegians, and Russians who work in Tanzania were in Matema for the weekend, so we had a good time hanging out.
The service at my guest house was friendly and welcoming. Most of the Europeans left on the Sunday afternoon, leaving me and a Russian family as the only guests. Now that it was so quiet, the staff had time to do things like slice up my breakfast banana into a happy face and dust it with cocoa powder (oh, the fresh cocoa powder was delicious!).
I happened to wake up in time to see the sunrise behind the mountains one morning. The sky was a gentle pink perfectly silhouetted the mountains. It was lovely to watch the stars slowly fade out as the sun crept up.
Nighttime was just as spectacular. Matema is sparsely populated so there is virtually no light pollution, allowing you to see a sky bursting with stars.
I spent three nights at Matema and I would have happily stayed for another week, but I needed to start making my way north if I was ever going to reach Burundi.
