The drive to Cape Maclear was uneventful, lots of cotton plantations and a flat road through the flood plain of the lake. After examining a few options we chose to settle at Fat Monkeys which had a camp site right on the lake - it was beautiful! We had some advice not to stay at this place because of all the people trying to sell you things - but it was by far the best camp site and we found if you didn't set up on the water's edge you weren't too harrassed. The local villiage provides a great opportunity to buy fruit and vegetables, bread etc. at a very reasonable price.

We met a German couple, Martin and Monika who we took a snorkel trip with after breakfast the next morning to the Island across from where we were staying. The price started at $25 each and we got it for $25 for two! Martin and Monica work for a government development NGO that was working with the Lesotho government and they are now driving their car back to Switzerland! So cool! They were very interesting and had basically seen the whole world! They had already done about 20 000km having covered all of Namibia, Botswana and Zambia, obviously with no time schedule.

A highlight of the trip was feeding the fish eagles. The guys on the boat would whissle to attract their attention and then throw a small fish into the water. The eagles at first needed some encouragement but soon there were a few swooping to catch the fish from the water just 5m from the boat, giving us some great shots. We snorkled for about an hour around the rocks, there are apparently a few hundred different fish in the lake, and although they are not big fish, many are only found there.

We met and made friends with Alex and Rika, a German dating couple. She is in Malawi for a year, and he is riding his bike from Cario to Cape Agullus. Pretty Epic! He says most of the way the people throw rocks at you, but Ethiopia was the worst! Sudan had been his best country so far as the hospitality of the people had been amazing, something we often hear about Sudan with similar negative comments about Ethiopia! We had them around to our campsite for a cup of coffee - they remarked it had been a while since they had good coffee! We have taken it upon ourselves to make outstanding coffee while on our trip. It has been something we have looked forward to everyday! Other than that we have eaten really well so far. The fish that we bought in Malawi for our dinners was called "campango" which was a cat fish that made great fillets to fry or "chambo" which was better on the braai. The only dud was the first bread we (ok - Joey) made that turned out to be the stone of Livingstone! It was a small disaster, but we exclaimed how much we liked it and ate it anyway! Its been all up since then!

We hired a canoe in the morning for 4 hours and took a trip to the national park's "Otter Point". The water was amazingly blue and there were lots of big white bolders making a striking contrast - it was really lovely. The fish life was not as good as on our first snorkel trip in Cape Maclear, but it was fun to be out on the water.

In the afternoon we took a walk to visit Ant's relatives who had arrived at a resort down the road called "Danforth Yachting". Merry, Bentley their daughter Tonya and her daughter Shona all seemed pleased to see us alive after 2 weeks on the road and could report to the interested parties back at home. We (read Joey) almost squealed with delight when we realised we had arrived in time for tea and chocolate cake! Amazing how God knows just what you need J We had a lovely time visiting with them and watching Bentley take photos of the Sunset with the largest camera we have ever seen!