It seems that the travelling element to each of our destinations in Africa is destined to always be eventful. The Ilala arrived in the bay and we duly boarded and left at about 5pm in the afternoon without anything untoward happening. It was only when we had to disembark at 3am in the morning did things start to get interesting. It seems to be normal in Malawi for people to board a vessel before the people getting off have got off! We were stood on the top deck of the ferry watching this spectacle unfold below us, surprised and slightly impressed with the amount of people that can cram themselves into one small boat when we realised that we would have to do this at some point as the crowds were just being replaced by more crowds! We took the plunge and ran the gauntlet!

At first we couldn't actually get down to the lowest deck as there were so many people so we resorted to some serious pushing. Unfortunately when we got down onto the lowest deck it was so full of bags that we couldn't stand. I was very impressed with my wife as she resorted to throwing her bag at the crowds and followed in the gap that it created. After 10 minutes of this we reached the gap in the railings where we were pushed by the surging people down onto the boat which was about 3 meters lower and was lurching with the waves - health and safety would have had a field day!

Anyway we reached Chizi and had a few beers with the owner Nick before going to bed at 5am in the morning.

We awoke to a beautifully sunny morning and found our way to the sunbathing area as that was about all we could have done at that point. Wakwenda Retreat has a great setup whereby a series of large boulders have been made into a spectacular bar area overlooking the water. All the gaps between the boulders had been cleverly made into walkways and the sunbathing terrace made a perfect spot to dive into the cool waters of the lake.

We spent the next four days relaxing and taking a holiday away from our holiday spending most of our time sunbathing or swimming around hunting for ciclids, the breed of fish found in the Lake. The underwater camera is getting used more and more and I'm starting to get the hang of it now. The waters are crystal clear and the fish are spectacularly coloured! We are seriously thinking about learning how to dive here as it would be a great introduction to underwater life for Helen, that is if only I can persuade her to do the course.

We love the seclusion of this place but we thought with the start of the world cup looming we should head over to the larger sister island of Likoma to find some atmosphere for the football. We set off tomorrow but at this point it is unclear as to how we shall get from island to island, we shall see in the morning. At worst I'm sure we can bribe some fishermen!