To the Waters and the Wild

Technically, I’m an employee of the Malawi Government, like a consultant, in a way. I work for the Vwaza Marsh Game Reserve, under the Department of Parks and Wildlife. The one caveat to this assignment is that Peace Corps policy dictates volunteers are not allowed to enter certain parks in Malawi because of tse tse flies carrying African trypanosomiasis. Vwaza is one those parks. However, I have to enter the park because that’s where my boss is. Oddly, I was recently reading in Guns, Germs, and Steel and that the tse tse fly is one of the major reasons that necessary livestock, such as cows and horses, were never successfully domesticated in sub-Saharan Africa: they all kept dying after being stung.

Locals say that the best indicator of trypanosomiasis in an area are dead cows. If you see herds of dead cattle then you should probably leave area ASAP. Not all tse tse flies carry the disease, so being stung doesn’t necessarily mean you will get sick. Vwaza Marsh put up fly traps all over the park, especially at Kazuni gate and surrounding villages. The traps consist of a large piece of cloth colored with two blue vertical bands sandwiching a black vertical band. These are apparently colors that attract the flies, which will sting the trap and die. Unfortunately, the new bikes Peace Corps issued us are the same blue and black colors.

That said, Harry was hosting a beekeeping training at Vwaza, and I had been putting off making a trip Kazuni gate for some time. So, me and Bwana Changa threw caution to the wind and rode down to Kazuni, making the longest bike ride I’ve ever been on. The total was about 70km (44 miles) round trip, on a hilly, rocky, some parts deep sand, dirt path that hugged the border of Vwaza. It may not be much for a serious biker, but for someone who never bikes, my legs feel like jelly, my back in pain. We made it though. People said it takes about 3 hours one way, but we hustled and cleared it in about an hour and a half. To be honest, I was quite surprised we made it there in one piece, considering the flies, the ravenous dirt path, lack of biking experience, and we even came across a snake on the way. There were miles of path that stretched without a soul or house in sight.

Deep down we harbored a secret motive, a hope that we could finally see elephants, Kazuni gate is the entrance to Vwaza and gets its name from Lake Kazuni, which is also where the safari camp is located. The lake is the only large water source in the entire park, so all the animals come to Kazuni to drink water. In the dry season, the lake is the only water source, so the African elephants from deep in the park come to the lake. It’s often hard to sight theses elephants, but they are abundant in Vwaza and in this season, easy to sight out the lake. However, they are very aggressive, and a scout is recommended company.

Mwazisi borders the Northern half of Vwaza, separated by valley of hills. The villagers in Mwazisi have been passing news of elephants in the area, lots of them. They say they come at night in search of food and eat the remnants of maize in the fields. While we didn’t get to see any elephants, as they were elsewhere searching for food, we saw plenty of hippos, which were out of the water, lazying about in the sun. There were also impalas, Egyptian geese, and a crocodile today, along with lots of elephant poop…literally everywhere. The water buffalo and baboons were also elsewhere today.

We greeted Harry, and Mr. Kataya, but missed Mrs. Kataya (my boss). George, one of the scouts, walked us around the lake pointing out various feces and animals. He gave us an update on the park’s current management situation. Vwaza used to be run by the government, after there were serious problems with the previous concession. The government, as expected, did a poor job managing the park and it faced a rough few seasons. George told us that a new company has taken over the management of Vwaza, named Ecolodges. Interestingly, he pointed out that the new owner is Indian. As we walked back from the lake we noticed a few azungus at the lodge by chalets. We all remarked how glad we were to finally see some tourists at the park.

The ride back was harder than the way there, mostly because we were tired, and more up hills. But we escaped unscathed by tse tse flies and disappointed about not catching a glimpse of some elephants. I will have to ask one of scouts to take us one of these days to find elephants. Tomorrow we decided to bike to Rumphi, which is about 80 km there and back. In the mean time I need to find my rooster; haven’t seen it since I got back from the lake, wonder where it could’ve gotten off too…