Weather and Lake Conditions
April is at the tail end of the rainy season - which means we've had mostly balmy days, perfect for lake life. Our surrounds are green, growing and lush - a tropical paradise really. Mumbo and Domwe Islands are looking their best at the moment: green and gorgeous, surrounded by the most magnificently turquoise lake waters. Both islands were full over the Easter period and not one guest left unhappy - the word "paradise" was bandied about freely.

Camp News
In the last newsletter we told of how Billy Bwanali, our local tailor, was re-upholstering every cushion on Mumbo Island. He completed this epic task in three long days, setting up his Singer treadle machine on our deck and sewing all day, while we provided tea and sustenance. Everything now looks fresh and gorgeous in our new chitenje colour scheme of green, blue and black.

Community News
Some of the old cushion covers were still in good nick, so we used them to make one hundred new dresses for the orphans in Chembe village. How is that for a great story of reducing, reusing and recycling? A sidebar about the orphans: a local humanitarian, appropriately named Vision, looks after these vulnerable children on an entirely informal basis. He and his wife feed over 200 children daily with money donated by a number of people in the village, including Kayak Africa. Vision has an admirable vegetable garden where he grows food for the orphans, teaches them gardening skills and grows extra produce to sell to the local lodges. Some of Mumbo's delicious salads come from this garden - food with a conscience!

First woman to swim across Lake Malawi
On May 1st Abi Brown is going to attempt to be the first woman to swim across Lake Malawi - an epic and courageous feat! She has been training hard for this event: in a pool in Blantyre, and when she can fit it in, in the lake itself at Cape Maclear. Kayak Africa has sponsored Abi by giving her free accommodation on both Mumbo and Domwe Islands whenever she has needed it and by providing one of our trained sea kayak guides to paddle with her on her open water crossings.

On April 10th Abi swam from Mumbo to the Cape Maclear shore and back again as her penultimate challenge before the big event. This is a distance of 20 kilometres and she swam it in the amazing time of seven and a half hours. Akim Mvula, one of Kayak Africa's guides, paddled with her the whole way, providing support. In Abi's own words, "The first few hours were glorious; sun rays streaming through the clear water and plenty of cichlid fish to keep me distracted from the monotony of the front crawl motion. I reached the shore of the Cape in 3hrs 15mins for a quick 'GU' gel-refuel (without getting out of the water) and headed back towards Mumbo, energy and spirits high ... But the second leg was much harder. My body started aching, my mind wandered and the island didn't seem to get any closer, no matter how hard I tugged at the water! After seven hours I was feeling the strain in my shoulders but a spectacular sunset prevented me from giving it much thought ... and the camp on Mumbo was finally in sight! 30 minutes later I staggered onshore in the darkness thinking: only another 5km for the lake crossing itself - bring it on."

Kingsley Holgate back at Cape Maclear with mosquito nets
Also on May 1st, the larger than life "Grey Beard of African Adventure", Kingsley Holgate, will visit Cape Maclear. He and his entourage of volunteers are journeying from South Africa to Uganda, taking in Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, as part of the United Against Malaria initiative. This is an umbrella partnership of many interested parties aiming to eradicate malaria in Africa and one of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. Kingsley is coming to Chembe Village at the invitation of Kayak Africa, who arranged this visit and his previous visit in 2008 when he distributed nets and school materials to the Class Ones at the local primary school.

One of the keenest sponsors of his journey is Nando's. They are flying in eight of their franchise owners from Australia, and eight specially selected employees to meet Kingsley, to see Malawi and to witness the net distribution in Cape Maclear. For their entertainment and that of the villagers, local charity organisation, the Chembe Village Community Project Centre, has organised a friendly soccer match and an art competition for schoolchildren (all equipment provided) on the theme of malaria prevention. They will also oversee the distribution of the mosquito nets, predominantly to pregnant women and to women with babies and toddlers, as they are most susceptible to the disease. Insecticide-impregnated nets are shown to greatly reduce the incidence of malaria.

After this busy and exciting day, Kingsley, his volunteers and the Nando's team will repair to Mumbo Island for a night of rest, relaxation, and what Kingsley is famous for: long chats around a fire under the African night sky.

Mumbo Island Pilates
The latest addition to the island infrastructure is a thatch and wood deck, set in a private area of miombo woodland forest behind the camp. Here Renee Watson, a well-known pilates master trainer from Cape Town who has moved to Cape Maclear, is going to run specialised pilates retreats for anyone interested. The first workshop will be on May 25th - not to be missed!