Well I've just got back from 2 weeks in Malawi. Me and my wife, Louise, went out for my Big sister Kathryns' wedding. Kathryn has been living in Malawi for about the last nine years and with her (now) husband, Gary, has set up a fantastic back-packers lodge, Mayoka Village, on the lake shore at Nkhata Bay.
This was my fifth trip to Malawi, and Louises second. It was also a great chance to catch up with the rest of my family who now all live in Malawi. My parents moved out there two years ago, and my little sister moved out there about 8 months ago.
I've seen a fair bit of the country on my travels around, but I've never been to Malawi in the wet season, and so I've never really been aware of the paddling potential, apart from the obvious paddling on the lake. So I also went out with the intention to check out some of the rivers.
Gary and Kathryn, outside the church
The wedding was an incredible event. It also seemed to coincide with the hottest day of the week! Kathryn and Gary had decided to have a traditional Malawian style wedding. Which meant that the service started outside the church with a group of dancers, starting off with young boys and girls dancing in parallel lines, then another group of slightly larger boys and girls, and ending up with a third group of teenagers and adults at the back. The danced very slowly, through the scorching sun, into the church. Eventually everyone got into the church, and the service started. The service then took place in two languages at once! Then after the service they had to dance their way back out in to the scorching sun again!
The families out side the church
Then there was a brief rest bite at Mayoka, before moving onto Chikale beach for the reception. Once again there was more dancing action, with Kathryn and Gary being led in by their dancers again. Then once inside they weren't allowed to sit until the guest had donated enough money to them! The rest of the reception seemed to then follow roughly a 'normal' pattern. But generally very noisy, and confusing for most of the 'Muzungus' (white people!).
Me and Louise take a break from the wedding at Mayoka
I did manage to check out a couple of rivers, and also get my hands on a couple of maps of the appropriate areas. The geography of malawi makes for some very strange rivers. The Lake forms the end of the Great Rift Valley, with the land rising quite steeply from the lake to a number of plateaus, often divided by small ridges. This means rivers often meander across a plateau, quite unexcitingly, before bursting through a ridge in a small gorge, before meandering across the next plateau.
Alot of the plateaus are also covered by vast boggy areas, called Dambos, that are fed by many small rivers and streams, but are eventually drained by one bigger river. Many of the smaller rivers are very much rainfall dependant, but during the wet season when and inch of rain can easily fall in one day it just a matter of follow a rain cloud! It seemed strange to drive over numerous dry looking rivers, that had huge tide lines, to then find a massive volume river running just 10km away. The water either draining from a Dambo, or coming from another heavy downpour further upstream.
The Lower section of the Bua River
One of the better looking rivers on the Map was the Bua river. Unfortunately time constraints meant I didn't get to see as much of the river as I had hoped. But the bottom bit that I saw looked very promising. I was expecting it to be fairly flat, but was surprised to find fairly high volume grade three. My Dad was sure that that section continued for about another 5 to 10 km further upstream. And the section above that looks even steeper on the map. So the chance for some serious whitewater looked pretty high. But it runs through the middle of a game reserve, with limited motor access to the river, and man eating animals!
The road bridge on the south Rukuru
The other river I got to look at properly was the South Rukuru. Slow and meandering for many miles, is gradually picks up massive volume, before punching its way through a short gorge, just below Rumphi, before continuing to meander. For a about 2km the river looked to be a fantastic high volume, fairly technical grade 4 pool-drop. Even better the road runs right along side it for the entire way. It was fairly hard to see all of it due to masses of vegetation growing along the banks. But every now and then you'd be rewarded with a glimpsed of a drop or a chute or a rapid.
Another Drop on the South Rukuru Gorge section
Then after all the excitement it goes back to weaving in and out of marsh and reeds for about another 20km. However once it reaches Phwezi it picks up the gradient again, and charges headlong for about 30km . The road shadows it again for most of this, with occasional glimpses to vast chocolate brown grade 2 wave trains. None of it seemed too hard just big and fast. However before it can get to the lake it has to cut it's way through another ridge, forming another gorge. Unfortunately the road abandons it at this point, but the maps once again mark it as being a fall or a rapid, so something good has to lurk in the gorge!
The South Rukuru at Phwezi
The end result of my river scouting is, that there are some good rivers, but they're either going to be short sections, or fairly remote. There is also the huge Shire river (pronounced Shear-E) which drains lake Malawi. I've seen a number of pictures of the rapids on it and it looks like a real Zambezi style monster, there is also some video footage of it somewhere on one of the Sick-Line kayaking movies. Whether any of us will get there and paddle is unsure but the opportunities are there for the taking.
Ewart rips another Blunt
Arthur, stuck in his creeker, makes the most of the wave
Andy launches another big Blunt 
Matt sticks a good Loop
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