Of course, the following morning (okay, actually, it was the afternoon…) was pretty painful but with nothing planned and a readily available selection of comfort food, I settled down to nurse myself back to health with grub and sunshine. There is something easier to take about a hangover when you’re surrounded by relaxed, smiling faces and doing nothing more than watch the sunlight dappling the water. Craig and Ludo were ideal company and when we spotted Linda and Anniek heading out to sunbathe on the raft, we thought it would be only right and proper if we joined them.
Of course, the swim out to the raft came pretty close to killing me and I don’t believe I was impressing anybody by arriving and then proceeding to cling on to the side like a stricken whale until my equilibrium returned. Linda and Anniek soon had us all feeling chirpier, laughing at the state of us and reminding me of my rather peremptory exit from the conversation the previous night. For the rest of the day we just lazed around; laughing and joking and generally just getting to know each other. Unfortunately, I’d left it a little late in terms of repairing the remainder of my faded suntan from Malaysia. Before I’d even started to feel slightly toasted, the sun was sinking into the lake and I vowed to apply myself better to the task the following day.
Sun-worshipping aside, it seemed I’d turned up in Mayoka at just the right time for the mother of all parties. Gary and Katherine were celebrating the establishment’s 16th birthday and the locals who helped to build it had good cause to celebrate with them. As well as a place for two people to live the dream and escape from the rat-race, Mayoka was always meant to be a community project and hundreds of local people have since been able to improve their standard of living as a direct result of the economic impact of the business. Many of them sell crafts from a small hut near the bar as well as showing their skills to travellers; tour companies and boat taxis belonging to local people get preference when someone is looking to stretch their legs; and local children and charity groups often perform in the bar for a whip-round to help make ends meet. Needless to say, the Mayoka Village Birthday party was going to be a huge event and one not to be missed. There was to be a succession of live music acts in the bar, several dance acts and copious quantities of booze and food. With Jan, the Teutonic taste-meister, cooking up a storm in the kitchen, it was left to the locals to get on with the grisly task of slaughtering the goats and getting them spitted over the glowing coals.
Walking from the chalet to get to the party, the air was alive with the pumping sounds of tribal music and laughter, mixed with the enticing aroma of barbequed meat…it was certainly going to be an excellent night.
As well as the lads and the two Dutch girls, I found myself parked scant feet from the delicious-smelling goat barbie with three Scots lassies who had travelled up from Cape McClear especially for the party. By chance, I happened to mention to one of them, Sarah, that I’d made a banoffee pie in Blantyre and her eyes kind of glazed over and she seemed to freeze. The poor girl had just got over an horrendous attack of gastro and was feeling weak and in need of some TLC. Bannoffee Pie just happened to be her favourite pudding ever and she declared that she would happily die for a single slice of it! Being the chivalrous chap that I am, I offered to make her some if I could get hold of the ingredients…and before I knew it, everybody seemed to know that I was going to be making Banoffee Pie! It turned out that the three of them had to scoot off back to Cape McClear the following morning anyway…but this didn’t stop Anniek and Linda from forcing me to promise that I’d make it for them before they left on Thursday. In exchange for this promise, I did at least get them to agree to move into chalet no. 8 with me the next day (such a hardship for them with those views!) after Craig and Ludo had set off for Tanzania.
The rest of the evening went swimmingly…Kuche flowed and Gary was doling out free shots (compulsory!) to anybody silly enough to step within his 10ft exclusion zone. I even had the temerity to muscle in on the mike during one of the music acts and (apparently!) did a credible job of sounding like part of the act. As time telescoped, the evening became a blur of smiling faces and festive cheer and later on, with the crowd finally beginning to thin out, there was even a bit of trance to round my evening off in style.
It had been nice to catch up with Ludo and Craig again and the pair of them had given me the best of introductions to the Mayoka party lifestyle. When they headed off the following morning, I’d have plenty of new friends to play with in their stead.
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