Common Sense and Whiskey

Common Sense and Whiskey, the Book - Malawi, Chapter Fourteen

Here is Chapter Fourteen of Common Sense and Whiskey, the book, including a journey on the famous MV Ilala across Lake Malawi. We're publishing each chapter here on the blog (Track down previous chapters here). You can order the entire book for just $9.99 at Amazon.com, at BN.com, or direct from EarthPhotos Publishing. Here's the Kindle version (just $4.99). Click these photos to make them bigger. More photos and additional commentary are available at A Common Sense and Whiskey Companion. And here's the Malawi Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.

14 LAKE MALAWI

“On your right is area 50. This here is area 28, light industrial area. Across the road there is fertilizer factory and tobacco factory. That is heavy industrial area.”

The national police headquarters came into view on the right.

“That is area 40.”

Just across the street, “Area 43,” Everlasting explained, “Is low industrial. It used to be only area ten, and area ten is still there, but it is full, so they have made area 43.”

“We also have names but our names are too long, so we just say, say, area 12.”

Malawi’s Ministries stood on the left.

“So, is that area 1?”

Logical, I thought.

“No, that is area 20.”

This went on all through Lilongwe.

“Ah, that is area 47. Up there, that’s area 49. National Bank. Bank of the Nation.” The tallest building in Malawi is the central bank.

“This is the Jehovah’s Witness headquarters in Malawi.”

•••••

When we met, our driver told us, “I am Everlasting.” We sort of looked away, and then we realized that was his name.

Everlasting was a slow, deliberate speaker, easy enough to understand once you got acclimated. His “S’s” kind of trailed off.

Wednesday HDRs from Malawi

For me, Malawi was a feel good place, and I think these photos show it. Happy people, agreeable, gentle pace of life. Later this week we'll publish Chapter 14 from Common Sense and Whiskey - the book (Amazon, BN,  Kindle - Kindle's just $4.99) here on the blog. It's the story of our crossing Lake Malawi on the legendary passenger ship the MV Ilala.

These photos are both re-exposed nine times and recombined in Photomatix, finished in CS5 with Nik filters. There are 384 more HDRs in the HDR Gallery at EarthPhotos.com. Click these two to make them much bigger.

 

Great Quotes Collection

"The last time I saw Jack the Whipper it was ten a.m. and he was picking a fight with a one-armed clown. "
 

- Possibly apocryphal, but attributed to Mick the Whip. From a very funny story about purveyors of leather goods who clashed in titanic whip competitions (like Two-Handed Whip Pyrotechnics and Synchronized Whipping) in the 1990s in Darwin, Australia. Heard on safari in Zambia, as told by Denis and Georgina, whose further identity, since they're still running a safari camp at an undisclosed location in Malawi, will be protected.

 

Wednesday HDR: Likoma Island, Malawi

In this week's Wednesday HDR, a tailor works at his open air shop on Likoma Island, Lake Malawi.

The story of our journey across Lake Malawi to Likoma Island is Chapter Fourteen of Common Sense and Whiskey, the book. We're excerpting the book here on the blog, and you can read the entire chapter here later this year. Not that you need to wait.

This is a single shot HDR, re-exposed at +2, 0 & -2 ev, saved as .tifs, tonemapped in Photomatix and finished in CS5. There are 341 more photos in the HDR Gallery at EarthPhotos.com, and 184 photos in the Malawi Gallery. Click the photo to make it much bigger.

From the Eventual Book: Lake Malawi by Steamer

It's the next chapter in a series from the eventual book Common Sense and Whiskey. Previous entries: Madagascar, Greenland, Patagonia, Sri Lanka, Tasmania, Paraguay, Climbing Mt. Kinabalu, Tibet and Cambodia. Today we sail Lake Malawi along the coasts of Malawi and Mozambique. Click the photos for larger versions.

“On your right is area 50. This here is area 28, a light industrial area. Across the road there is fertilizer factory and tobacco factory. That is heavy industrial area.”

The national police headquarters came into view on the right.

“That is area 40.”

Just across the street, “Area 43,” Everlasting explained, “Is low industrial. It used to be only area ten, and area ten is still there, but it is full, so they have made area 43.”

“We also have names but our names are too long, so we just say, say, area 12.”

Malawi’s Ministries stood on the left.

“So, is that area 1?”

Logical, I thought.

“No, that is area 20.”

This went on all through Lilongwe.

“Ah, that is area 47. Up there, that’s area 49. National Bank. Bank of the Nation.” The tallest building in Malawi is the central bank.

“This is the Jehovah’s Witness headquarters in Malawi.”

When we met, our guide told us, “I am Everlasting.” We looked away. Then we realized that was his name.

Wednesday HDR: Malawi

This week's HDR is from Likoma Island, Malawi. Likoma Island, a part of Malawi, lies just offshore from Cobue village, Mozambique, in Lake Malawi. In the photo, a tailor in the main village works on one of the colorful prints favored by local women.

A Post in Which We Begin with French Toilets and End on Lake Malawi

"Sarkozy spends £250,000 of French EU budget on shower he did not use"

Well this is fun. That headline, from the Guardian, comes from a story reporting that during the French EU presidency, the French president "sanctioned an elaborate upgrade of the Grand Palace in Paris for an EU-Mediterranean summit – one of his pet initiatives to mark his turn at the EU helm.

"Nearly £300,000 was spent building a conference podium, nearly £200,000 upgrading the gardens and grounds, and a total bill for the Sarkozy shower of almost £250,000.

"The audit report said the cost soared because of the complications of installing a state-of-the-art shower to the president's specifications in a listed building.

"The president never used it – instead going back to the Élysée palace during the three-day summit to freshen up. The shower has since been dismantled."

*****

But, um, the elaborate facility in the photo is NOT the French president's. It was ours, in the owner's suite, on a trip across Lake Malawi on the MV Ilala.

Not to give the wrong impression - the Ilala cruise was a great deal of fun, sailing across placid, inland Lake Malawi from Monkey Bay, Malawi for a couple of days alongside the Mozambican shoreline to Likoma Island, which is part of Malawi.

The Ilala was an authentic, agreeable experience and the trip was served up in inimitable African style. Here's the Ilala at anchor in Monkey Bay (left, on the left), and below, a man paddles his canoe toward Cobue village in Mozambique, a photo taken from the Ilala that was the EarthPhotos.com most popular photo for a while on our return from Malawi.

Read a story about our drive through Malawi, called Everlasting: Malawi here. And see more photos in the France Gallery and lots more of the MV Ilala, the Mozambican shoreline, Monkey Bay, Likoma Island and the Malawian capital Lilongwe in the Malawi Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.

Boab & Baobab: Separated at Birth?

This web site says, "The only place in the world to find the unusual boab tree is the Western Australia Kimberley region." That may be strictly true, but for your comparison, here is a boab tree at the end of the airstrip at Kununura, Australia:

And here is a baobab tree way out in the country in Malawi:

The boab tree stores water inside its trunk. The baobab tree stores water inside its trunk. The boab tree is called "boab." The baobab tree is called "baobab." Their stumpy water-filled trunks look similar. Co-incidence? You decide.

(Photos from the Australia Gallery and the Malawi Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)

Fifty Photos: #10

This photo, of Lake Malawi at sunset off the village of Cobue, Mozambique, is today's contribution from the Top Fifty Prints collection at EarthPhotos.com.

Fifty Photos #6

This photo, of Lake Malawi off Cobue village, Mozambique, is today's contribution from the Top Fifty Prints collection at EarthPhotos.com.

There are 183 photos in the Malawi Gallery at EarthPhotos.com. And a story:

“On your right is area 50. This here is area 28, a light industrial area. Across the road there is fertilizer factory and tobacco factory. That is heavy industrial area.”

Now the national police headquarters pops up on the right.

“That is area 40.”

Just across the street, “Area 43,” Everlasting explains, “Is low industrial. It used to be only area ten, and area ten is still there, but it is full, so they have made area 43.”

“We also have names but our names are too long, so we just say, say, area 12.”

*****

When we met, our arranged guide told us, “I am Everlasting.” We looked away. Then we realized that was his name.

Malawi’s Ministries on the left.

“So, is that area 1?”

Logical, I thought.

“No, that is area 20.”

Continue reading Everlasting: Malawi on EarthPhotos.com....