Travel reviews by Mr R from Guernsey

Likoma and Kaya Mawa are lovely but like any remote lodge in Africa, logistics can be taxiing at the best of times and occasionally omissions happen. It's good to remind all of our travellers that things like this can and do occur occasionally virtually everywhere that we send travellers.
In this case, James, the owner of Kaya Mawa, responded to us very swiftly and apologised for running out of some of the wines requested by our travellers. He commented that the lodges wine list has a minimum of about 40 different wines. (We think this is exceptionally wide for such for a remote lodge!) James explained that they ran out of two wines that these travellers enjoyed but they still had a wide selection of wines to choose from!
Malawi has produced no tonic for over a year, and so Kaya Mawa has sourced a supply from South Africa. James apologised for running out, and unfortunately fresh stock only arrived shortly after these travellers departed. Similarly, although bacon also ran out, a fresh supply arrived on the flight on which these travellers departed on.
James explained that the Kaya Mawa team tries hard to keep comfort levels very high. When the mains electricity on the island fails, as it often does, travellers normally dont notice because the lodge has back-up batteries and inverters in place; these kick in to run all the appliances, including fans and lights. On the occasion mentioned, this back-up system worked perfectly until 3am, when heavy usage exhausted the batteries. Mains power was restored three hours later at 6am.
The team here use alternative power sources wherever they can. James comments that they have thought about air-conditioning, but are very conscious that air-conditioning units are power-hungry, and they substantially increase the lodges carbon footprint. Because of this, theyve put in fans and designed their rooms around natural boulders to be as cool as possible but have decided not to have air-conditioning.