Different fishes from different locations. This is the key to variety and it thus follows that to get the variety - the ground has to be covered. To this aim stations have been established on an almost lake-wide basis with their divers radiating out to known dive sites.These stations supply the fishes to HQ at Kambiri Point by lake and by road.

 

	Likoma Island is the largest collecting station. Two teams of four divers cover Likoma and the adjacent island of Chisumulu - a two boat operation. A company building holds all gear, equipment and fuel near to where the Ilala anchors on its (normally!) weekly north and southbound lake schedule.
Nkhata Bay is the oldest northern collecting station. One team covers a large area from Ruarwe/Charo north of the Bay to Kande Island southwards. On the beach (see photo) a store holds gear, equipment and fuel - divers staff quarters are nearby. This station is now a pickup point where fishes from Chilumba, Likoma come in on the MS 'Ilala'. The fishes from Nkhata Bay station, and Chilumba and Likoma are loaded on the truck and driven 450 km south to Kambiri Point.
	Chilumba is the northernmost collecting station covering an area from Ngara to the north to Chitimba southwards. Here there is a team of four divers with one boat. This area holds an interesting variety of fish species and as is the case with Nkhata Bay there is a Lake Service Dock/Jetty/Office that is used by the MV Ilala on its weekly lake schedule. Fishes from Chilumba station travel to Nkhata Bay on the 'Ilala' on its southbound journey. Note the hills falling into the lake.
DISASTER!...the best laid plans of men and mice oft gang agley... On the Dwambazi drift a Tanzania truck had jack-knifed across the road blocking all traffic completely...  Collection of northern fishes at Nkhata Bay thus impossible - the fishes came down on the Ilala and were collected at Nkhota-Kota 24 hours later. Result - 110 bags of dead fishes - only a few survived when the truck arrived at Kambiri at 0200 hours on Wednesday 11 December, 2002.  Lets start all over again, chaps...
	The drift at Dwambazi has been in operation since the huge Dwambazi bridge was swept away two years ago.  A completely new bridge is being built upstream (where the river is narrower) but this is taking time.  This photo taken in July 2002 demonstrates the fragile nature of the emergency bridge that has to carry all northern traffic. This was the blockage point...
Our man in Chilumba came down to collect some new masks, fins, second stage regulators and mouthpieces etc.  Maison Maulana has been  there for several years and has proved to be reliable and resourceful - and careful with boats and dive gear. The photo shows him with Canadian (CRLCA) intern Jody now back in Ottawa (December 02) after four months in Malawi.