To the heart of Africa

In these dank days of January, the mind struggles to escape the claustrophobia of an English winter, weighed down by heavy grey skies or hemmed in by suffocating mists (pungent with the smell of jet fuel). A couple of atmospheric programmes on Radio Four this week came to the rescue, creating soundscapes so rich in aural texture that it was possible for a while to escape into an alternative life. On Tuesday morning A Voyage on Livingstone’s Lake (produced by Ruth Evans) took us into the heart of Africa, to the lake discovered by the explorer in 1859. Stretching halfway down the length of what was once Nyasaland (but is now Malawi) it’s the third largest lake in Africa after Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika; a glittering ribbon of water 365 miles long and 52 miles wide, straddling the faultline of the Great Rift Valley and edged on one side by mountains.