Sat July 5th- Hiking Mount Mulanje

We left bright and early at 8am. The drive to the mountain is supposed to take 2.5 hours and then we are going to hike to the waterfall, have lunch and then hike back down. It was going to take the whole day.

The window was open on the bus and I just sat and looked outside at the land. I find it so peaceful and calming. We passed by a prison training school and all of their trees were painted white. We assumed it was to be able to see people at night if they tried to escape.

Krista noticed that many of the walls had broken glass glued on the top of the buildings. It was probably a cheaper method then using barbwire. Some buildings used barbwire AND broken glass.

I have seen almost 5 ladies and one little girl on the street wearing the fabric I picked out for my dress. I’m excited because that means it’s really authentic!

Jean had told me her house was on the new road in Blantyre on the way to Mount Mulanje and Dr. Kelly pointed out when we arrived on the new road. It was obvious because it had wide sidewalks on both sides. None of the other roads have sidewalks. We looked for Jean's but had no way of knowing. Some of the houses in Blantyre are mansions, they had gates and satellite. I even saw someone driving a Jaguar.

We drove by the tea plantations for miles and miles. It actually reminded me of the drive to Kentucky but more of a yellow/green grass instead of the bluegrass color of Kentucky. The hills rolled forever and ever of tea plants. Yet another completely different region we are able to see in Malawi. One year they stopped to take pictures at the tea plantations but it turned out to be a bad idea. The workers think we are trying to take pictures to document them breaking the law and since they know they are breaking the child labor law they have a fit if anyone stops to take pictures.

We approached the mountain and it was huge but it was very cloudy so the pictures didn’t turn out. As we got closer we were able to see the mountain better. You have to take a completely different road if you are trying to pass around it because this road ends at the mountain. We got off the road and drove on a dirt path for a very long time to get to the mountain. There were workers building bridges but the advisors said the bridges looked the same last year. So who knows how much work is getting done. We did see all types of construction equipment.

A group of Malawians stopped us on the road and asked to be our tour guides and Charles said “um” and had Dr. Kelly come talk to them. Their price was 1,300 kwacha for the day. Dr. Kelly said he spoke good English and let him on the bus- his name was Samuel. We all looked at each other and thought that was the sketchiest thing to pick up a tour guide off the side of the street. We quickly learned that was the typical thing to do and Samuel turned out to be a great guide!

It didn’t take us very long up the mountain to figure out this was going to be intense. We actually took the path that is longer but less steep. It takes 3 entire days to hike up the top of the mountain and come back down. Samuel said every year all the tour guides have a race up the mountain. He ran up the entire way to the very top in 3 1/2 hours. Out of 400 tour guides, he placed 17th! He said he wouldn’t ever do it again.

We saw lots of monkeys. It’s as common to see a monkey in Malawi as it is to see a squirrel at home. There was a part of the mountain that was burning and Samuel said they intentionally burn parts of the mountain at different times of the year. But I missed the explanation of why. Oops!

This hike was no walk in the park. At home you would expect to have wide flat paths and little signs explaining a nature fact but this hike was nothing like that. No signs and the path is a little bit dangerous. Roots, rocks and pebbles everywhere. No one could look up and enjoy the scenery as you walked because you had to keep your head down watching where you were going the entire time. No one talked on the way up either because it was very steep and you would loose your breath if you tried to carry on a conversation. I was very proud of myself for keeping up with the group and staying in the front half. Everyone was dripping in sweat. Most parts were shady but there were some sunny parts as well. We all admitted at times it crossed our mind to wimp out and go back. We had to give ourselves pep talks in our head. Thankfully the waterfall was something to look forward too.

We were all huffing and puffing up the hill and couldn’t believe Dr. Kelly who is 70 wasn’t even breathing hard. She told us she walks 5 miles a day, 6 days a week. Everyone looked bad compared to her!

As we walked we passed probably close to 100 women and children carrying piles of sticks on their head. Most of them had no shoes and the rocks didn’t even phase them. They are incredible at steering the huge sticks so they didn’t smack us. We felt silly for complaining about our backpacks. I wish I had brought a strap for my camera that went around my neck instead of one that goes around my wrist. That would have been super useful.

We finally made it to the platform and saw the waterfall. It was gorgeous! We took pictures even though we all looked gross and sat to eat our lunch. Some of us ventured off the platform onto the rocks in the water. I was very hesitant at first because I’m terrified of snacks but knowing this was once in a lifetime opportunity, I sucked it up and walked down to the rocks. I did see a lizard! A group of us hopped around from rock to rock and had a blast posing for pictures. Dr. Kelly said she wouldn’t drink the water but its fresh and she didn’t see a problem swimming in it. We saw some other tourists swimming in the water but none of us had any desire too. Samuel took off his shirt and had a little swim! Apparently the water was freezing. There was this one huge rock that I really wanted to hop on but I was scared of the jump, Samuel and Brian helped me up! Samuel makes it look so easy but he was great at showing us how to make sure we were safe and the proper way to hop from rock to rock.

The walk back was a breeze. We could actually have a conversation as we walked down the hill! We talked about how this was an activity that our brothers and dads would have enjoyed more but we are glad to be able to say we did it! I actually had a great day and I was definitely working up an appetite. Sarah would walk first down the mountain, clap and say, “shoo mambo” to scare away the snakes for us!! What a good friend!

As we were getting ready to leave we stopped at the vendors to get some souvenirs. This is the only place you can get cedar wood and we saw them carving it in the woods. Cedar smells so good! I picked up a few souvenirs and then we were on our way back.

We talked about how this feels like summer camp because we use flashlights at night, walk to the dining hall, carry our backpacks during the day and pack a lunch. Parts of it are very similar.

I wasn’t going to admit this, but on the bus it came up in conversation and I was glad everyone else experienced the same situation. I have blown my nose a couple times and it comes out almost completely black from the dirt each time. Everyone else noticed the same thing- it gives you an idea how gross we feel all day long. My finger nails are so gross, I use two wipes each time to get my hands and under my nails clean. The wipes both turn yellow. I cannot wait to get a manicure. I also noticed most of the Malawian men have very long fingernails. Yuck.

I tried to stay awake but I was so exhausted I took a little nap on the way home. We didn’t make it to Zomba until 5:50pm and it gets dark around 5ish so we were living on the edge driving so late at night. I felt like we were playing with fire since we know its such a “no no” to be out past dark. But it was neat to see the town at night. Plus the sunset was BEAUTIFUL!

I had planned to shower first and then have dinner but we were so hungry we wanted to eat first. I had vegetable curry again and it was delicious. Krista, Lauren, Sarah and I were craving something sweet so we asked our waiter if they had dessert and we thought she offered lemon pound cake or bananas. We got really excited and each asked for a slice of pound cake. It was taking a very long time but we quickly realized they were baking it as we ordered it so we tried to wait patiently. She brought out the crepes they usually serve at breakfast and we pretended to be excited. Turns out she said “lemon pancake” not “pound cake”. Haha we learned that the hard way, but we laughed about it all night! First time I’ve ever had pancakes for dessert.

I was quite frustrated that I haven’t had the internet in a week so I ran into Peter and he said our passwords should have been reset. They hadn’t been reset, so he gave each of us a 60 minute one-time-only card. I’m planning on using it one night this week to quickly post all of my journals and check my email. It still doesn’t solve the problem because I have 12 hours left on my card that hasn’t been reactivated but at least its some time.

Today we learned how to call each other’s room. So now we don’t have to walk down the mountain to the other girls rooms- we can just call!