Mount Mulanje No 14

So our journey to Mount Mulanje began by getting 3 different minibuses, crammed full of people! On our way we were stopped by the Police due to the minibus being way over its capacity, which is a normal occurrence in Malawi. We were convinced the driver paid the Police a bribe because we were back on the road in no time, and he was soon filling up the bus with more people!! Our final bus took us to a village called Likabula at the base of Mount Mulanjie. We were soon accompanied by guys wanting to be our porter or guide and they followed us on our 30 minute walk to our accommodation. During our walk we could see the scale of Mulanje, but still had no idea what lay ahead for us over the next few days! We were advised by previous people who had climbed the mountain to buy ourselves a locally made walking stick, which turned out to be a great piece of advice. We chose a walking stick each with ‘Mount Mulanje Malawi 2010’ engraved on it for a bargain 2 pounds.

We booked our guide, porter and our 2 nights accommodation in a cabin on the mountain and were now ready to take on the mighty Mulanje. Our guide, Oscar and porter, Felix (yes we know they sound like a kids comedy cartoon duo) led us on our journey the next morning. Only 5 minutes in to the hike Nat met her first challenge of making her way across a river by leaping on to rocks to avoid the rushing water. So off came our shoes and Oscar led us on a safe path across the river to the other side, and Nat had successfully accomplished her first challenge! From then on the journey was a continuous incline the whole way. Our hearts soon felt like they were in our throats and with the sun beaming down on us we were sweating buckets. It was refreshing when we came to another stream where we cooled ourselves down and rehydrated ourselves with the fresh spring water. The higher we climbed the harder it got, but the stunning scenery and amazing wildlife made us forget about our aches and pains (well – for a short while). Due to it being the rainy season, there were very few people on the mountain other than a group of three others we came across along our path. The wet paths from the rain, made the climb a lot more challenging and we had to constantly watch our step which is where our walking sticks came in handy for balancing.

When we saw the sign for the ‘CCAP hut’ which we were staying in, our mood lifted as we thought we had completed our climb. But there was still a difficult 1 hour journey ahead, which contained 2 valleys ahead and a very steep descent down to the hut. After a 6 hour hike we finally arrived, to be greeted by the friendly caretaker, Bonfess who was boiling water over a fire for a cup of tea and hot wash. The hut was very quaint and was built over 100 years ago by Scottish missionaries. That night we celebrated our 2 year anniversary over a candle lit dinner (because there was no electricity) and a warm coke each sitting in front of the fire – quite romantic really. To top it off we saw one of the best sunsets we’ve seen in Africa.

Even though we didn’t think our legs could manage it we were up early the next morning setting off with Oscar on a hike of the plateau. We rambled through grass as high as our heads and a arrived at a place named the crater, where we sat on the edge looking out over the mountains and we could even see Mozambique ahead. We headed off to some rock pools which led to a water fall, but due to the clouds closing in on us it was too cold to have a swim. The viewpoint on the edge of the plateau gave us a breath taking view of the land below and we spotted the towns we had stopped at during our journey there on the minibus.

The next day it was time to head back down to the mountain (and to reality)! We set off at 6.30am, hoping that an early start would get us down there in good time. But much were we mistaken as the descent proved to be quite tricky due to the slippery paths and rocks. After a very long and tiring 7 hours we were back down the mountain and ready to head back home for a nice hot shower.

So 2 days later as we’re writing this our legs are still aching all over, but despite the pain it was well worth it and we feel a great sense of achievement having completed our first ever mountain hike. We may wait a while until we attempt Kilimanjaro or even Everest : )

We will keep you updated on our next ‘African Adventure’………

Love Nat and Kim xxx