As I sat on the bus in Kasama at 7:00 at night about to leave for Lusaka to start my journey to Malawi, I seriously considering getting off and postponing the trip. That day I had come down with a nasty flu and the last thing I wanted to do was sit for 20 hours on a bus. I'm glad I decided to go, because by the time I reached Lusaka the next morning I was feeling much better. I was immediately able to catch a bus to Chipata and eight hours later when I arrived there I felt almost normal. Every time I go to Kasama I get sick. That place is disgusting.
I spent the night in Chipata at the Peace Corps Provincial house and the next morning at 7:30AM I started my journey to Mt.Mulanje. I reached the border around 8:00 and started hopping from mini bus to mini bus to reach the town of Mulanje. The journey was rather uneventful accept for the kid next to me on one of the buses peeing into a plastic bag that his Mom was hoding for him. That was a first. Luckily he had good aim and the bag didn't leak.
I reached the town of Mulanje around six o'clock that night and was exhausted from all the mini bus riding. I found a place to stay, managed to keep my eyes open long enough to eat dinner and then went to bed. In the morning I woke up to the sight of Mt.Mulanje peering down at me through the mist of the cold morning. It felt like a real mountain back packing trip, except I am in the middle of Africa. After breakfast I hitched a ride in the back of a pick up truck to about 1 kilometer from the forestry station in Lukubula. When I got to the station I plotted my route, paid my hut fees and arainged for a guide. By the time I finally started hiking it was almost eleven. The first days hike was a challenging six hour hike covering about 1,500 vertical feet up to one of the forestry huts called Chisepu. This is the staging hut for the challenging hike up to the summit which is 3001 meters.
The forestry huts are simple structures that the forestry department has constructed around the mountain. Each has a caretaker who brings you water and firewood. You have to carry in all your own food, cooking utensils, sleeping bag, etc. There were a couple of Canadian girls at the hut who had summited that day and warned me that it was a tuff hike. They were right, it was tuff, but short and fun. There was lots of boldering and climbing through caves and miniature enchanted forests. From the peak (Sepitwa) I could see all the way to Mozambique. They say on a clear day you can see all the way to the Indian Ocean. I was back at the hut by noon and after a lunch consisting of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and an apple I crashed out pretty hard.
The next day was a much easier hike to the next hut called Tuchila. Along the way I passed through some pine and cedar forests that made me forget I was in Africa. The Cedar trees are endangered and it is illegal to cut them down, but despite of this I could spot and hear poachers off in the woods chopping away. It is really sad to see this unique environment in the middle of Africa being destroyed by a relatively small number of people. The forestry department tries to control the poaching with patrols, but like most government agencies in Africa they are severely underfunded and undermaned to do the job sufficiently.
I reached the Tuchila hut before noon and was sitting out on the porch of the hut reading a book and enjoying the stunning view when a group of about ten school kids arrived at the hut, each with a porter to carry their gear. About an hour after they arrived all ten of their porters went tearing off down the mountain armed with machets and sticks. About five minutes later they came walking back to the hut carrying big planks of cedar. It turns out that one of them had spotted some of the cedar poachers walking down the mountain with some cedar planks and they ran him down and chased him off. The porters and guides don't like the cedar theives because they live and work on the mountain and have respect for its beauty. Whenever they have a number of them together at one hut they carry out these rouge raids to try and discourage the illegal harvesting of the cedar.
About twenty minutes later another on of the porters spotted more thieves and they all took off with their machets and sticks again. This time I decided to join in the fun. I think seeing a crazy white man running after them, scared the thieves more than the fact that there were also ten armed porters chasing them. We collected more planks from those theives and on the way back to the hut spotted two more would be thieves and took there planks. In all, the porters carried out three raids and collected close to a dozen cedar planks. The planks were left at the hut and will be turned into the forestry department.
After the excitement at the Tuchila hut, I left the next day for another hut called Sambani. This hike took me down through some beautiful valleys and when I arrived at the hut there were these giant rabbit/rat looking things (I forgot their names) jumping all around the rocks around the hut. At Sambani hut I was all alone and this place has to be one of the windiest places on earth. I swear I was going to be blown over a few times, but it was nice to have the tail wind when going down the next day.
The hike down to the nearest town took about four hours and from there I caught another ride in a pick up truck to the nearest paved road where I caught a mini bus into Blantyre, which is where I am now. I got a much needed hot shower and hot meal (Ethiopian food. Yuuum!), and now I plan to go to bed. Tomorrow I leave for Lake Malawi and a place called Cape MaClare. I am looking forward to a relaxing few days on the beach before going back to Zambia. Happy Fourth of July to everyone. I will drink a Carlberg for you all!
