The Top of Malawi

Katie's last full day in Africa was spent in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. It was a pretty pleasant town, with lots of activity. Our main goal for the day was to top off Katie's bag with crafts to carry home and buy a bus ticket for my onward travel. We succeeded in both, spending time in the main crafts market in the city center, and at the main market near the old part of the city. Visiting the main market was probably the most local thing we've done, and we even took the risk of having lunch in the shanty food court.

All the different restaurants offered one of two things: fried chicken and french fries. We were helped out by an enthusiastic guy who may have been a manager of sorts, who brought us a soda bottle crate to use as a table, and found us a rag at the end of the meal to wipe our hands with.


The next day I saw Katie off, and waited for the bus to Blantyre later in the afternoon. Arriving in Blantyre late, I just stayed at a cheap hotel near the bus station. One positive of the hotel was that it had a tv. However, there were only 2 channels, and both were showing gospel music videos. One was more lighthearted, and everyone singing (it kept cutting from one person to another) was also doing a dance that looked like enthusiastic walking in place. The gospel music on the other station was seemed more serious, and the singers were usually shown in a church. It was up early the next morning to continue on my way, and I caught a series of minibuses until reaching my destination, Likhubula, not far from Mozambique and at the foot of Mt Mulanje. Mt Mulange is a massif that rises nearly vertically up from the surrounding land, and contains the highest point in Malawi, Sapitwa (meaning Do Not Climb, but I guess they've relaxed the rules) Peak, at 3002 meters. I quickly made a plan to stay 3 nights in huts on the mountain, hired a guide (Nelson), and headed up. My destination for the first night was Chambe hut, in the Chambe Basin, near Chambe peak. There are 2 ways up: Chapaluka trail following the river and less steep, but taking longer, and the Skyline trail, a shorter, steeper route going straight up to the plateau. I chose the steeper route since it was said to have better views, I'd be returning by the Chapaluka trail, and because that's what I do. But it was a decision I'd soon come to question. It was a 3300 ft climb, and relentless. It was so steep, every step seemed big. But, I made it, and knew the next day would be easier. The view at the hut was dominated by Chambe Peak, whose east face was bathed in the light of the near-full moon.


The following morning (Tuesday) I was pretty leisurely getting ready, and we started towards the next hut, Chisepo, at the foot of Sapitwa around 8:30. It was only a 3 hour hike, but had quite a bit of up and down, and ended up about 1300 ft higher around 7300 ft. It was a spectacular hike, crossing a ridge (of course with a steep hike down to it and back up from it) that joined the Chambe area to the main massif. From the ridge, on each side the terrain plunged into steep-walled, densely vegetated valleys.

Unlike the Chambe Basin which is the site of a lot of forestry work, these valleys appeared mostly undisturbed, and filled with majestic Mulanje cedar. By the time we reached Chisepo, clouds had built up and during our afternoon walk there were some showers.

The clouds cleared by sunset to reveal a beautiful row of peaks to the north.


During the night there were heavy rains, but we woke up to a beautiful sunrise

and clearing skies and made an early start for the summit. In keeping with the norm on the mountain, the trail to the top was very steep, and now very rocky as well. A lot of the time we were just walking straight up the exposed granite bedrock. The views along the main ridge of Mt Mulanje were getting better and better, but the clouds were building up again. After an hour, it seemed we were very close to the summit, but the terrain became more bouldery, and the route much trickier. The trail went up, over, around, under, and through the boulders, and occasionally through dense stunted forests.

That last little bit took over 1.5 hrs, and we reached the summit

just before clouds obscured most of the nearby peaks.

Because of the difficult terrain, it wasn't that much faster going down, but we got back to Chisepo around 12:30, with nothing to do but relax all afternoon. It was nice not having to leave the hut, as it was quite a rainy afternoon. Another group's guide taught us how to play Bao, a local game simialar to Mancala. His explanations of the rules left something to be desired, and were sometimes quite comical, such as when he repeatedly told us that certain pieces were expired without explaining what it meant or why they were. Once again, in the early evening the clouds briefly cleared, this time making for some interesting night photography

until heavy rains returned as I was going to bed.
Today I had to undo all that elevation - about a 4600 ft net descent. We started out on the trail back to Chambe hut and I was able to once again enjoy the views of the 2 valleys.

Then we took off into the valley to the west (Likhubula Valley) and after some steep sections through dense tropical forest joined the river. There were waterfalls everywhere, and we stopped at a pool under one for a dip.

We may have been in the tropics, but the water was about as cold as the water we swam in earlier this summer in the mountains in Norway!
After lunch, Nelson and I walked around the villages at the base of the mountain, and went by one of the many tea plantations that surround it.

We stopped at Nelson's house and I met his sister and two aunts.
It'll be a bit of travel now - back to Blantyre tomorrow morning to catch a 10+ hr night bus to Mzuzu, in northern Malawi, where I'll take another bus to Nkhata Bay on Lake Malawi.

Along the Luangwa

We left Livingstone for one of our longest stretches of travel to Chipata, in Zambia nearly on the border with Malawi. It was about a 6 hour bus ride to Lusaka, where we had to change buses, and had planned to stay two nights as a buffer for any travel problems. Lusaka wasn't too impressive a city - decrepit buildings and lots of trash were the first things we noticed.
On the other hand it has a more diverse population than other towns and cities we've been in, and we had a good Chinese dinner followed by an interesting conversation with the restaurant bartender/manager about being Chinese in Lusaka. The Chinese have a growing population in Southern Africa. After a day of walking around Lusaka, we were back on the bus, this time for about eight hours. The bus was less geared to tourists than the one from Livingstone had been and boarding was somewhat chaotic, but we got off almost on time, and the ride itself was smooth. At one of the stops, we saw a sad goat with his legs tied together being thrown into the trunk of our bus :( Shortly after Lusaka we drove through some mountains, the most hills we've seen since Namibia. In the middle of the mountains was a bridge over the Luangwa River, along which we'd be spending the next few days, but much further upstream. After leaving these mountains, we got back into flatter terrain, but dotted with occasional solitary rock outcroppings. The air was getting hazier though - we were getting into more frequent villages, and there were fires everywhere - burning trash, clearing fields, and as the main heat source for cooking; the smoke was filling the air and in the dry season there was nothing to flush it out. In the late afternoon, we arrived in Chipata where we checked into our our night's accommodation at Dean's Hillview Lodge. Over dinner we met the other folks who would be with us into the park. There was a Irish guy, a Scottish guy, and a couple that was basically from Canada (one via the UK) who were one year into a two year stay in Lusaka as project managers for a charity organization.
The next morning we headed to South Luangwa National Park where we were staying with Jackalberry Safaris at Wildlife Camp,

just outside the Park. The park was beautiful, with animal-filled plains, oxbow lagoons, and the biggest trees we've seen for a while.

Our five day/four night safari included: afternoon/night game drive, morning game drive, walking safari to/from bush camp,

visit to a wildlife education center, full day game drive (6:30am to 8:30pm), and a bush breakfast at small salt pan.
On our various drives and walks, we saw several animals we hadn't seen before and animals we had seen were in greater densities than we had seen elsewhere. A lot of this was due to being able to go on night drives where we were able to see nocturnal animals such as hyenas.

We also saw our first wild leopard,

this one having a snack of impala or puku (another first sighting for us) while its cub was nearby also hidden in the bushes. Later the same night we saw another leopard in the grass stalking impala.

This was actually all on the first night drive, and it nearly proved anti-climactic, as the next large cats we would see wouldn't be until the last hour of our last game drive when we saw a small pride of lions. This was also a really cool sighting. Although these lions seemed thin and in need of a good kill, they walked so gracefully and their confidence really showed in the way they walked.


We also saw hippos

in numbers we hadn't seen before, including this really crowded beach,

which also provided us with another hippo yawn, and hippos storming the water.

They had been scared into the water by a heron landing nearby! The river was also lined with crocodiles.

It was suggested that between the hippos and crocodiles here, the Luangwa might be the world's most deadly river. Another night we had to wait on the road as an enormous herd of elephants went by - it was really amazing, they just kept coming and coming.

We also had a sadder elephant sighting. It was hard to see, but this young elephant had lost its trunk to a poacher's snare.

Its days were numbered as without its trunk it couldn't graze, and would soon starve to death. Sadly, poaching still remains a problem throughout Africa, although there are some good efforts to prevent it and to educate people against it. Another exciting sighting was of this male kudu - we had seen lots of female kudu (who don't have the long horns), but far fewer males, and hadn't gotten any pictures of them yet.

Waterbuck

and puku
were the two new kinds of antelope we saw here, and of course we saw the usuals: impala, giraffes,

and zebra.


We also had some really knowledgeable bird people with us who were able to show us a lot of really beautiful birds, including these crowned cranes,


a rare species which arrived at our breakfast salt pan just as we did. There are just so many species of birds out here, far too many for us to keep track of, or remember all the subtle difference between!


In addition to being one of the best safaris animal-wise, it was really super people-wise as well. We had a really nice time with the other people on safari, and Gavin and Rosey and the others who work at Jackalberry really made it a wonderful trip.
The South Luangwa trip marked the end of the wildlife portion of our trip. We have now made it to Lilongwe, Malawi where, sadly, on Sunday Katie will be leaving Africa and Tom to return to work. Tom will have an exciting few more weeks traveling through Malawi and Mozambique, although not through areas known for wildlife.

The Smoke That Thunders

We've spent the last few days at Victoria Falls, or as its known in the local language, Mosi-o-Tunya, the Smoke that Thunders. Victoria Falls is on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, and is over a mile wide and 300 ft tall. The water falls into a gorge which is equally steep on the side facing the falls, and flows out through a series of other gorges, each of which was a previous location of the falls. The western side of the falls, and the land facing it belongs to Zimbabwe; the eastern side of each belongs to Zambia. Due to the placement of the border, and the location of the river's exit from the 1st gorge, Zambia has more of the waterfall (at least when the flow of the river is high - the Zambian side completely dries up in the dry season), while Zimbabwe has more of the land facing it. Because so much water is falling into a narrow gorge, there is a ton of mist spraying up and out of the gorge (hence the local name), which depending on the wind obscures the view of all the falls from any one spot, and provides business for people renting out rain jackets to visitors.

We spent a day in the parks on each side of the falls. On the Zambia side, you have a more limited view, but the hiking trails are more interesting. Our first sighting of the falls was at Eastern Cataract, where I took out my camera to take a picture and realized I had left my memory cards at our lodge! So, it was a quick taxi trip back and forth, and we returned for take two of our first Vic Falls sighting.

We continued on across the plateau where we picked up ponchos and headed into the spray. The plateau narrows and drops down a bit to what is called the Knife's edge, and there is a bridge built across it where most of the spray is aimed.

This isn't just a light mist, it's a full on torrent of rain. Sometimes the spray coming up from the falls is exactly strong enough to keep the falling raindrops suspended, and you can watch the drops dancing and floating through the air. From here, we went around to the plateau on the far side of the 2nd gorge, which was drier and offered a longer view to the bit of the falls you could see through the exit gorge.

Finally, we walked down the trail to the bottom, and an area called the boiling pot, where the river turns out of the exit gorge and into the 2nd gorge. Here the river flows in a circular current as it runs straight into the wall of the 2nd gorge,

and we could again see a portion of the falls through the exit gorge.

On the Zimbabwe side, all you can do is walk along the plateau directly opposite the falls, but you see several different cataracts. The first, westernmost one seemed to have the most flow through a small area. A little further east is the main falls, followed by Horseshoe and Rainbow Falls,
before reaching the end of the Zimbabwean plateau at a spot called Danger Point, where you can see across to Zambia into the 1st gorge, exit gorge, and the Boiling Pot and 2nd gorge.

Quite a spectacular spot. With all the mist and a clear blue sky above, there's almost always a rainbow somewhere.

Connecting Zambia and Zimbabwe more than 400 ft over the 2nd gorge is the Victoria Falls Bridge, a steel arch bridge built in the early 20th century. Aside from providing access over the river, the bridge is now also the site of Victoria Falls bungee jump. Here in Vic Falls, you can participate in just about any activity you can think of, from bungee jumping and paintball to walking with lions and river cruises. For one of our activities, we decided to get a view of the fall from right above them....in what is called a microlight, which is basically a hang-glider with a motorcycle engine and propeller. We were lucky to get in the air as it was a windy morning and they suspended flights just after we had both taken off. This (or a helicopter) is the only way to see all the falls at once,
and we could also see the zigzagging series of gorges downstream. Above the falls, where the river flows through a maze of islands, we could see hippos and elephants.

For our second activity of the day, in the afternoon got to experience some of the five star treatment in Africa. We headed over to the Royal Livingston Hotel to have high tea at Livingstone Island. This is the spot where in 1855 David Livingstone became the first European to view the falls. From the hotel, we took a short boat right to a small island in the middle of the river and right on the edge of the falls...and got a view from the edge strait down the falls. After hiking around the edge of the Falls, we had a fancy treat of high tea with lots of delicious savory and sweet bites.

After our trip to the island, we stuck around the Royal Livingstone to enjoy some of the high living. We sipped cocktails as we viewed the sunset, then treated ourselves to a crocodile appetizer. (It's better to have crocodile stuck in your teeth than to be stuck in the teeth of a crocodile.)

The zebras even paid a visit to the pool deck at the hotel.


After completing our 360 degree view of the Falls from all angles, we left the five star accommodation for our tent, and went to bed wondering how comfortable the beds at the Royal Livingstone a