Climbing to the top of Southern Africa - South Malawi

Wednesday 3.04 

After 3 relaxing days in the South Luangwa Nationalpark we were looking forward to enter Malawi. We met a nice couple from Johannesburg before we left. They were camping next to us and gave us good advice for Malawi and Tanzania (we decided to also include Tanzania on our list of countries since we still have enough time left). In the meantime a baboon stole my pringle chips.

As usual we arrived at the border just before it closed at 17:30 (closing time 18:00). In a hurry we changed our money to Malawian Kwetchas on the black market before the border. Got our Comesa third party insurance and filled in all forms we were asked to. Finally we passed the border without any bribes or other difficulties at 18:01. Behind us they closed the gate.

In the dark we arrived in Lilongwe the capital and stayed at a true backpacker hostel. 

Thursday 4.04:

We stocked up our supplies at the Spar which seems to exist in all African countries we have visited so far. We were happy to see that everything seems to be a lot cheaper than the previous countries we visited especially compared to Zambia.

We hit the road again direction south Malawi. The landscape is different to what we have seen so far. Granite Mountains, corn fields, village after village and a lot of young people along the road that waved at us with big open smiles. Again it became dark to early and we had to stop in a village on our route. Luckily we found a nice camp site at a local pottery.

Friday 5.05:

Our plan was to visit Liwone National park. However all roads were closed due to the previous rainy season. We decided to skip it and continued driving to the Zomba Plateau. The Granite Plateau was hidden in dark blue clouds. On a steep road we drove up to the road to the trout farm camp ground located in the middle of a rain forest. Everything was covered in thick clouds. It was quite spooky. After quickly cooking some Ramen noodles we quickly climbed up into our cozy roof top tent. It started to rain outside and we quickly fell into a deep sleep.

Saturday 6.05:

In the morning the fog had cleared. After talking to the locals who lived at the campsite we were happy to have some real physical exercise since our last hike at the dunes in Namibia about 2 months ago. We hiked up to the peak of the plateau. The landscape and the fresh air and smell reminded us of the Austrian Alps. We stopped in a local village on the way to buy some fruits. After 4 hours we arrived back at our car. As quickly as possible we packed up our stuff before the millions of huge vicious ants were able to eat us alive. On the way back down we stopped at a dam and were surprised to see Sophie and Marco. We got to know them in Lusaka where she worked for the GTZ.  The world is sometimes small.
We drove down from the Zomba Plateau and continued further south. Again in the dark we arrived via a bumpy dirt road at the foot of the highest mountain (3000m) of Malawi in Mulanye. We were the only ones to stay at a forest lodge except for the two local guards. I cooked noodles for the 4 of us. Now we sit in the grandma style living room on comfortable couches and enjoy a well-deserved self-mixed brandy coke.

Sunday 7.04: 

In the morning we could finally see the huge Moulanye Mountain Massif rising up vertically just a few hundred meters from our tent. How could we possibly get up to the highest peak of 3002m? The answer was to take the mandatory local guide to lead us on a safe mountain path. Ours was the 23 year old Harry who could hardly speak a word of English. 

The first day we hiked for 6 hours to a mountain hut located on a plateau at the foot of the peak. Unfortunately two groups had already arrived earlier and we had to share the shelter with 14 other hikers plus there guides and porters. There was a shortage of mattresses. After some negotiations Ju and me managed to get hold of at least one to share.

Monday 8.04:

We got up at 5:20 to reach the summit. It was a steep climb up the barren granite rocks. Especially where the rock was slippery I tried hard not to look down. After 3 hours we reached the top of Malawi! 

Unfortunately we still had a long way down. Ju already had a huge blister on her right ankle but being Ju she was very brave and did not complain about it. In the final hour I was completely exhausted. I could only manage to keep walking because I had two walking sticks to hold on to. It took us 10 hours to finally arrive at the waterfall close to our camp site at the Forest lodge. We both jumped into the refreshing cold water. I was the happiest man when we finally arrived back at our car.