Fighting for the muzungu

  Likhubula, Mt. Mulange, Malawi
Tuesday, April 4, 2006

A bit of a treat this morning as they had the full English fry on the menu. Bacon, eggs, sausage, beans, tomato, toast and coffee. The bastards never mentioned they were out of bacon though until they bought the plate over. No worries I think I got extra sausage to make up for it.

I retraced my steps back towards the Mozambique border and to the small village of Chitikali where I jumped in a pick-up. The pick up was going to Likhubula where the hike started and was absolutely packed and I was convinced some people were going to fall out. Most people actually had to stand it was so full.

After it broke down 3 times in the first 1km I decided it was time to get out and walk for the final 9km. We asked for our money back, but the driver assured us it would start again and he would pick us up somewhere along the way. We, of course, never saw the truck again.

Mt. Mulange with tea plantation in foreground

It was a pleasant enough walk though through tea plantation with Mt. Mulange rising up behind them. The owner of the hostel had mentioned the previous evening that it was the largest monolith in the world!

One guy from the pick-up had the same idea as me, Beste was his name and it turns out he was a guide for Mt. Mulange. The guides are used on a rotating basis and there are 25 of them. I'm guessing an average of one hiking party a day leaves for the mountain so they probably don't get a huge amount of work. Beste asked if he could be my guide, even though he'd only been out a few days earlier. I agreed as long as the head at the forestry office was happy with it.

I told the head of the forestry department this, but within a few minutes he went out to pick a porter and immediately there were also a whole bunch of guides out there who gathered and argued for the next 15 minutes because Beste had jumped the queue. The head then came back inside and started shouting at me telling me it was all my fault. I yelled back at him rather loudly for a while until he finally shut up.

The porter he picked for me was Jeffrey.

I booked into the CCAP mission ( this is a big Christian organization in Malawi) where I had a peaceful afternoon listening to all the hymns been sung as only African know how. Later I went for a dip in some deep swimming pools close by.

4 Belgium's arrived later that afternoon and we all went the 10 minutes down to Likhubula for food and drinks.