Enjoying Mt Mulanje Park
Mozambique's transport option #1
yes, I know we look funny!
Vilankulo's receding tide
Bon Dia!
Malawi, yes I failed to talk about it before in greater detail due to pressing time to get to our base on Mt Mulanje. So hear is your weekly earful;
Malawi is THE country in South Africa which everyone wishes they had more time for. The place is full of fun and friendly people and the place is endearing. I would personally say this is a TOP African destination! The country has "good" sights, but the real highlight is the people.
Malawi is not all perfect; this is one of the poorest African countries! However, they take pride in their country being a peaceful nation and not being caught up in wars like their neighbors.
We met several westerners working in hospitals here telling us the truth behind the curtain and let me say; you don't want to be in a Malawian hospital. The main ailments in the country are AIDS, TB, and Malaria. Just like in most of Southern Africa's countries, the AIDS rate is much higher than reported as they will often tick TB as the cause of death, but really its AIDS and they just contracted TB in the late stages. Life Expectancy in this part of Africa is shocking - 40 years! I can tell you honestly, in the past month I can count the amount of old people we have seen - ON ONE HAND! When I say old, 45+! That is very old for Africa!
Our path: Mt. Mulanje > Mocuba (Mozambique) > Vilankulo
Monday - Pine to Cedar: We started our hike with Fin our friend from Sydney and had hired a porter and a guide. The day before we stocked up on our food rations and alcohol for the 3 days hiking. One initiate of the parks department was to cut down the pine forest and replant cedar trees, quite the site I can tell you - and very nice to smell! We hiked all day to get to the Chisepo hut and there we cooked our own food - soup and spaghetti and admired the stunning views of valley below.
Tuesday - Sapwita Peak (3,002 meters or 10,000ft): This was our summit day and we started early as it would be a long day. The climb I can honestly say was the hardest of our entire trip. This can't compare exactly to climbing Kili at 5,890 meters, but the sheer difficulty of climbing what seemed to be vertical rock faces, not exactly vertical, but tough and this was climbing, not trekking or hiking! We reached the top a bit before noon, and had much satisfaction as we relaxed enjoying the scenery! We descended back to the Chispeo hut and had lunch then hiking for several hours through varying landscapes eventually ending in a new cedar forest! The cabin we stayed in was void of tourists so we enjoyed the place to ourselves trying some Malawian brandy - not to bad all things considered.
Wednesday - 18 wheels a truckin: We had a laugh in the morning seeing the ravens eating the remains of our very spicy rice dinner - they had about as much trouble with it as Marina the time I took her to Sri Lanka! Haha. By 1pm we were down the mountain and on our way, having said goodbye to Fin, bound for Mozambique. I knew this would be a journey, but hadn't realised how epic it would be! We had nearly 1000km or 600 miles to go and in Mozambique, that is seriously far! Our journey this day started with a taxi, then minibus to the boarder. From there, we took a bycycle about 5km or 3 miles to the town. From there we waited for 90 minutes and as the evening was approaching we had to hitch-hike to get to the next town. This wasn't as scary as it seems as we jumped in an 18 wheeler truck or lorry joined by about 10 women carrying babies. We travelled for about 7 hours down this dirt road, yes, not even a paved road and reached our destination - Mocuba around midnight.
Thursday - Leaping on buses: We left our hotel in Mocuba at 04:30 ready to catch the 05:00 bus. Unfortunately for us, the hotel staff were idiots and there was no bus; or at least that's what we were told when we got there. So....we sat on a minibus for four hours before it left. Now this bus wasn't going the full way, just 1/3rd, but it was progress. As we arrived to Caia; we were pleasantly surprised to see a minibus ready to leave for the next 1/3rd and promptly boarded it. However, Marina was very clever to spot a big bus, 15 minutes later, before our minibus was just ready to leave so I checked and it was bound for Maputo, the one which would take us the full way!!! She ran to hold the bus and our seats on it and I leapt up on the minibus to get our bags off the roof causing the 100+ people around to stare in amazement at this crazy white man! After a bit of an effort untying the bags, I had them down and in the next bus. Dripping full of sweat I was able to relax and appreciate this saved us one day of travel! From hitch-hiking with the truck driver and this quick thinking change, we saved two days!!!!! That night we reached the junction (only 10 miles or 16km) from Vilankulo where we stayed appreciating our hard efforts and knowing we were only a quick ride from our destination in the morning.
Friday - Mercado Central: We checked into our hotel just across the street from the beach and promptly went to enjoy the sun and tropical Indian ocean! You may know or have to imagine how nice it is to relax on the beach after a taxi,minibus,bicycle,18 wheeler,minibus,bus, and truck! Such a journey - I would say it was epic and especially doing this in about 36 hours!!!! That night we went to the mercado central - much to Marina's protest as it seemed a bit dodgy and was night - but this turned out to be a gem. Many of the locals eat here and the standard practice is to pick out your fish in the market and then take them to a stall who will cook it for your, and serve rice, salad, beer, etc - the cooking charge is $2!!! We aimed to buy 2 medium sized fish, it turned out that that the 50 Met (also $2) was for the pile of fish. So we walked away with 4 medium sized fish for $2! That meal was hearty and oh so good!
Saturday - Disappearing Sea: The next day we had a very similar repeat with the market and beach. One amazing thing about Vilankulo, possibly during this time in the moon's calendar is the tide. The tide recedes miles and miles (km and km, just doesn't sound right) and it almost surely looked like we could have walked all the way to the island a few miles away, although I'm sure we would have died trying!
Whats next? We are now in Tofo which I will tell you all about, and let me add so far there is A LOT to tell!!! After this, we are off to Maputo.
Ciao,
Dan and Marina
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