(For these 115 photos of my Mount Mulanje trip, I will not write a paragraph for each photo, because there are so many. So I will only write when there is something to write about. Enjoy!)
We were up at four-thirty AM and in the vehicle by five-ish. We drove in the early hours through Blantyre and down that main road for about another forty-five minutes.
When the mountain was in view, we started noticing rice fields everywhere.
A well-grown tree garden.
Our first site of Mount Mulanje.
We had to drive around part of the mountain to get to the place where we would meet our guides. This rock face here is the tallest rock climbing face in Africa.
We met up with our guides, dropped off Leila at the house here at the bottom, and then drove up to the place where we would embark on our journey.
Oh, ya. I forgot to mention - Keiran and I are the only ones climbing the mountain. Darren did not want to go up it, and Leila was really exhausted from having arrived back from Canada a few days before, so it was agreed upon that Keiran and I could climb it alone.
After grabbing our packs, we were on our way. Now for the photo gallery.
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| Kinsley, our guide, is the centre, and Samson, our porter (carrier) is on the right. |
A Malawian carrying freshly carved wood down from the mountain. These guys are insane. They will walk all the way up a mountain to get wood, and then they would carry it all the way down, just to earn money. And these boards weigh a ton. It is also an illegal business too, so if they see a police officer at the bottom of the hill, they book-it.
We spent alot of time going in and out of the forests. Right now we are walking up a valley.
At around ten AM, we came to a creek and decided to let our aching legs rest while we filled up on water and soaked ourselves.
Trying to see if we can get some water from the small waterfall. Photo credits to Kingsley.
We gave up when we couldn't reach it. The only way to get it was to jump in and get up close to the waterfall, but it looked like it was up to my shoulders deep, so I decided not to. Photo credits to Kingsley.
We didn't give up though. After a bit more time, we found another good water source that was about twenty feet above us to the right. Photo credits to Kingsley.
Photo credits to Kingsley.
Filling up for the trip. Pure mountain water. Photo credits to Kingsley.
Back on the path again. Check out the size of this guy's saw. It's like eight or nine feet long.
I am guessing this is where one of those wood guys slept.
We stopped for a break. Kingsley wanted to look at my iPod Nano, so I let him.
After a few more minutes, I had to tell Kingsley that we should move on. I guess he got pretty hooked onto my iPod pretty fast.
Geez! Check out this guys abs.
Where these guys are, is where we stopped for our lunch break. Some fine P & J. It was a nice break to rest our legs.
Now we got to go into those trees that is in-between these two rock faces. Once we get to the top of this, we will have climbed our first mountain. One more after that.
This kinda makes me think of Scotland. These boulders are ginormous.
And there's thousands of them!
Look at this amazing guy. Samson has carried our luggage (food, toiletries, a pot, and Keiran's sleeping bag) all the way up the mountain for us. He completely fits his name. Except that he is bald.
My legs had a huge burn on them, but I kept on going. I wanted to ask for a break, but I held it off for awhile. Eventually I asked for a break at the top of a steep hill, but then I noticed this sign. We were around one hundred feet away from the place where we would be staying for the night. That is what I call sick. No rest for the weary....
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| An angel from Heaven came today as a sign?! |
Our stay. The first thing Keiran and I did was walk over to the creek and stick our feet in. We were sticky with sweat, had burnt backs, were dying of thirst, our feet were all worn and had blisters, our legs were burning with pain, and our hands were tired. That was sixteen kilometers up two mountains. Not only up, but up and down, over rocks, and a ton more. This place was the nicest thing to see after all that. With fresh water creeks, a hot indoor fire, and a nice place to rest.
Keiran and I first dropped off our bags, and then we jumped into the creek. It shocked my system with how cold it was, so I jumped out. We walked around for a bit. Found a different creek that was warmer by a bit and jumped in there. Later on, we made a fire, and then we made some tea and rice. The housekeeper provided me with some warm water that had been heated over the fire to wash myself.
After dinner, I crawled into my blanket that I had brought (to preserve room) and fell asleep.
We were awoken the next morning at four AM. We put on extra clothes due to it being around five degrees, and then we started climbing up towards Sapitwa point.
The clouds that lay in our path.
Entering the skyline.
These paths all got very dangerous. Like, 'If-you-fall,-you're-dead.' No ifs to it. It was freakishly freaky at some points.
Taking a rest after climbing for about forty-five minutes. Keiran looks snug. Photo credits to Keiran.
It was really nice to see blue skies after climbing through clouds for the past hour.
I forgot what they called these guys. They are a rabbit-like creature.
After having had to ration down on my water to make it last long enough, it was nice to find this little creek. We filled up our waters and carried on.
Into a cave for a minute.
Photo credits to Kingsley.
DON'T FALL KEIRAN!
Nearing the top.
I yelled, 'WOOHOO!' when I saw this. It is the Sapitwa Point Marker, and it is only twenty-ish minutes away.
This way -)
The Photo-Shoot Cave.
Photo credits to the camera.
Now above the clouds.
FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We arrived at Sapitwa. Here are six or seven shots I took on the top of the mountain. I just went around in a circle.
Now resting for about fifteen minutes. It is seven fifteen AM.
Now some posed shots. Photo credits to Keiran.
Doing it Brazil style. Christ the Redeemer. Photo credits to Keiran.
Sorry this shot came out a little weird.
Photo credits to Keiran.
Photo credits to Keiran.
The guide asked us if we wanted to climb on-top of the marker, but we were like, "Are you serious?! We just climbed a mountain!" Photo credits to Kingsley.
We arrived back at the camp at ten AM and took a thirty minute break, before we started the sixteen kilometer walk to the finish.
We passed a couple that was on their way up the mountain. Their guide just warned us that we were going to get caught in the rain.
See the shadow in the centre of the photo; the one beside the river. That is where Keiran and I started off yesterday on foot. We continued up and over this mountain in the right of the photo.
This is the last photo I took for about an hour. The rain came out and drenched us, so I had to put my camera in my backpack and cover it and the iPod Nano with my clothes to keep them dry. Keiran and I walked for two kilometers in the pouring down rain without a shirt. All to keep our electronics alive. After the first kilometer, I couldn't move my hands as much. They were freezing cold. The rain was tough as hail.
The first shot I got after the rains.
We were going to meet Leila and Darren at a waterfall for some water fun, but as the rains came, they left where they were waiting for us and headed back down the mountain.
Finally we arrived at the waterfall. Is it me or does Kingsley actually look red in that water.
Keiran looking for crabs.
I jumped in once, and then we had to continue down the mountain.
After forty-five minutes, we finally reached the bottom. The joy we all felt!
We met up with Darren and Leila. They were happy we were back, so they could go, Keiran and I were happy to finally rest, and Kingsley and Samson were happy to get their money, so we were all happy. Haha.
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| Kingsley the guide. |
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| Samson the porter. |
We jumped into the Rav4 and headed for Hope Village. We stopped once in Blantyre for dinner.
When we got back to Hope Village, we were all exhausted and headed to bed. I fell asleep after awhile. It's pretty hard to fall asleep when you are covered in burns.
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