My last post: a little summary of thoughts

The big board at The Butterfly Space:
  

I have been lucky enough to spend nearly two months (I wish it were more!) in such a beautiful country, with beautiful people who are nearly always smiling or laughing, despite it being one of the poorest countries in the world. So many people offer to help without expecting money (more than any other third world country), and children can play on the streets freely and not grow up in the technological age full of people glued to their phones. Despite the poverty, (often severe), I admire and praise the lifestyle and life lessons people get here. Even the little things, like the fact two men holding hands is regarded as normal and people don't jump to conclusions - this is what we need to learn from them! There's a certain beauty to undeveloped countries, simply because they haven't developed some of the same bad habits or lifestyles as the western world.

Yes I had quite a few unpleasant experiences where I met unpleasant people, but you get that everywhere in the world. A few negatives I have seen over my time there include the shocking un-ignorable objectification of women and deep rooted patriarchal culture, and the obsession that every single 'mazungu' (white person) has money pouring out of their ears and that a plane journey to England will solve all their life problems.

But all in all I have met incredible people, seen incredible things and I have truly seen why Malawi is called 'The Warm Heart Of Africa". 

Thanks to all who have followed me the whole way and read all my daily updates. Writing well has never been my forte, but I enjoyed sharing my trip with you all. 

Over and out xxx

Day 50: Long day travelling home...

25th August:

I spoke too soon, another hour delay was announced at 3am, and then another hour delay announced at 4am... Half an hour later I was woken by the guy sitting next to me telling me we were all being moved to the airport lounge because we weren't leaving until 8am! That means I will have been in the airport for over 12 hours...  :(  Michael Buble is very relevant right now- Let me go hooome, I wanna go home!

A few hours later when I left the lounge to go back to the gate I realised something was leaking from my bag cause the bottom was soaked. To make matters worse, when I took everything out I discovered my gin bottle had smashed somehow and I ran around asking people for a plastic bag or empty bottle I could salvage the rest in. It was most the most unhelpful unfriendly room of people I've ever been in, even the staff didn't bat an eyelid and said they couldn't help me! Eventually I found an empty water bottle left around and put a couple hundred ml into it, only to realise when I go through security (yet again!) that I wouldn't be able to take the bottle through. I'm more sad about the Malawi Gin label than I am about losing the actual gin!

An announcement plays on the speakers calling the flight to Nairobi, although it's terribly quality so you couldn't actually here. Suddenly everyone decides it's our flight and starts queuing up by the gate yet again because they're so keen to get on the plane. They're all told yet again that we cannot board the plane yet and a groan and mumbling ripples along the queue. I knew better and stayed parked in my seat spectating the entertaining herd of grumpy, tired, impatient passengers.
On the flight I annoyingly couldn't sleep, so instead watched 3 movies.
When I walked through arrivals with my backpacks I saw mum and gave her a big hug.
Home sweet home xxx

Things I will & won't miss when I get home:

My bored list-making at the airport...


Things I won't miss:

Unreliable power

Cold showers

My permanently orange dusty dirty feet

DOXY-frickin-CYCLINE and the inability to have normal skin whilst taking it!

Weird tasting water

The random grimy men trying to hit on me

Being a "muzungu" and not being able to go anywhere without people staring or treating me differently

The guilt when I don't give someone money who clearly needs it

Walking everywhere with my backpack that's bigger than me and my backpack sandwich

The lack of personal bubbles on matolas/minibuses

"Malawi-time", where 10minutes= 1hour (although at times charming)

Smelly fish! Eurgh!

Mosquitos, flies and ants

Gross dorm beds, and loud snorers

Things I will miss:

The Butterfly Space and all the locals, volunteers and staff I met there (apart from Brian & Mickey...!)

The kids I taught at Butterfly, especially Priscilla, Sheilla, Matthews, Leonard, Charles, Doreen, Semolina and Ez

Being called "madam" or "teacher"

Being able to make friends with other backpackers much quicker than in normal situations. And meeting people from all over the world who have the same common interest- travelling

Dapp! All the markets

Chitenje- practical, multifunctional and beautiful

The Bawo game (although I might have to buy a board and take it back with me!)

The incredibly photogenic countryside, animals (especially the rainbow skink lizards), vegetation (baobabs!), people and views. 

Being able to buy literally anything wherever you go, from bananas to Yorkshire pudding-like donuts (mandasi).

Being able to greet any and every person I pass in the street and it not be weird.

Being called "sister", like all other Malawian women

The ability to spend an hour doing absolutely nothing

The independence

The backpacking lifestyle of complete and utter spontaneity

Day 49: Blantyre & Bye bye Malawi

24th August:

Woke up at 5am again and couldn't get back to sleep :( I walked into the centre of Blantyre and before I even got to the end of the street i was bombarded with "taxi?" "hello beautiful" "where are you from?" 

As I walked down the main road I walked past a homeless man I had seen yesterday on my way here. I had given him my big blue hoody that I'd bought to climb Mulanje and didn't need anymore and he was so grateful. Then this morning he was wearing the hoody!! Nearly brought a tear to my eye when he kept thanking me and shaking my hand!

In town I bought some last minute things before leaving the country, including a Bawo board so I can play back in London!

I then got escorted back by a man in a suit called Prince who seemed nice and thankfully didn't try anything. 

When I got back to Doogles I found out my flight has been delayed a couple hours so I had a bit longer to chill in the sun.

My taxi driver was lovely, although incredibly questioning, and I lied about a couple things just to avoid the typical discussions about religion and boyfriends etc. He was asking if there were people in London who didnt believe in God and I said there were, trying so hard to play along with my made up story of being a devout Catholic. He even asked me where my rosary beads were! When he dropped me off he got someone to take a few photos of us before he left. Haha!

I still had about 10,000 kw left that I would use a fraction of to buy a bit of food and water at the airport. But there wasn't any point in my converting the rest back into pounds cause it would've equaled about a fiver. Instead, I trundled down the road with my backpacks and kwacha in hand and found the nearest group of people I could. These happened to be apple sellers on the side of the road who hardly spoke any English. I wandered up to them greeting them in Chichewa and handed them each a 1000kw note. They were a bit shocked and confused at first, thinking I was trying to but something, but then I tried explaining I didn't need the money when I flew home to England and they understood and they all came and hugged me. It's true: giving feels much better than receiving! Best feeling ever! So off I went to the airport, the ladies shouting "zikomo" at me, happy with how I spent my last moment in Malawi. 

After I went through security a man came up to me holding my newly bought Bawo board. He asked how much I bought it for and where I'd bought it. He then said I needed to get a document to say it's been checked for pests, because I was technically exporting a wood carving. He then eventually got to the point that I had to pay him 5000kw to get this document so I could bring it with me. I acted completely shocked, saying that I didn't have any money with me cause I give the last of it to the locals down the road. (I actually still have $20 but I wasn't going to tell him that! I have him my sob story, asking him if I couldn't take it with me if I didn't have any money an eventually he gave in and let me go. I've had a lot of crap being a young girl travelling alone but this is definitely one of the big perks :D

Before leaving the country I wanted to use up my remaining 4,000kw and managed to buy a big bottle of gin, pineapple juice and a bottle water.. all you need in life really...!

On the flight there was a movie, which exceeded my expectations of Ethiopian Air - Eddie the Eagle, good movie!

When I got to Addis Ababa that evening I spent a good half an hour wandering around every single seat of the airport trying to find somewhere to park my bum for the next 7 hours.... Eventually I found a sunbed type seat and fell asleep, using my chitenje as a duvet. Sadly I woke up after only an hour's nap still absolutely shattered, regretting my 5am start this morning...! I went to go grab some late dinner to pass the next few hours, but they still passed at a snails pace. I managed to get another hour of sleep in, but woke up to my alarm set at 2am for my 2:40 boarding time.

Day 48: Mulanje->Blantyre

23rd August:

I automatically woke up at 5am cause my body clock had gotten used to the early morning starts up on Mulanje. Luckily I could get back to sleep for a few hours before we got up and packed our bags. 

The girls and I left Mulanje View Motel without breakfast because they were only offering bread and tea for 1000kw! Rip off.. Instead we each bought a few mandasi (the donut things) which were the best ones I've tasted so far. Much better than the greasy horrible ones we had on the way down Zomba Plateau a few days ago.

We jumped into a minibus and headed off to Blantyre. My last minibus while in Malawi- that's a sad thought!

On the side of the road I saw a girl about my age just minding her own business selling her fruit and veg, and she was being picked on and physically abused by two older guys. No one was doing anything about it!

At another of the stops we made during the journey there was a man who came up to the minibus with his hand out begging. He was the oldest Malawian I had seen so far, and he was probably around 70. I realised that the high incidence of diseases and bad healthcare wasn't the only reason why life expectancy in third world countries is so low. On the whole, elderly people do not have the strength to do manual labour, (and that is really the only work available out here unless you are well educated) and so they cannot afford the basic necessities to keep them living.

  A street stall

When we got to Limbe and changed to another minibus to Blantyre a guy came up to me at the window and started the usual "what's your name, where are you from?" and when I replied England he started saying how he voted Leave in the referendum. I asked him his reasons and he started saying how they were taking our money... Then went on a rant about how he has a Mercedes and then showed me his car keys and said how he didn't go to Oxford he went to another college. And I kept bringing it back to the point of how that was relevant to the EU and he kept on rambling on how Malawi was one of the poorest countries in Africa and how it's so much cheaper here than England. How is that relevant!?

Thank god the minibus drove away because I was giving up on trying to make conversation with this guy. As we drove off he ran after the minibus shouting "give me your phone number!"  I've given my Malawian number to a fair few locals I've befriended on minibuses, but this guy was just too much...!

Nadia and Rosa got off before me so I got out and hugged them goodbye and the minibus man shouted at me to get back in cause we were taking too long. I didn't get his logic cause we waited over 20 mins for the minibus to get going in the first place! I got out and as usual was surrounded by locals asking where I wanted to go and if I wanted an escort or taxi. I said no to all, because when I get to a new town or city I like to walk around with my backpack and get a sense of the place, and challenge my map reading skills. Admittedly I had to stop a couple times to ask directions but that's because I was told the wrong starting point on the map. 

I arrived at the backpackers 'Doogles' and they have a pool!! First one I've seen here! I settled everything into my room and chilled for the rest of the day, meeting the locals and other backpackers there.

Day 47: Down Mulanje, wild Monday nights in motels, the mosquito massacre

22nd August:

The hike today was much less tiring than the last two days. There were a few steeper sections, but the majority of it was reasonable flat terrain. The main struggle today was the heat of the sun and the blisters on our feet. After 6 hours of hiking we got to the waterfall, jumped into the freezing cold water off a big boulder and dried off in the sun, eating my little box of chocolates I'd saved from London for a special occasion. I think this was a suitable time seeing as we were less than an hour away from having finished climbing Mt Mulanje!

When we finally got down we were cheered along by some locals and then waited on some grass for the taxi. I chose a terrible patch on the grass cause I felt a sharp bite on my arm, and when I looked down not only was there a huge red ant with big pincers on me, but I was covered in hundreds of ants everywhere! I must've been sitting on a nest.

We tipped the porter and Witness, who said if anyone needs a guide for Mulanje then just get in touch and I'll give you his email :)

We jumped in the taxi and headed straight to the pizza place, celebrating our achievement on the way. Although the pizza was 5,600kw (rip off!) it was incredible pizza and well deserved if I say so myself. 

After giving all the pots, plates and cutlery back to Emmie from InfoMulanje, our taxi drivers came back to pick us up again.

We got out of the taxi and collected our bags which we had left at Mulanje Motel while we climbed the mountain, but found some of the zips undone... I was not happy so as the girls were putting the bags into the taxi I went back and gave them a right ol' telling off for not looking after our bags when they said they would! We moved our bags literally next door to Mulanje View Motel, which was nice on the outside but the beds in the room were a bit gross- lucky I have my sleeping bag liner. We all had a nice (hot!) shower- I felt so cleaaaann, and then we headed back over to Mulanje Motel to charge our dead phones because there was a power cut and they had a generator over there. We also had some chips, but when we were still hungry (and there was nothing available on the menu apart from horribly greasy fried chicken) we asked for some rice and beans which wasn't on the menu. It was very odd at Mulanje Motel because there were over 20 locals sitting dotted around on the restaurant chairs staring at the TV watching The Karate Kid, not eating or drinking anything, just watching the movie in complete silence.



An hour later they all vanished up to another room and started having a party. Bizarre! We asked one of them what the event was and he said there was no reason or celebrating or any event going on.  Just a casual Monday night.

We played some cards and had a few drinks before leaving. As we tried to leave two men who'd been sitting at a table next to us invited us to sit with them, but when I went over to tell them we were going to bed next door one of them took my hand and firmly shook it, giving it a friendly slap with his other hand, he went straight for my cut on my hand that i'd gotten from slipping on some rocks on the mountain. Ow!

We got back to a weird party type thing at the motel, with loads of locals sitting and drinking. When we said hello as we walked past they all said hello in unison and waved their hands up. We found the unison of it all quite funny and when we laughed they all started cackling along with us. Then one guy started walking... nope.. strutting.. down the corridor towards us, followed by a group of them who all came and hugged us one by one.
We started laughing and messing about with them and dancing and they did the same, still in hysterics! An incredibly bizarre experience being hyper with some weird weird locals in a motel corridor...

Wild Monday nights in Mulanje eh!

August 22nd 2016- the mosquito massacre.

The two girls and I spent over an hour  running around the room karate-style in our PJs killing mosquitos left right and centre (or should I say wall, wall and ceiling). It was quite a sight, we were laughing our heads off and jumping on the bed, banging the ceiling with flip flops and slapping the walls. This combination of noises brought an angry neighbour to our door in the motel enquiring what was going on and if everything was OK. I think he thought someone was being attacked or tortured in here!

I was in fits of laughter behind the door watching Nadia enthusiastically (and very physically!) trying to rein-act killing all the mosquitos. He was not impressed... We killed a few more then went to bed.

Day 46: Sapitwa Peak!!!

21st August:

It was freezing last night. And I repeat: I was wearing a vest, a long sleeved top, another top, a big black wooden jumper, a thick hoody, my sarong as a scarf, in an inner sleeping bag inside a normal sleeping bag. Cold.

For breakfast we cooked baby food porridge, which was more like a sweet hot drink cause we cooked it over the fire- we obviously couldn't follow the microwave instructions!

Left Chisepo hut at 7am.

We started the climb with a really really tough couple of hours, scrambling up steep sheer rock slabs on hands and feet, with little to no breaks- our legs were dead when we got to the top of that section!
 Steeper than it looks!

 - Well deserved 2 minute break!

After a short 2 minute break to eat apple we were off again, but this time we were heaving ourselves up onto big boulders and squeezing between gaps in the rock face.

The cut on my hand opened up again, which was irritating because your hands were the only way you could either scramble up rock slabs or heave yourself up onto the boulders, lunging over big gaps and long drops. There was lots of pulling each other up and "one two three huh!" going on!
 
 

The nearer the summit we got the more rock climbing than hiking it was.

For lunch we ate one piece of bread and butter cause we didn't bring our second loaf, and one apple.

  (I got a bit stuck!)

 THAT'S IT!  SO CLOSE

The last hour before we got to Saptiwa we were singing Queen songs like "Don't Stop Me Now" and when we made it to the top "We Are The Champions"

  The last bit!!!

After another three hours of nearly non-stop intense climbing ... WE MADE IT!!!



This guy died in 2009 trying to climb it!



Sapitwa Peak: 3002 metres high, the third highest mountain in Africa, with the translation of Sapitwa = unreachable

The last section of climbing proved that definition worthy... It took us nearly 20 minutes to clear about 5 metres, simply because we weren't tall enough to actually reach the boulder we had to get onto to get to the top. It was a pretty hairy leap of faith but we all made it.

We were pretty chuffed when we got to the top, although exhausted and hungry!
We had a banana and some biscuits but were still so hungry! Very excited for our pasta this afternoon :D

We sat the peak resting our legs and taking in the view for just under an hour. It was so quiet! I could just hear my own breath and nothing else. Occasionally the wind got a bit gusty, but most of the time there was just piercing silence!

  

 


At one point I saw the clouds rising up towards us and then they went a few metres above us and mixed with other clouds. Pretty cool to be so close to them!

 

I went over to tell Nadia and Rosa only to find they were both fast asleep!!! Ahahaha!!! Witness and I found it hilarious and I definitely got a few videos ;)

We left the peak at 11:30 and got back at 2:00! Much quicker than the way up! We descended the section that took us 2 hours to climb up, in 1 hour!
But then the rest of the descend took us ages cause we were jumping down huge boulders and bum-shuffling down steep slabs of rock and it was very difficult not to slip or lose control.
I had quite a few close-calls but I'm still alive and writing this so its all good :)

The way down was tough on the knees and toes though, but much much less tiring than the way up. We saw an animal that looked like a mix between a badger and a rabbit, which was quite exciting as it was the first living thing we'd seen up here apart from the crows.

 (It's that black thing in the middle of the pic)

When we got back we were cheered by the caretaker, our porter and the other guides who were all sitting round their fire. We started cooking our pasta immediately, and jeez it was so good to have some food in our bellies!


We went to sit out on a big boulder again, watching the sunset for the last time up on the mountain.

 

We cooked the leftover rice from last night before we went to bed and put on every single item of clothing we had- no kidding. We started the fire inside the hut (which took ages to get going cause it kept going out as it was too cold). Eventually we had a big fire going and we warmed our toes for the last time before snuggling into our sleeping bags, nice and toasty, with enough wood to keep us going for a few more hours.

Day 45: climbing Mt Mulanje

20th August:

Mount Mulanje - Day 1:

 

The two girls and I were up at 6am and packed one big rucksack for the porter to carry and then two normal ones for us to take it in turns carrying. The chips and a fried egg for breakfast (?) as it was the only option, then waited nearly an hour for our taxi driver who was very late! This meant we started an hour later than we wanted to, so we were climbing in the heat of the sun for most of the day.

Our guide Fred had hurt his neck or something, so his brother Witness was going to be our guide instead, but Witness's English wasn't great and he wasn't as friendly or chatty as Fred which was a bit of a downer. We felt bad for the porter because the bag that we gave him to carry was way over the 18kg limit, it was more like 24/25kg!! I think we'll have to give him a big tip!

Left the bottom at 8ish from Likhibula Forestry Station.


After a gruelling steep 3 hour uphill climb we arrived at the Chambe basin (the top of plateau and bottom of the Chambe peak (another peak of Mulanje mountain)

At 10:30 we ate a couple slices of bread with butter, an apple and banana, two biscuits: lunch!
After lunch the terrain was much flatter, thank god!
 

      
Rosa refilling her water bottle               This wobbly thing was the only way across!

Left at 11 and after a few hours of walking (felt like much longer) I saw a big peak and thought it was Sapitwa.. Nope, Sapitwa was behind it and we only saw it after another hour of walking over this peak, but it was above the clouds!

The terrain was quite slippy and although my trainers are reasonably grippy, they weren't walking boots like the others had. Throughout the day we all slipped a bit but we always caught our balance and carried on. The one exception to this was when we were less than 10 minutes to Chisepo hut (we could see it!) and I must've gotten so excited that I didn't concentrate on my footing. Of course I slipped and cut my hand on a rock 10 minutes from the end of the day! After 6 hours of hiking we arrived at Chisepo Hut at 2:30, leaving just over 3 hours before sunset.

We all bagsied a little sleeping mat and a spot on the floor in the hut then washed in the freeeezing stream and put on all our warmest clothes for the cold night ahead. 

He girls and I at out on top of a big rock outside the hut and soaked in the sun's last rays until we started cooking dinner over the open fire at 4pm. Rice, baked beans, green lettuce/cabbage stuff & tomatoes & onions. Gourmet meal- we were so hungry!

  

It suddenly turned very cold between 4 and 5 and we decided this was the appropriate time to start boiling the water for our hot chocolate. It turned out to be pretty disappointing, but it was better than nothing.

   Nothing like seeing a sunset 2000 metres high!

I went to go ask Witness about the sleeping bag I had rented from Info Mulanje, but when Nadia and I stepped outside we were star struck... Literally! I keep saying in my blog that I have never seen so many stars, but this one tops them all! 

I. Have. Never. Seen. So. Many. Stars! 

It was mesmerising.

We reached the staff hut and asked the guys outside sitting by the fire for Witness and they said he was already in the hut. We found him lying on the floor in the hut and asked him about the sleeping bag and he got up and started rolling up the sleeping bag he was just in! We said "no no no what are you doing that's yours!?" And he said that he had his own, but we didn't believe him. To make matters worse he was wearing his shorts and a tshirt. In comparison... I was wearing a vest, a long sleeved top, another top, and then a thick woollen jumper, and a big hoody over the top. Plus my sarong as a scarf. It was cold! I felt so bad for taking his sleeping bag but he said it was the one I rented and that he was fine so we left.

We all sat by the fire chatting with the other hikers and warming up before bed. There's nothing quite like sitting by a fire up in the mountains after a long day of hiking. I'm going to sleep well tonight (if the cold doesn't keep me up)!