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.