Are we there yet (Part I)?

There are few places in Malawi laden with more meaning for me that this one colossus. Dominator of the skies from Kilimanjaro to the Cape, it is a place where the soul roams free, away from all the overwhelming chaos and din of lower lying areas. The only noise here is that of Nature. It is my one favourite recluse and yet I haven’t paid it real justice yet. Mulanje- Malawi’s island in the sky. Malawi’s jewel of biodiversity and also its most mysterious corner, imbued with more legends and myths than any other single place. The immensity of it naturally lends itself to such fancies but let’s face it, any mountain of such a scale will have its casualties. There exist enough plausible causes to not have to attribute any to spirits and the like. Perhaps one benefit of that is that the mountain is avoided by many, thereby keeping it more pristine. Unfortunately, of those who do actually tread there are a number of unwanted individuals- namely loggers and poachers. I would refrain from calling them vandals, considering the factors that do lead them to such desperate means of survival. It certainly is no mean feat to try and come up this mountain to scrape a living. One often risks their own lives, be it from forest scouts or the leopards they hunt, let alone the harsh conditions that prevail up there. Mulanje boasts the honour of supporting the largest number of Malawi’s national tree – the beautifully scented Mulanje cedar. This is a tree that’s incredibly difficult to grow by man’s hands. Sadly, every passing year sees its numbers dwindling scarily given its propensity for making curios and other artefacts for one time visitors who largely haven’t got a clue. Even more alarming is when the wood is not even chopped but lit by arsonists to scare animals as part of their traditional hunting method. This leaves vast areas of the plateau reduced to cedar graveyards.

But despite these sad details about the vulnerability of Mulanje, it remains one of the most ecologically fascinating areas of Malawi. Whether you approach it with your gaze facing down with a microscope or facing up with a telescope, there are gems to be found everyone. I already listed my repertoire of birds on this plateau. Land animals do also reside here, except that they have (rightly) become very elusive from man. Our last venture out there brought us close to klipspringers. There are also loads of rock hyraxes and fewer leopards that prey on them. The most diverse aspect of the flanks and plateau however has got to be its vegetation. There are no two times of the year when you can expect to find exactly the same things emerging from the ground. The famous pan-seasonal delights are undoubtedly the sunflowers. They exist in so many varieties (in size, colour, shape, density, you name it) and are so abundant one can almost feel a sense of security about their survival. Among the more seasonal features are the protea flower, red hot pokers, vibrant purple Mulanje irises, glorious aloes and dizzying vellozias, which can hang from any rock no matter what the gradient, and their amazing lilies.

Of course, I’m reminding you of Mulanje here because I’ve only just reminded myself of it not so long ago. My friend Tor (Norwegian surgeon from Lilongwe) wanted to organise a farewell trip prior to leaving Malawi. We formed a team of 8 (5 Norwegians, a Belgian girl and Janet & I) and decided to approach it from a different starting point to the one I’ve always used before. Our chosen path was the Lujeri one, which starts from a beautiful lush green tea estate that seems to have no limit and is flanked by natural forests as you begin your ascent. At first, I planned to stagger the whole thing over 3 days giving us enough time to ramble and recuperate. At the last minute though, this had to be shortened to 2 days, as both Janet and I had to be back at work. So we made slight adjustments to our plan, so that we (and our Belgian friend) could come down earlier than the rest of the group. Instead of saying: “let’s scrap the peak” though, as in retrospect one would hope we had done, we thought: “let’s start earlier on the peak than we planned”. Of course, that adjustment did nothing to reduce the overall distance covered and only added the pressure of time to our schedule. Having clocked an amazing 8 hours’ walk the day before, with a 6am start, we started our second day with a 5am start! 5 hours later, after having elatedly conquered the height of Malawi at 3001m (Sapitwa Peak), we began to contemplate the route ahead. My team (Janet and the Belgian girl) were already somewhat drained by that stage and I could already anticipate a return journey to the tune of “are we there yet’s”! As it is in Malawi, number guessing is as accurate a science as cloud figure guessing! Thus we were told anything between 3 hours and 7 hours. Erring on the side of caution, we allowed for the higher limit and estimated that we would make it to the bottom and across to the bus depot in time for the last bus to Blantyre. And how precise that turned out to be! Once at the bottom, we managed, within minutes, to get a ‘matola’, but in the local style. That is, while thinking even we couldn’t fit in the back of that pick up with all our bags, we managed to gather 5 more passengers along the way. If you dared to breathe too deeply you might just tip over the side! Back at the depot, we hardly had time to get a soft drink before the last Blantyre bus came along and was ready to go... In fact it was a Limbe bus (the small commercial town 3-4 Km from Blantyre). But then, we learnt a little trick of the trade here. If you negotiate an arrangement with the driver from the start, you can top up your fare by a couple of hundred Kwachas and get him to drop you off further. Of course that only works with the last bus of the day. And for us that was ideal. We snoozed all along and in the end got the driver to take a route that delivered us on to our very doorstep. After a day of trying to make it up to Janet for the somewhat extreme planning, I could finally answer “we’re there now”!
Lujeri Valley

Our team

Before Sapitwa (seen in the back from the plateau)

On Sapitwa

Mulanje Iris