Blogs from Mount Mulanje, Southern, Malawi, Africa

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Africa » Malawi » Southern » Mount Mulanje April 30th 2014

This is really long again! I would recommend a pot of tea and a packet of biscuits..... Jessica, Laci and I went to Mount Mulanje over the easter weekend. This is our story: Part one: The unexpected Journey. It was Thursday afternoon when I had finished packing for our wonderful weekend ahead, Laci came at around 2:30 in her big car, she had brought lots of things like coffee, pumpkins and food for camping, she had filled up the car with anything we could possibly need, (I think she took one of the Peace Corps's sayings quite literally on this occasion.) We all jumped into the car in high spirits and left on our hopefully 4 hour journey to Blantyre. Where the only cinema in the whole of Malawi is and according to Laci the most ... read more
Lodge in Blantyre
Room in Blantyre
Random Piano outside

Africa » Malawi » Southern » Mount Mulanje June 16th 2011

Africa seems to have an amazing ability to make you feel very small and insignificant (although some may point out this doesn't take much with me). The endless desert, the huge blue skies, the thunder as the rains come, or being in the shadow of an elephant are just a few, and it happened again as I sat at the foot of Sapitwa on the plateau of Mount Mulanje - a lump of granite, rounded and cracked by the rain and the wind, with a plateau that rises 1000m vertically out of the plain, dotted by over 20 peaks that rise up again to a height of 3000m. As I sat in the light of the afternoon sun which was bathing the sunkissed and dry grass in a golden light, 10 peaks soared above and around ... read more
Looking down...
Feeling small
Twin peaks

Africa » Malawi » Southern » Mount Mulanje December 15th 2010

After three months of sitting on coaches, mini-buses, safari-trucks and on the couch watching soccer games, Malawi was going to provide some great opportunities to get off our butts and do some hiking. We skipped through Lilongwe, Malawi’s rather unexciting capital, staying only long enough to do a spot of shopping. My sunglasses were floating somewhere in the Zambezi, by now no doubt approaching the Indian Ocean, and the last piece of the plastic airline cutlery, which we had been using since our flight to Johannesburg, had finally broken. The sunglasses, cutlery, as well as our broken torch, replaced, we headed south towards Mount Mulanje, which meant a few more hours on another bus. We stopped for a night at a town called Dedza as a warm up exercise and hiked up the local mountain, after ... read more
Sign at the start of the hike
Sapitwa Peak
Good way to spend a day

Africa » Malawi » Southern » Mount Mulanje July 28th 2010

Full update to follow from one of the group, but in the interim.... Like group A, we also shortened our trek by a day and have come down the mountain a day early, six days proving quite sufficient to satisfy our thirst for adventure! The trek was good fun, if a bit challenging at times, personally I rather enjoyed the 'up' bits but not the descents. I was, however, the exception to the rule and came down this morning like a proper old woman with my walking poles, taking very tentative steps to avoid damaging my rather wobbly knee! Off for a celebratory meal soon and then we will decide how to spend our spare day tomorrow before we head to Liwonde National Park for our safari.... Miss Bennett ... read more
Photo 13
Photo 14
dawn on Mulanje

Africa » Malawi » Southern » Mount Mulanje May 20th 2010

Mulanje The 2nd tallest mountain in Africa (after Kilimanjaro), Malawi’s Mount Mulanje is a site to see. The tallest peaks (3,002 and 2,500 meters above sea level) sit surrounded by a wall of smaller peaks and most days is hidden by the clouds (well when I’ve been during rainy season anyways) and on some days the cloud descends so low that the entire mountain is obscured from view by its shroud. Mulanje town, sitting at base of the mountain and only 30 km from the Mozambique border is an administrative centre and though small (only really the main street) is also bustling with lots of people. It is a main centre for growing tea in Malawi and the estates cover miles in all directions, the tea pickers can be seen in the fields gathering the softer, ... read more

Africa » Malawi » Southern » Mount Mulanje October 2nd 2009

Hello Everybody! Here's our first Malawi entry. It was quite the trip from Mozambique to Malawi and we were glad to get to Blantyre, which is a big city. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Africa but it's very friendly and seems more organized than some other countries we've been too. They have a lot of their own exports here; tobacco, tea, coffee, nuts, honey, etc.. But most items have to be imported and are expensive. For example sunscreen ranges in price from $45 to $60 US dollars. Nice accomodation and food is very inexpensive, you can eat a really nice meal for $2.50. We stayed 3 nights in Blantyre and got ready for our Mulanje Mountain trek. The mountains have a series of self-catering huts so we needed to buy a pot, some ... read more
Mount Mulanje
Mount Mulanje
Mount Mulanje

Africa » Malawi » Southern » Mount Mulanje August 7th 2009

One thing I forget to ask at Infomulanje is how to acquire an (obligatory) guide, and I wonder if I've made a booboo when I start chatting with a guy, B, on the street and agree to use his services. I've read that porters (which I won't need) are allocated on a rotation basis so they get cheesed off if you arrive at the trailhead with one already, and I'm not sure if the same applies to guides. I mention this and B says he's registered so it's not a problem. That isn't quite the question I asked but rephrasing it doesn't seem to get me the conclusive answer I'm seeking. We board a minibus to Likubula from where the ascent will start. B says the fare is MK150 but the conductor wants 200. Even 150 ... read more
Burnt lumber
Kettle aflame
Chambe Peak and Forest Station




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