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Mulanje Massif
I want to first apologize for taking a couple weeks between blog posts - I’ve been rather busy with work and have failed to get around to writing this post. However, I promise that it is worth the wait.
A couple of weeks ago I visited a mountain in Malawi named Mulanje Massif, which rests in the Shire Valley in the southern region of the country. Anyone who has seen/read the Lord of the Rings should recognize the word ‘Shire’ (pronounced Sheer-ah here), and rightly so - Mulanje is where an author named J.R.R. Tolkein became inspired to write ‘The Hobbit’; and for such an epic book, the landscape was perfectly fitting.
Mulanje Massif is a rock formation that has been formed across millions (seemingly billions of years), and is an immense granite formation that juts out of a rolling tea plantation valley to a height of over 3000m at its peak. This makes Mulanje Massif the tallest mountain in central Africa - Kilimanjaro is yet larger - but the flat surrounding area makes the formation extremely impressive.
To travel there, I actually rented a car with a friend, and had my first experience driving on the left side of the road as the six hour trip from Lilongwe to Mulanje. We arrived too late the first afternoon to get up to the top of the mountain, but did manage to check into a very nice rest house (if anyone’s planning on going it’s the CCAP Rest house) and reserve a guide for something like 7 USD per day.
The following morning we started hiking right at day break, and went up something like 2000m in a few hours. For the SAS people reading this blog, imagine 6 hours straight of climbing Table Mountain during the very steep parts. For everyone else, 2000m is 6000 ft, and is about 4x the height of the Sears Town, and this was done on a poorly marked, often overgrown path where I often was using the surrounding rocks/trees to help pull myself up. By the time we reached the top, T and I were very ready to sit down and admire the view.
About here I should put the link to the photos from the trip, since if you’re to adequately appreciate the view I was able to get, a picture is much more descriptive than I can ever be:
Mulanje Photos on Facebook
But I’ll try to give it a shot. The view was from about 9000 ft up, overlooking a plain 6000 ft that rolls out in front of us after appearing from beneath a near vertical rock cliff. The top of the Sears Tower is once again ¼ the height of this view, and it was much closer to looking out the window of an airplane during takeoff/landing than anything else. And to make the experience finalized, our view was looking northwest, straight into the sunset over the Sub Saharan African countryside.
The friend that I was travelling with even asked if this is what they based the beginning of the Lion King off of - cheesy, but appropriate.
Just incredible.
As for travel advice on this blog - if anyone stumbles on this through a Google search - I would suggest absolutely getting a guide. You will get lost without one, and the 7 USD you pay will be the best investment you make in Malawi. Also, stay at the CCAP Resthouse and Hut, you will be pleasantly surprised.
There isn’t too much more to write about Mulanje, I think most of the pictures so more than I ever could. So please, enjoy the photos. But if anyone ever gets the opportunity to go, I would highly recommend it. It is very untouched by tourists, and though a very strenuous hike, the impossible views from over the top of the clouds make it all worthwhile.
I’m going to be starting the intense work related parts of the summer (actually I already have) but I’ll try to keep posting on what I did for my birthday … which I guess is coming up in a couple days. I get the feeling my 21st is going to be a little different from those in the States.
Next scheduled trip - Lusaka, Victoria Falls, and a surprise.
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Grandpa
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It takes me back
YOur notes are interesting. It takes me back so many years ago. Most of my travels were north and a west of where you are. Injoy.