Rainy Season? HA!

“Don’t do it in the rainy season…” said the weather forecast. “You mean we should ignore the forecasted rain,” said we? “Suit yourselves,” said the weather. And we went. And it was awesome. :)

Excursion 1: Backpacking Mt. Mulanje 1.7.16 – 1.9.16

A few weeks ago, Mindy and Carla started planning a backpacking trip to Mt. Mulanje and invited me along, and so we started looking at logistics and transportation and when we would go. All of a sudden the MIA rains started to show up in the forecast for Mulanje so we looked at the soonest I could get to town (which ended up being the next Wednesday when I went to extend my visa again) and headed out the next morning. With a porter to carry a pack for us and show us the way on our chosen path, we embarked. Up. And up. And up. As we ascended, the view was incredible! We were taking the Skyline route up to Chambe Hut, a route recommended to us, and the higher we hiked, the more the scenery changed. At the base, the terrain was closer to a jungle, but as we got higher, it changed to where when we stopped climbing up, we were in an almost alpine terrain with ferns and cedar trees and cool breezes! Oh! And what else… rain! The going up had been slow and steady as one of the girls had woken up with a bug but once we reached the end of the uphill, we still had to hike out to the hut which was flat by comparison but still comprised of going up and down hills. When we were maybe 20-30min from the hut, the skies opened. Slow at first, then all at once, unleashing a drenching downpour complete with hail. It was pretty neat for the first 5min, but after that the refreshing effect wore off and we were just cold and wet and walking through standing water and flash river/flood streams that had formed on the road. Our porter (named Bright) was great though and stayed with us the whole time, patiently, and when we finally saw the hut we ran to it and stood on the covered porch to catch our breath. We were so happy when the grounds keeper of that hut came to unlock the hut and immediately built us a roaring fire inside so we could dry off. Within another half hour of getting there, the rain stopped and the sun came out. We laid out things out to dry, grabbed some food and admired the beauty around us. The great thing about hiking when rain is forecasted is that nobody else wants to hike, so this communal hut that has had even as many as 20 people at once, had only us the entire trip! So we could completely spread out and cook over the fire whenever we wanted and it was so relaxing!

That was the first day, so then the next morning we were planning on hiking to another hut to stay but since one of us was still sick we took it easy. We had a lazy morning, and Mindy and I hiked down to some pools our porter showed us and took a swim. The water was cold but oh-so-refreshing! In the afternoon we convinced Bright to teach us to play Bao(?) (I don’t remember what it was called, but it’s similar to Mancala) and then we hiked up one of the trails a bit and watched a storm close in on a different peak – an impressive display for sure! Then we had a dinner of mashed potatoes and chili with hot chocolate. Food tastes so much better when camping! After some card games, we went to bed ready for the hike down the next day.

Bright took us on a different route going down which was great because we got to see some new scenery, and we all were glad we were going down and not up as it was quite the trail! Near the base we stopped by the waterfall that I’d visited before when I’d been to Mulanje. Where before the waterfall had been packed full of people, we had it completely to ourselves! For backpacking without showers, we had it pretty good! Rain the first day, pools the second day, and now the waterfall. We spent probably an hour swimming, snacking, and enjoying the beauty! When we were finally ready to leave, we finished hiking down and thanked our porter and signed out and such. Then since we still had time to kill before our ride home arrived, we chilled with the venders there who were very ready to strike a bargain as we were basically their business that day and their only source of income that day. We looked at all their booths and talked with them and it was actually a nice place to wait for our ride. So while we got rained on the first day, I don’t think we could have really picked a better time for the trip. Now we’re hoping to do it again on a different route!

Excursion 2: Hiking up Thyolo Mountain 1.13.16

This excursion was much smaller than the Mulanje trek, but no less breathtaking. It was Wednesday afternoon and Mindy and Carla had come to Malamulo to spend the last days of their break. I’d finished school with the boys and we were all needing to get out, so we called up the Graybills and we took our group to Thyolo Mountain to hike to the standing rock (which you can see from the guest house window!). Before leaving, we had made plans in advance of who would carry Jett when he decided his legs no longer worked (as has been known to happen! Common among 3-yr olds I’m figuring out. I’m sure I never had that problem, right? ;) ) But to our surprise, both Jett-3 and Anna-4 hiked up on their own! Slowly. But on their own! They hiked down too! Jett lasted until the last stretch before getting to the cars, but we were quite proud of them! At the top, though, we hiked through maize field to the rock which had a cave and spectacular views of the valley below it. A panorama cannot do justice to what it is like to stand there, feeling on top of the world! (Que soundtrack of choice playing in background). After we’d exhausted our cameras, we hiked back down, and for most of the way Mindy, Carla, Benson, Hudson, and I played the alphabet game with animals and foods, which was a bad idea because it made all of us hungry, but it was a good time! Now I can say I’ve been to that rock I see from the guest house every day! :)

Excursion 3: Safari!!! 1.16.16 – 1.16.17

You can’t go to Africa and not go on at least one safari! And every safari is different, so go on as many as you can. An, a LLU resident who is here for January, decided he was going on safari and invited us to go along. We checked out prices and this place was a good deal! We were going to Liwande Safari Camp and we were excited! The morning we were to leave, as we were waiting for our ride to show up, An gets a call from the camp informing us that there has been a lot of rain and maybe we should reconsider our trip. Puzzled that they would turn away business, we ask around and all agree that we are willing to risk the rain. When we got there, the sun was out and after settling in we went for a river boat tour of the Shire River and we saw rafts and rafts of hippos, a few crocs, and some elephants (among birds galore!).

We stayed in the dormitory since it was a cheap option and to our great luck, we had the whole room to ourselves since nobody else was willing to venture out! There were two others in the camp, but they had opted for the “better” housing accommodations (though ours were a better deal I think). After the boat tour we had a warm supper of vegetable pasta and then we played some games and hit up the dormitory to get some sleep before the 6am safari drive the next day. It’s interesting sleeping in a safari camp because it is so loud with animal and bug sounds. I think most of what I heard were frogs and cicadas, but it’s so cool to just listen to all the different sounds going on around you. We all felt pretty safe under our mosquito nets thankfully, and we didn’t see anything crazy in camp other than the monitor lizard and the two warthogs that trotted through camp.

When we woke the next morning we rolled out of bed for our safari drive and crossed our fingers that we wouldn’t get stuck in the mud. With a bit of luck on our side, the drive went without a hitch and we had cool comfortable weather with only mistings of rain. The park doesn’t have a huge variety of the big animals you expect to see, but we came face to face with elephants, warthogs, waterbucks, bushbucks, impalas, and yellow baboons. Being so close to an elephant is something else. It’s so huge and obviously powerful, yet thankfully these were pretty chill guys and though we were right next to them they just stared at us then went on their business. And, they still had their beautiful ivory tusks. :) There are still so many animals I have yet to see but if this happens to be the only safari I get to (hopefully it isn’t), I’ll hold tight to memories of elephants and hippos. :)

Wow that was long, thanks for sticking through till the end!