Into the Bush to Visit Andrea and Neal

Jon and Neal outside the Nsaka

Jon and I arrived in Zambia after a 15 hour bus ride from Lilongwe (capitol of Malawi) to Lusaka (capitol of Zambia).  We were very excited as our friend, Andrea, has been living and working in Zambia for the Peace Corps for the past year.  We met Andrea and her boyfriend, our new friend, Neal, in Lusaka and made plans to leave the following day for the village where Andrea has been working and living.  After an evening of celebrating our reunion in Africa, we woke up early the next day and started our journey north to the Mkushi district.  We took a bus about 3 hours and then were able to hitch a ride for the remaining 50 kilometers.  We were very lucky that the man giving us a ride was curious to see Andrea's village so drove us all the way to her house rather than us having to walk from the main road for about 45 minutes in the mid-day heat.   In total the trip took us most of the day because, despite it  being only about 150 or so miles north, transportation is not a smooth process in Africa.

Andrea's house

When we arrived at Andrea's home we were greeted with big smiles and warm handshakes by her Zambian family.  Andrea's Zambian family are polygamists, having two wives, and also many children on their family compound.  However, several of the children are their nieces and nephews as most of their children are grown.  Many of the children shook our hands while simultaneously bending down to one knee as is customary when greeting someone older than you here.

We settled our bags into Andrea's hut, a small brick building with a traditional grass roof, and rested from the journey.  Next, Andrea showed us around the family compound which consisted of several other small buildings where the family lived, open air huts for cooking and lounging, pit toilets, a watering hole and lots of chickens.  The water hole was a five minute walk where we lowered the empty jug into a pit and raised it to fill the larger water jugs.  Then we lifted the heavy jugs onto our heads and brought them back to the house.   This process was repeated several times daily.  Andrea also had a round, open hut with a grass roof (called a Nsaka) that her and Neal had constructed for cooking and lounging.  It was cooler than the house and allowed you to see the events taking place in the family compound.  This is where we spent a lot of our time. That night Andrea's family invited us for dinner.  We discussed our days events and talked about Zambia qualifying for the African cup of Nations finals! They were so warm and friendly and were happy to have Andrea and Neal return.  After dinner Neal and Andrea played guitar and Jon and I joined in vocally for a nice musical session, it was such a treat to be with good friends again!

The avocado tree planting ceremony

 The next day we did chores around the compound.  I started on laundry which had been long neglected and was was filthy from Mulanje.  Its not easy to hand wash clothes and meant fetching the water even more often.  It was an all day event.  Jon, Andrea, and Neal worked in the garden and planted trees around the compound, including papaya and avocado trees.  It was a leisurely, great day.  We also cooked and ate well.  Cooking was over a brassier, which are tin or clay and hold coal or wood, and then can have one pot placed on top.  Ours was a tin brassier with coal that Neal had perfected in starting.  Again we stayed up late and caught up on time passed.  Again it was just awesome to be with friends again and to be in this small African village. 

Brassier

We spent three more days in the village and with Andrea and Neal.  We also visited the closest  town one afternoon and a neighbors farm. Andrea and Neal work closely with the local population to teach then about Conservation Farming techniques. This neighbor had adopted several of the principles and was excited to show off her results.   It was a great few days and Jon and I could have easily stayed longer had our time in Africa not been slipping past so quickly.  On day five we said our see-you-laters.  It was sad to say goodbye but a bit of a consolation that Jon and I headed next to Victoria Falls.

Mount Mulanje: Malawi's Island in the Sky





Chambe Peak

So we spent five days on the Mount Mulanje massif.  It was an incredible five days.  It is not something to be underestimated and I must say we did take the first day's short (7 km) hike a bit for granted.  It is supposed to be the rainy season, but we were able to time our visit perfectly.  It had dumped rain for two weeks before we came and had dried out for four or five days before we began our journey.  Despite some of the warnings to "not go up there," we found our experience to be very enjoyable.  It did rain on us every day, but we also had some great weather that allowed clear views of some of the amazing peaks. 


Our first day entailed a late start and a stiff climb up to the Chambe Basin and a stay in the Chambe Hut.  We were the first people to stay there in at least five days.  Right as we made it there in the waning light the rain started.  The watchman came over and started us a fire and we made a nice dinner in our own luxurious hut as the watchman and our guide spent the evening in their own hut. 



Jon on one of the steep climbs



The next day woke clear and sunny and a climb revealed the beauty of Chambe Peak and Chambe Basin even more than the evening before.  We were again surprised by the difficulties of the trail that did not switchback as we were accustomed to but rather climbed straight up one hill to go straight down the other side.  I found myself huffing and puffing as we climbed to a small pass and dropped down to the Chisepo Hut, where we were also the only people.  Again no one had been there for some time; maybe two or three weeks.  As we made it to the hut around 11:00 a.m. the clouds, which were already lowered all around us and the rocky hillsides, opened up and let out rain for the remainder of the afternoon.  In the evening we had a wonderful sunset.





Sunset view of watchman's hut from Chisepo Hut

We woke early the next morning to try to climb the highest peak on the massif, Sapitwa.  We had a fairly early start but we made it to the more difficult section and found wet slabs.  They weren't too hard to get up, but we were slipping a bit.  We knew that if it rained it would be much harder to come down.  It had rained by about 11:00 a.m. the day before and the clouds were already building and starting to lower.  We asked our guide, Edwin, if the route was any harder higher on the mountain.  He said it became a bit easier for a while and then was even tougher than what we had already passed.  We climbed up through to the easier section and then came to a difficult step still below the hardest part.  As we were already in and out of the clouds we decided it would be best to turn around and not take any chances.  By the time we would make it to the top we would have no views and it would rain on us, making the slabs even more slippery and dangerous.  It was hard to turn around, but we had still made it to a beautiful spot.  We learned the true meaning of Sapitwa;  "Don't Go There."  We climbed back down to the hut and made our way to the next hut, Thuchila, where we pulled in right as the rain began to fall.  We again had the place to ourselves.

Carrie and Edwin on the trail

On the fourth day we left the Thuchila Hut and began a longer and difficult hike to the Sambani Hut.  It started out on difficult trail, which was just steep, angled, wet slabs.  After a long climb we were rewarded with incredible views of the interior of the massif.  We dropped to the Chazama Hut for lunch and saw leopard scat all over the trail.  The hut was perfectly situated surrounded by mountains.  We wished we were staying there for the night.  But we carried on over one final hill and then had some of the easiest and loveliest hiking high on the plateau with mountains jutting up in all directions.  We hurried through this section, however, as the rain had come in hard and was accompanied by a lot of lightning and thunder.  The waterfalls, birthed of rain, started flowing everywhere we looked on every mountain.  At last we pulled into the Sambani Hut, where the watchman came over and started a fire for us to dry our clothes and to cook.

The heart of the Mt. Mulanje massif

The next morning was clear and sunny again with no trace of the rain from the evening prior except some mud and puddles on the trail.  We crossed a couple of rickety bridges on the way to the top of the last climb.  Then we made our way down the long, steep descent to Fort Lister forest office.  Someone had been through in the previous week or two, but no one had stayed in Sambani for over one month.  We had seen no one else on the trail.  We only saw our guide, Edwin, and the four watchmen in our five days.  We did see signs of cedar poachers and did see one guy off the trail with his dogs poaching the rock hyrax.  Other than that, it felt like we had the whole massif to ourselves.  It had been rainy, but our timing had been so good that we really only were wet from the rain once in the five days.  It was a beautiful place and I hope that someday we can return.