14/12/2010

Woken up at half six by some half blind guy trying to sell us pots and pans for our hike up Mount Mulanje. Jack bartered leaving it at 200 k (like 70p). But guy refused so we took our business elsewhere.

Left our rucksacks at a better lookinh hotel before hopping onto a bicycle taxi into Chitikale for some tourist information. Jack bought his rider a coke and 50k as he felt sorry as the guy tried extra hard pumping his legs trying to get Jack up the hill. My guy struggled and didn't make him as far, so, he had to make do without a free coke!

It was still early so we had some brekkie, I fuelled up with egg and bread. Dying for a number deux, I went to where the guy showed me but it was a hole in the ground! I couldn't do it! We popped to tourist place to book guide before rushing to use the facilities of People's supermarket. Stocked up on beans, pasta and fish for the 2 day trip.

Met Simon our local and little guide and stormed up the mountain in several hours with few stops in the sweltering heat. I had immediately got the body out as we stepped off the main road. We walked through so much vegetation, tea plantations and small villages before even really getting onto the mountain side!

All sweating cobs, we had occassional breaks but still managed to race to the plateaus at the top of where we could see from the villages in less than 4 hours. Was some going. JRR Tolkien got his inspiration for writing Lord of the Rings from going up this mountain and apparently the small inbred people living up there gave him the idea for the hobbits! It's not surprising because at the top the land is so diverse. You've got like jungle-like forest, rivers and streams, waterfalls, obviously hills and muontains, rock formations, meadows and plateaus, swamp-like areas, woodland. There's just so much you don't realise until you go up and walk miles across the it! We weren't lucky enough (or unlucky maybe) to see any hobbit inbreds but we did see Giant African Land Snails, loads of lizards (which we see so many of now its nothing new), birds, big black and white ravens looking like magpies, big ants and plenty of other insects.

In our little stops we would often wait for a waterfall down the rock faces where we could fill our bottles up with water. It was so clean and clear. Our lunch pretty much consisted of peanuts sat in the middle of a waterfall.

Opting out of paying for a porter to carry all our gear, we carried our own bags and left some at the bottom. Only difference is Jack's bag is a tiny waterproof one, mine is my huge Billabong schoolboy bag! I fit so much crap in it!

At Hope's Rest hut we were staying with 2 Swedes and 2 Dutch (Dutch we had met days prior up in Doogals in Blantyre. Absolutely shattered, we took a nap before cooking our bag of pasta with baked beans (of which we left NOTHING). There were no showers at the top (as you'd probably expect), so we washed from a bowl of hot water. Very Victorian-esq!

Jack was long gone at about half 6 so I chatted to the other guys before getting an early night, only to be awake for most of the night! The Swedes were up for a while and their deep voices were carrying through the holes in the wood betweeen where we were sleeping! Ballard was talking to himself in his sleep, laughing and saying something in his dream like as if he was astonished by something! Was funny as, and in the morning, he had no idea....