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Malawi- Chitimba
After a lot of driving we eventually got to Malawi. The drive was great as the scenery is very beautiful and there was an amazing storm with huge lightening forks to watch. Our first stop was at Chitimba which is on lake Malawi- it is a big big lake so pretty much all of Malawi is on the lake. The campsite was very nice, only with exception to the showers which had spiders in! We got there quite late so by the time we got the tent up and had a drink our tea was ready. Mark is a really good cook and he prepared a lush Spaghetti Bolognese, greek salad and garlic bread. So for a change we both ate way too much (as we have done every day!). Afterwards we had a couple of drinks in the bar and played darts before hitting the hay.
We had an early rise as we were going to climb a mountain to visit a waterfall, Manchewy falls. We started walking at 5.30 am (honestly its wrong how early Dale has us getting up!). We opted for the guided option as it was a 20k hike and apparently the guides knew shortcuts! Our oldest guide was about 20 and the youngest 8! The climb was really tough and the shortcuts involved a lot of rock climbing so it wasn't excatly an easier option. Bit by bit the group split up, we lost 2 members who gave in and went back to camp to join the other lazy truckers, some people ran ahead and some decided against the shortcuts as they were a bit tough. Every group had a guide though. Our group was then Jo, John, Erin, Susan, Dave, Sam, Carl, a dog and 3 guides- our guides were 8, 11 and 15- to say they put us to shame would be a huge understatement. They were running up in flip flops or barefooted while we hobbled up slowly behind them, even with our Great North Run experience.
We were all absolutely knackered and then we stumbled (quite literally) on this awesome café near the top, it felt like a mirage! So we all got coffee and biscuits. It was really funny as we were dying for the coffee and the guy was taking ages to get it and when we saw him with cups we all cheered and it turned out the cups were empty and the coffee was still 20 minutes away… he looked really confused by our excitement and said we were funny with quite a worried expression- I think he thought we were mentally ill or that we didn't get out much! The toilet there was crazy it was organic- you climbed (it was quite a way off the ground) up on this table and did it in a box and then threw soils and leaves down- bizarre! You could see down the mountain onto the lake and for miles and miles which was well cool but odd given that you were on the loo. As sad as this sounds we took pictures so have a look.
What... we are not at the top yet?
Anyway onwards we plowed up the hill, sorry mountain- it was massive, you passed lots of little villages with kids and animals it was cool. The shortcuts we endured were nothing compared to what we had to do to get close to the falls- the kids took us right behind the falls and jumping on the edge over the rocks. We don't think that it was an official route more of kids on an adventure and dragging us along with them. Some bits were well scary because there was a massive drop if you slipped and you were hanging on to branches and rocks to climb on to the next rock! The kids were dead nimble and were hopping around making it look easy while on some rocks we needed like a production line going to help us all up. At one point I had John pushing my bum while 2 people dragged me up with my hands- it was a graceful moment. The kids were a godsend as they were well strong, Sam tried to pull me across this rock and I nearly pulled her arm out the socket so the kid helped me. They were even helping all the boys up, literally their full weight and they must have been double their size! It was hard work but it was so much fun. After playing in the falls for a while we started to head down, we thought this bit would be easier- how wrong we were going down hill was really difficult on the rocks and we were so tired. The group got even smaller- it was just Erin, John, Jo, Dave and 2 guides. One of our guides who was also called John had done the whole day bare footed and his feet were blistered and cut but he wouldn't complain. Dave took pitty on the poor love and plastered all of his feet up, he was so pleased. He was only ten so it was awful and then to make matters worse he started to look really poorly and sat down, he wouldn't say what was up but eventually we found out he had been suffering with Malaria 2 days prior! We took it in turns to give him food and water and cheer him up. After a little while he perked up again- I think it was entirely down to me teaching him about the water cycle and geography- or perhaps it was because he was so bored he wanted to be at the bottom quicker! He told us that he had a pair of shoes that were a gift but he didn't want to wear them, as it would make them dirty. When we eventually got back to camp we gave him 3 pairs of socks, some pancakes, water and money and Dave stopped on the way back and bought him some shoes! He seemed really grateful so it was nice! Because we had taken so long to get back everyone was ready to go so we had to whip the tent down dead quick and jump in the truck to head to Kande beach, needless to say we all slept on the way!
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