Mount Mulanje

Ugh - has it really been 10 days since I blogged? Work and weekends have been so busy! I keep thinking of blogs in my head - will have to work at getting them in writing more often!

We went to climb Mount Mulanje May 1 - 4. May 1 was a holiday (Thursday) so we booked Friday off to extend the weekend. While we were climbing, I thought of many different blog titles - amoungst the finalists: How my I-pod got me up Mount Mulanje, Hiking, hiking and more hiking, and finally: How Mulanje kicked my ass.
The hiking was beautiful and the views were stunning. So so stunning. I definately want to go back, though next time we will plan a traverse hike rather than a peak attempt.
The first day started out wil lots of promise. All three of us like hiking, and there are porters available, so hiking with no backpack was quite a treat!! We made a group of 6 all together - Peter, our guide, Abdul and Alex, our porters, and the three Arntz-Grays. After about an hour and a half, we detoured to a beautiful waterfall - absolutely amazing. After a short refresh, we headed on up. Once you have hiked about 2 - 3 hours, you start breaking through the tree line and seeing the most beautiful vistas. Then we started to get tired. We had to choose to hike to Chambe hut (4 hours) or Chisepo (7 hours). We decided to keep trucking and go for Chisepo despite being tired. Lunch refreshed us somewhat so we made good time for part of the afternoon. All together it took us 8 1/2 hours to do what the guide called a 7 hour hike - not too bad all things considered!
The huts available to stay in are great - water is provided (we treated anyways though) and a fire is lit so you can cook on it. It was so nice to get up there and be able to take our hiking shoes off...that was definately the first order of business! There was actually beer and coke available for sale as well - I can't believe it is worth it to hike glass bottles all the way up that path just to sell them for 200 kwatcha ($1.50) - I would have paid 500! There was a big group hiking at the same time and sharing the hut, so there was a very celebratory atmosphere and lots of conversation.
The next day we tried for the highest peak in Mulanje (3001m), but the "hiking" was brutal. Mostly we were scrabbling up steep rock faces, often on all fours. I had several panic attacks going up while thinking about how we were going to get down. Finally, after three hours of hiking we reached the half way point and just had to admit that it was best to turn around. Weather conditions were not great, and it would have taken us all day just to get to the top - and the guide indicated it was to get steeper yet.
We headed back down and then hiked another four hours to Chambe hut so that we would have an easier hike down on the last day. The same larger group followed us again to Chambe, so it was nice to have company.
The last day included a lot of "was it this far? I didn't think it was this far?" on the way back down to the car. We also managed to meet up with our friend Cole, who was just heading up the mountain...his guide had recommended bringing up a live chicken to cook at the top! I guess then you don't need to worry about salmonella?
Anyways, it was a rewarding experience, and I definately want to return to that beautiful place!