Circumnavigation of Mulange Mountain

Yesterday Malcolm and I went on his last exploration of the dirt roads of Malawi as he will be off back to the UK in about ten days. Malcolm seems determined to travel as many different roads as possible before he returns home and the rest of us are beginning to feel that he deliberately seeks out the most bumpy and uncomfortable route possible to wherever it is we wish to go! You have already read about the back route to Zomba. Well, this trip attempted to be the back way from Blantyre to Mulange. On the map there is a direct road from Limbe to Phalombe, a dirt road, but one reputed to be wide and well maintained. We got some directions and set off. I brought two guidebooks, but unfortunately neither of us had the foresight to bring a map! We wanted to drive all the way around Mulange Mountain, including going up the Fort Lister Pass which goes between Mulange and Mchesi Mountains. The road is very rough and very narrow, but we had heard that the views are very beautiful so we set off early to allow plenty of time to get up there and down again before dark. All began well. We found the right place to turn off the Zomba road, just the other side of Limbe onto a tarmacked road signposted to a hospital. Our instructions were to turn right onto a dirt road leaving the tarmac going straight on to the hospital. We must have turned off too soon because we had been told to expect a wide, well-maintained road, and indeed our turning started off like that, but gradually it became narrower and more and more rough. It was not the first time that we wished one of us had thought of bringing a compass to Malawi. Our guts told us that we were heading in more or less the right direction, but unfortunately we were actually running more or less parallel to the road we were aiming for, but several miles to the right of it! I think azungus were pretty unusual visitors in those parts, for we excited even more than the usual interest from children and passer- by. When we stopped to ask directions I was forced to put my Chichewa lessons to good use as Malcolm's polite, English request for directions was met with a blank stare, followed by a stream of Chichewa. Eventually we hit the main M4 road to Mulange, having taken maybe an hour to get to a point we could have reached in twenty minutes if we had travelled the usual way! However we had seen many villages and fields that are not on the usual tourist track. There are many wild flowers at the moment. Each time we go on a trip there appears to be more colour than there was on the last one. I guess it is because everything is so well watered. It is still the rainy season, and there is at least some rain most days. Usually I notice at least one wild flower growing in profusion that I have not noticed before. Mostly I do not know what they are. I really must invest in a good book on the wild flowers of Southern Africa. Yesterday there were many brilliantly orange, tissue-like five-petalled flowers growing along the grassy verges between the road and the maize fields. It is harvest time and we saw a few families in the fields cutting their crops. Outside many houses were groups of women stripping the kernels from the cobs and spreading them to dry on large sheets which appeared to be made from opened out flour sacks joined together. I wonder how long it takes for the kernels to dry in the sun sufficiently for them to be ground into flour for making nsima. One must have to be vigilant to ensure that they are covered or brought it before it rains as I am sure a good soaking does not help the drying process! We also saw women walking down the road from the maize mills with buckets, baskets and sacks of flour on their heads taking the finished product home to be stored for food for the rest of the year.

We sped down the M4 hoping to make up for lost time, following the route we took last time we went to Mulange, when we located the road from Phalombe up into the mountains but found it too late in the day to think it wise to go up on that occasion. Before we reached Mulange Town however Malcolm spotted another narrow dirt road with a signpost for Phalombe and screeched to a halt, reversing back down the hard shoulder to turn off to the left again. At least this time we could see the very recognizable mountain that we were heading for and so could be fairly confident that we were on the right track! I began to feel that my insides were being thoroughly rearranged by the jolting and bouncing as we sped along the track. The Malawian road numbering system starts with M roads, which are tarmacked and although they are often potholed and have raggedy edges they are easily recognizable and easy to follow. Then there are S roads which are often very narrow, then there are T roads, (T for track?) and finally there are unclassified roads which can be anything from fairly respectable, if untarmacked, to little more than paths where the maize or long grass meets over your head as you walk along. This was a T road, T134 according to the signpost. The road was pretty straight and led through a number of villages ever nearer to the Mountain. There were a number of dodgy bridges over rivers and streams and one stretch of water with spectacular white and purple water lilies. There were two or three unsignposted junctions where we had to use our initiative to decide which way to go, or exercise my dubious Chichewa again, but eventually we did arrive in Phalombe, 3 hours after leaving Blantyre and certainly by a different route. We pulled up outside People's Supermarket and Malcolm went in and bought Fantas, which were very welcome, while I consulted the guidebook, and then it was off up the Fort Lister Pass, along which the slave traders apparently used to walk groups of captives on the way to ports in Mozambique from which they were shipped to America. It must have been a steep and exhausting climb for the poor captives. Even up in the mountains we were rarely very far from human habitation. Once we stopped to investigate a faint track which reputedly led to the Fort after which the pass is named, once we stopped because we got a wheel stuck in a ditch, and once to admire the view, and each time people materialized out of nowhere to chat, offer advice, or offer themselves as guides. We branched off a brief distance up a side track and stopped for lunch with a view of Mulange Mountain in front of us and Mchesi behind. There was a lot of swirling iron grey cloud which sometimes obscured the mountain tops, but there was sunshine as well. Everything is so green at the moment, and there are so many shades of green. After 14Km of very rough driving and only the one encounter with a ditch, we came down the other side of the pass and turned right back towards Mulange town along another narrow dirt road. This one seemed to be one continuous village that went on for miles and miles. There were hundreds of people walking, biking and running along the road, but very few other vehicles. I have written before about the flourishing secondhand clothes markets in Blantyre. I did not expect to see the same so far out in the country, but beside the road, intermingled with stalls selling sugar cane, vegetables, dried fish and bloody carcasses there were many stalls with clothes in various states of repair varying from crumpled heaps of grubby fabric to freshly laundered and ironed clothes on hangers. I saw a girl of perhaps ten years holding a green satin and black lace bridesmaids dress up against her holed T shirt and simple cotton skirt. She obviously thought it was the most beautiful dress she had ever seen. Melvin has been looking for lightweight, light coloured trousers in the clothes shops of Blantyre without success, but I reckon he could have found what he wanted out here in the sticks, there were plenty of beige and fawn trousers hanging up to choose from. We had a few slightly hairy moments sliding about on a very wet and greasy muddy road surface but managed not to end up in the deep drains on either side of the road. Many helpful Malawians shouted instructions to Malcolm, such as 'Keep going straight!' as if he were deliberately making the Land Rover glide sideways for his own strange private amusement. Fortunately disaster was avoided! There were chickens and goats everywhere. There were a lot of turkeys gobbling around the houses and making stately progress across the road. I saw my first pigs since I have been in Malawi too. Three little black piglets with pink faces and feet. They appeared to have a death wish and rushed out into the road in front of us, but we managed to avoid hitting them.

On our way we drove around the Lucheri tea estate, where it is possible to stay in a comfortable Lodge for a 'relaxing weekend away from it all'. It looked delightful. We stopped in Mulange Town for a reviving cup of coffee at the somewhat anachronistic Pizzeria Basilico and now that we were safely back on tarmac I drove home!