Malawi

Zomba, Malawi

We headed on to Zomba, Malawi's former capital until the 1970s that has some amazing architecture and a fabulous plateau. We arrived late in the day because of the usual banking problems in Blantyre (namely that none of the ATMs were working) and unfortunately the place we thought we would stay was completely full. We walked a short way up the steep hill to the next establishment that wanted a scandalous amount of money for a very basic room. While we ummed and ahhed, the nice fellow who showed us to the room mentioned that there was a cheaper place 'just a little further on' - how much further was unknown and now, of course, the sun had set. We grabbed our bags and set off up the hill, the very steep hill, in the dark, in flip flops. Amazingly, about 5 minutes after we set off, just past the first bend in the road, a 4wd pulled up and two German girls asked where we were going - the same place as them. They very kindly gave us a ride up to the hotel, our gratitude growing as we continued further and further up the hill, bend after bend. And the hotel was great, run by the very friendly Fletcher and Beatrice.

The following day, after a hot shower and the best sleep we'd had in ages, we set off for our walk up the Zomba plateau. The two German girls had recommended a guide, Isaac, who was very friendly and had amazing English. The walk was really lovely, affording us amazing panoramic views which aren't done justice in photos. We saw some superhuman men carrying two full tree trunks on their heads, down a slippery mud path - it's the kind of thing that is quite unbelievable to witness. The view clouded over when we reached the two best viewpoints, much to the consternation of Isaac who waited much longer than we would have for it to clear, exclaiming 'why bother coming all this way if you cannot see the view'.

Our Zomba luck continued on the way down. Our walk was much longer than we expected so we were descending as the sun was setting, listening to Muslim call to prayer float up from one of the town's mosques. The whole thing was very picturesque and lovely, but unfortunately we still had a long way to go, and an extra long way to go in the dark. Cars kept passing us, all heading up the hill, so we figured it was just a matter of time until they started to descend and take us with them. The first car passed us by, but the second car picked us up just as the light faded entirely. We spent the journey down the hill explaining how much we loved Malawi to the government officials who'd picked us up (and also saying what good jobs they had - Africans generally love this comment).