Zombadventuring

For my 100th blog post, I decided to outsource the writing to my friend Godfrey (Check out his blog!). I added some photos, captions, and some comments in (blue brackets).

Some things are just too good to imagine. Who would of that our tiny country, Malawi would have a spectacular table-top mountain like Zomba Plateau?

It’s one thing to live in a country. It takes something else to explore and experience its beauty. I have lived in Malawi for over two decades and like most Malawians, I have always longed to see some of the beautiful places in our country that people talk about. Unlike my family who has never had the opportunity to visit our own lake, Lake Malawi, I am so thankful that I have seen it. However, hiking Zomba Plateau remained a dream until I met Belinda.

It all started with a casual expression of interest to visit the place in the future. Followed by numerous excuses as to why I couldn’t visit it soon. As If reading my mind that my main problem was the fear of getting lost in the forest, Belinda asked if she could go with me to Zomba. (Correction: I asked Godfrey if he wanted to come with me to Zomba since I was already going there to visit Florent, my fellow Team Poutine musketeer.)

“How can a girl guide me to a mountain? How can she be excited about the idea of hiking?” My mind became full of questions. (Because I was in Girl Guides. Duh.)

Culturally, a woman in Malawi is regarded as inferior to a man. She is usually considered to have little knowledge and sense of direction (What? I have an excellent sense of direction.) than males and here I was, being ushered to my dream by a female for the first time in my life. Feeling insecured, I tried to think of another excuse but before I knew it we were at the base of the 5,900 foot plateau.

I have been to a few mountains but never to one which has a paved road. Belinda told me that the tarred road went all the way to the top. On my back was a big rucksack which attracted the attention of a taxi that was heading our way. (Finally, this bulky paraglider was handy for something other than a pain to haul around on a minibus.) Amazingly, the taxi driver turned to be my cousin, Limbikani. He offered us a free ride to the top. During the ascent, I couldn’t help but smile as the magnificent views of Zomba unfolded right in front of us while we were seated.

Atop the mountain, I was humbled to see the amount of energy that my friend had as she guided me to the Emperor’s view where she said we were going to look out over the vast Phalombe plains, Lake Chirwa and also our highest mountain, Mount Mulanje. Sadly, the view was obscured by a thick cloud upon arrival. (Yeah, that part really sucked.)

Our best attempt at unimpressed faces upon reaching Emperor’s view and seeing nothing but a blanket of fog.

We waited for a little (try close to an hour) while when all of a sudden, the panoramic view in front of us was unveiled. It was breathtaking!

Looking down at Zomba from Emperor’s view. The whole point of this trip was for Godfrey to identify some landing spots if he launched from the plateau. Our patience was rewarded as he found no shortage of maize fields.

On our way back, we saw plenty of baboons, enjoyed listening to the sounds of birds and the numerous mountain streams (and got caught in a rain storm but stayed dry because we got invited into this little grass hut by one of the crystal vendors – the timing was impeccable). I was about to ask Belinda if I could sit down to rest when she pointed out to me, a waterfall.

The spot for swimming at the plateau under Williams Falls.

The view of which was more than enough for non-swimmer like me. As if noticing my fear of getting into water, she assured my safety. (This rock pool is so shallow, the water doesn’t go past your shoulders.) This time, I found her words way easier to take as I had now built enough trust in her. (Hey, we made it to and from Emperor’s view without getting lost.) Unforgettable is my first experience of dipping my feet into the water and pushing my body towards the waterfall. As the water baptized me, I couldn’t help but scream with excitement. (He was giddy like a little kid.)

It was Godfrey’s first time swimming under a waterfall. I tried to capture his moment of “OMG this is so awesome”.

Thank you Belinda for showing me Zomba Plateau. (And thank you Godfrey, for not letting cultural gender norms prevent you from putting your full trust in my navigation skills. Oh, and for writing this blog post for me.)

Post hike: Flo asked me to pick up kamba (a maize crunchy snack) on our way to his house but all they had at the PTC were these huge ONE KG bags. At one point, I picked up a bag and walked towards the checkout, then decided against it and put it back on the shelf. We probably would have foolishly eaten the whole bag in one sitting.