Three Peaks

walking through a township at first light, below Michuru peak


view across to Ndirande from Michuru peak


Rach on top of Michuru


Rach at the first tea stop - breakfast!


walking along a bit of (disused/infrequently used/not used on Sunday) railway to get to the 2nd tea stop


2nd tea stop in the lush grounds of a well-to-do ex-pat house


half way up Ndirande, and approaching the scramble (up the vegetated gully to the right of the main cliff)


"A" near the summit of Ndirande ("A" was on the majete and sapitwa hikes with us too)


coming down steeply off the summit of Ndirande, and into the tropical vegetation


descending a steep step on Ndirande


Approaching Mount Soche


One of the kids who followed us up Soche


The view across Soche township and Limbe - our township is just out of shot on the right


The summit of Mount Soche


Looking back along the summit ridge of Mount Soche


2 of the cheeky kids who followed us to the top


Descending Mount Soche and trying to find the path in the long grass and setting sun


nice flowers on the slopes of Soche


Me, descending Soche after a long day!


Hello all!

First of all, another few funny slogans from around us:
• On a minibus “it’s not me, it’s Allah!”…reassuring
• On another minibus “don’t worry, Jesus is in control”…dead bloke driving, good stuff…!
• A bottle shop near us is called the “Kosovo Bottle Store”, so a free portion of ethnic cleansing with every beer…?

On Sunday Rachel and I joined up with all the other crazy asungu in the area for the annual Three Peaks Walk arranged by the Mountain Club of Malawi. This is a non-competitive 42km (yes, that is basically a marathon) route around Blantyre, taking in the three largest hills. I’m not 100% sure of the starting elevation, but I’d say each hill was between 1500ft and 2000ft of elevation gain, so not much individually but enough when taken as a group. The main challenge was sticking to the schedule which had us completing the route in 13 hours. I think we all started off well, and were ahead at the first tea stop (tea and coffee stops were a life-saver! There was a support crew who drove to strategic points to meet and greet us with sugary and salty snacks, and as much liquid as we could handle!), but between the first and 2nd tea stops the pace really dropped and we were behind for the rest of the day. However there was a great feeling of camaraderie and it was far less of a pointless slog than I had worried it might be. At no stage (perhaps with the exception of our 3.40am wake-up call) did I feel this was a total beast of a hike – probably because of the subdivided nature of the walk into smaller sections interspersed with coffee stops.

We started off from the centre of Blantyre at 5am on the dot, and walked through the streets in darkness as late night revellers staggered home past us with a rather confused look on their faces. We were a group of probably 20 or 25 at the start, so must have looked quite a sight! The first hill (Michuru) was attacked with vigour as the sun rose, and we were rewarded with great views from the top. Rach and I made it to the top with around 10 minutes to have breakfast, so perfect timing. Then everyone hurried off down the hill to the conservation department car park and a cuppa. After that we had a long flatish walk across the plains (which are inhabited by one of the densest and most complex townships I have yet seen!) to the next tea stop in a wonderful house at the foot of the 2nd hill (Ndirande).

Here Rachel decided she would quit while she was still enjoying it, and quite right too as Ndirande was quite a steep, vegetated scramble, with some people (not me)getting attacked by bees, so probably for the best she bailed when she did. Ndirande had fantastic views from the top, across to Zomba Mountain and Mount Mulanje, both of which had a cap of cloud. We could also see right across the whole city and townships that we had come through, and what we still had to cover. The steep decent through dense undergrowth took us to the next tea stop, where Rachel met me again, having hitched a lift with one of the support vehicles.

After that, a further steep decent took us to a series of unofficial fields with beaten paths which we bashed our way through, and into Limbe (the town nearest to Bangwe township). We crossed through Limbe and approached the final hill, Mount Soche. After a final stop for tea and changing plasters and socks (I had 5 blisters by this point, all on my left foot oddly enough!), we headed off through the Soche township to the hill. Along the way we were adopted by a group of kids who accompanied us all the way to the top! The top of Soche is beautiful, a rainforest type of vegetation with a huge monolith at the summit to provide stunning vistas in all directions as the sun dipped in the sky on the 2nd shortest day.

The decent from Soche is tricky to find due to the very long grass (see photo) but we made it down to the townships (past potential muggers in caves and Rastafarians growing marijuana) just before dark. From there it was an hours hobble to the starting point and some well earned beers!

So now, if anyone asks me what my marathon time is I will be able to say 13 hours 30 minutes, and 6 cups of coffee!

I hope all are well, happy solstice, fathers day, and any other occasion you may wish to celebrate!

PS – Congratulations to Magic and Nathan on their engagement! (I hope everyone knows by now!)