MuREA, Chinzama Hut, and gallons of wine!

A millipede we saw on the way up



Jungle boogie...look at the speed of those walkers!



Welcome to the jungle...



A notice to would-be "tree poachers", not sure if it is from the rather 'cowboy' outfit of Mulli Brothers who have a license for logging in the valley, or if it was outwith the license area and was a notice from the Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust.



Pretty flowers were everywhere for most of the walk



Looking back down the valley we had walked up



Alpine meadows on the edge of the plateau



Me on the plateau



Our Sunday destination of Chagaru peak is the highest point on the left hand ridge, the large peak in the background is Namasile, which is just above the Sombani hut, which is also meant to be very nice.



Near the end of Saturday, a view through to the Sombani peaks of Namasile and Matambale



The final stretch to Chinzama hut, with Chinzama peak in the background



Rach at the stream just next to the hut, at the end of Saturday's walk, with Dzole, Nandalander and Khuto in the background.



Mountains of the western part of the Mulanje Massif, from left to right: Nankhodzwe, Dzole (i think, i may have mixed it up with Khuto), Sapitwa, Nandalander, West Peak (i think), Khuto, unknown hill with notch, Chambe.



One of our group emerging from the final part of the cave maneuver



Rach in the tighest spot of the cave maneuver...she enjoyed it more than her face is letting on, in fact she was even heard to utter the words "that was quite fun!"...odd individual...



Rachie on top of Chagaru



Rach and I on summit of Chagaru, looking down to the Fort Lister Gap (which we have cycled through) and to Mulanje's sister massif, which I can't currently remember the name of.


The group on summit of Chagaru with Namasile and Matambale peaks in the background. (it was very bright, hence a lot of funny expressions!)


Rachel descending the cave


Hello all! An update on the last 2 weeks:

Work:

Meetings with the boss have been hard for me to get, so work has been a bit slow in that respect. However this did mean that I got around to looking into creating an environmental policy for AYISE, which in turn led me to researching deforestation in Malawi. Malawi is one of the most rapidly deforesting countries in Southern Africa, with it’s afforested area shrinking from 47% to 28% in the past 25 years alone! The web-based research I was doing on this threw up a link to an organisation called Mulanje Renewable Energy Agency, whom I duly contacted. I met with MuREA on Thursday last week and had a discussion about what they do, what I have done, what AYISE do, etc. Very interesting meeting and hopefully there will be some interesting opportunities arising for both me and AYISE’s membership. The bloke who runs MuREA also had a strong interest in my dissertation, so I fished that out (luckily I had sent it to my hotmail 5 years ago otherwise I’m not sure where I would look for a copy!) and sent it. What a cringe-worthy trip down memory lane that was! My presentation skills were somewhat lacking, however it got me through to the esteemed career I have now…MuREA are, as the name suggests, installing renewable energy in the Mulanje area (ie. the district around Mulanje Mountain) – focussing on micro hydro power and solar electricity. However, in terms of eradicating deforestation on Mulanje this is not a panacea, as the amount of electricity that is produced from these sources does not provide enough for the whole population of Mulanje district to convert to electric cooking appliances. And so wood-fuelled cooking continues, with associated health and obvious environmental detriment. MuREA’s approach is to provide small amounts of electricity to enable the population to make a living from something other than sale of wood/charcoal. It is believed that a lot of the deforestation on Mulanje is not for local use, but rather is a kind of ‘cash crop’ for the locals (despite it being illegal). So by providing electricity it is hoped that some people may give up charcoal sales in favour of, for example a barbers shop, welding services, entertainment provision, battery/phone charging centres, etc…The remaining deforestation should, if all goes well, supply fuel for local cooking only, and to address this MuREA are trying to promote (not give away, as freebies are not a successful method of generating respect for and a sense of ownership of an item) fuel efficient wood-fuel stoves, which are locally produced but have not been well marketed for their money saving potential…Which brings me to my final point on this topic, which is that in a huge proportion of poor Malawian homes, 75% of household income goes on fuel costs. Consequently, if the supply of charcoal from Mulanje is reduced, yet the demand remains the same the costs will escalate dramatically for these families and create a crisis situation. Consequently, I think it is imperative that MuREA work with organisations like AYISE (and they are) in order to reduce demand in these urban poor areas, so that demand falls with supply through the uptake of fuel efficient stoves.

Rachel’s work has been going quite well in general, with the occasional frustration at the horrifically inadequate communication within AYISE. She has been debriefing, evaluating and learning lots from the feedback relating to the completed work camps. Overall, the feedback has been quite positive, but there have been a few unexpected issues, which she has responded to in a very level-headed manner, despite their infuriating nature!

Weekend of 17th-18th:

We had a lovely weekend, just the two of us, as the Glaswegian students had headed off to the lake. We borrowed a wee portable DVD player one of them had, and treated ourselves to a night in with red wine, home made banoffee pie, and even cheese to top-off our Bolognese! It was indeed a weekend of indulgence, and we loved it! The cheese and wine are still expensive, especially in comparison to their quality, however once in a while it is worth it. We also ventured up Bangwe Hill on Sunday afternoon for a lovely stroll through the agricultural land before being thwarted by dense rain-forest like vegetation and a lack of daylight. Apparently there is a route to the summit, as SVA have climbed it last year (and last weekend I think) but we did not find it. A truly relaxing weekend – just perfect! All that was missing was the company of family and friends, but you can’t have it all!

Weekend of 24th-25th:

This weekend just past we joined the Mountain Club of Malawi for a trip to a hut on the Mulanje massif. Friday night we tried to instigate a night out with the Glaswegian students, but they were pretty lame and so we were in bed by midnight. This helped when the 7.30 alarm went off (pushed back from 6.30 due to a recalculation of how long we needed for Saturday’s walk – which turned out to be perfectly timed). After some very well meaning concerned comments from locals who talked to us as we were waiting for our lift we headed off to Mulanje. At the village of Tuchila we hired porters (one between two, except for M&B who chose not to take one). The price of 1300MK per day (around £6 is very reasonable (although still generous enough for the Malawian porters), and after my previous trip up Sapitwa with no porters I thought I’d see what it was like to walk in luxury…very nice indeed! We took the ‘Jungle Path’ from Tinyande village up to Chinzama hut. The path is remarkably varied in its surroundings, starting in agricultural land, rising through Brachistegia forest, into long grass, into more ‘jungle’ type forest, before emerging into the short grass and alpine flowers of the plateau. Mostly it was quite easy angled and the constantly changing scenery made it very enjoyable. We arrived at the hut with about an hour of daylight left, so just perfect timing to sort everything out, stoke the fire and pile on the layers for the cold night. Gallons of wine and tonnes of chilli con carne were produced, which we complemented with another home made banoffee pie…what a feast! This is the benefit of hiring porters, no need to scrimp on food at all!
The next day we headed across the valley from the hut to climb Chagaru peak, which was a bit of a bush-whack to get to, but some great scrambling and even a bit of rather tight caving made the ascent quite fun for all involved. The views on the way up were great, despite the overcast weather, but as we got to the top most of the peaks had hidden beneath a layer of cloud unfortunately.
Due to a bit of a communication breakdown a few group members (including the least experienced) did this peak with no breakfast in them at all…of course, Rach and I had not left the hut without fully lining our stomachs! So the day was pretty tough for a couple of people who started walking at around 7am and didn’t get any proper food to eat until around 2pm. The MCM is a great organisation to have here, and has been fantastic for Rach and I to be able to get out and about around the beautiful areas of the country without major hassle or expense, but there isn’t so much care taken of members as there probably would be in the UK – but T.I.A. (this is Africa)…
The trip finished just as the last light was fading, so perfect timing – but a long day! (probably approaching 13 hours walking). Of course, no trip to Mulanje is complete without the obligatory trip to the best pizzeria in Malawi…YUM!
Rach did really well and actually enjoyed most of the trip, so I hope we’ll be back up there again soon. Chinzama hut was a beautiful base, and from it I think you could comfortably do at least 3 or 4 day trips to peaks, let alone flatter walks around the plateau.