Ian's visit Part 1

The mural inside the dining room at Mua Mission. The big mask on the wall is a Guli Wan Kule (sp?) mask, of which there are hundreds representing every aspects of human personality. The Guli Wan Kule tradition is alive and well and new masks are made regularly, there was one made as a likeness of David Livingston, and more recent local personalities too!



A sculpture inside the dining room representing gods overseeing the earth



Ox and cart right outside Dedza Pottery



Rach and Ian on a walk near Dedza pottery



Dedza pottery are keen on energy conservation!



3 of our guides around the rock art near Dedza...plus some rock art



Rachel being a giraffe, next to rock art which has been interpreted as a giraffe...she's so funny...


the M10 highway, a little misleading in the name I think!



at the viewing spot on the hill at Cape Maclear



an odd species of Acacia, pointed out to us by Rafael in Majete



Hippo blood stains on the track



Rafael, myself and Ian watching hippos and a wee croc



wee croc (photo taken through binoculars)



hippos (photo taken through binoculars)



elephant (photo taken through binoculars)


Rachel’s dad arrived into the Warm Heart of Africa last Wednesday and on Thursday we had hired a 4x4 and headed off to far flung destinations. We chose Mua Mission, Dedza, Cape Maclear, and Liwonde National Park – which incidentally, Ian had independently highlighted as places he’d also like to visit, so that was a good start for compatibility!

The road up to Mua was long and hot, and the main challenge, aside from avoiding seemingly suicidal livestock, was to find a shady place away from population centres where we could enjoy a quiet lunch. It may sound awfully antisocial and rather like we wish to insulate ourselves from the people of Malawi, but the reality of the situation is that white people are such a source of excitement (at best) and money (at worst) that we attract attention like celebrities wherever we go, and so it is not possible to have anything resembling relaxation when close to centres of population…No problem you may think, just drive out away from the centres of population into the countryside…Except that the countryside hosts far more people than the city. There was not one stretch of road in the whole 5 + hours of driving where we saw nobody…that is equivalent to driving from Edinburgh to Skye and being perpetually in towns/villages. It’s very hard to describe, but along road corridors at least, there is an almost continuous medium density of population, with shacks, homes, or sales stalls appearing every few hundred meters. Eventually we managed to find a place where we were not too visible to any hawkers or in full view of a village, and had a delightful lunch of marmite and tomato sandwiches.

We arrived in Mua Mission (an old Mission, funnily enough), after much consultation of inaccurate maps and out of date guidebooks and found the staff to be very accommodating, the rooms were spacious and clean with wonderful murals and art work of local and mythical beasts. A meal was provided, which was a wonderful Malawian fish stew with nsima, delicious! We chatted into the evening about Malawi and it’s issues, then turned in for a very comfortable nights sleep.
The next morning we awoke to see the full beauty of the place in morning light, with colourful flowering bushes and trees around the grounds, and a lovely river flowing by. The accommodation is very much separated from the local community, by fences and the river etc, but the community is fully visible across on the other bank (and I suppose we were on full view to them) which gives the visitor an unavoidable appreciation of the poverty of the area. There were notes in the visitors books about children begging for money etc, and they suggested that if you really wished to benefit the community, Mua Mission could pass your money onto village chiefs who would then use it for projects which would benefit the whole community, rather than just one family or individual. I think this is quite a well balanced approach. In some posh accommodation you can be so secluded from the local community that you never have to think about their relative poverty, and this must be nice for a stress-free holiday. However I think it is right that tourists do try to benefit the communities they visit, and so I appreciate the way Mua Mission provided for that in a responsible way…hopefully! They may just pocket the money!
After a 3 course breakfast (yum!) we headed to the main attraction at Mua Mission, the cultural museum. This was fascinating. So much information that you truly could spend all day in the 3 or 4 small round rooms. The place provided information on the 3 main tribes of Malawi, the Chewa, Ngoni and Yao, and there were well informed guides to take you around. Our guide was actually an anthropology student from Blantyre, who we spoke to at length after our tour. Fascinating guy, and very knowledgeable – he provided a well balanced view of things (which I suppose is the purpose of Anthropolgy…).

After a quick whiz around the museum shop we drove off up the escarpment to Dedza. The vehicle we had hired had a leak in the power steering mechanism, so every hairpin bend was a bit noisy and problematic, but nevertheless we reached the upper plateau, a couple of thousand feet above the Shire Valley we’d just left. The drive took us through some beautiful countryside and past some talented craftsmen who make model cars and bikes out of wood. We were to stay at Dedza Pottery, which is a large ceramics producer just outside of the town of Dedza (5th largest town in Malawi). Although mainly a ceramics producer, Dedza Pottery is better known now for its accommodation and good food than it’s pretty mediocre pottery production. Ian had a lovely room with a porch where we ate a well deserved late lunch (more marmite sandwiches) before heading up to the café for coffee and the legendary cheese cake…it was good! We then strolled off for a wee walk up one of the many hills. I know Rwanda is known for its Mille Colline (sp?) or Thousand Hills, but I think Malawi justifies the title too. We watched a beautiful sunset as I erected the tent for Rach and I, then had a nice evening of food and wine in the restaurant (as with most things on our trip, Ian was exceedingly generous and refused to allow us to pay, despite our weak protestations…thanks so much Ian!).
A chilly night in the tent reminded me that we were still in winter here, and that Africa can be cold. In the morning we packed up and headed off in search of the ancient rock art we had read about. We had been warned about the condition of the road to the most popular site for viewing rock art, so rach suggested we visit a different site, which was a great idea. The road there was largely fine, we had 4 lovely girls (and their dog, Jake) from the local school volunteer to guide us to the best of the sites (unfortunately we missed one of the more obscure ones – but that does go to show that these girls were not professionals but were genuinely keen to spend time with some rarely seen white people). Their English was very good, surpassed only by their manners – they did not ask for money at all, we chose to give them a token of our appreciation with no pressure from them, very much more relaxed than other touristy transactions. This was a really lovely walk for the art, the hill, the views, and most of all the company. A great experience of the real Warm Heart of Africa.

At risk of a serious contrast in atmosphere we headed off to Cape Maclear, home of the biggest tourist trap in Malawi. Again, some issues with inaccurate/incomplete maps and out dated guidebooks took us along the promising sounding M10 road. This obviously had been tarred at some point, but not for a very long time! We arrived in Cape Maclear just as the sun would have been setting, had it not been obscured behind a thick layer of cloud. Unfortunately Ian did not get to see the wonderful sunsets or beautiful stars which we had experienced at the Lake. Also, the water supply at the national park accommodation was non existent due to a broken pump (apparently it had packed in just after our workcamp volunteers left) and so things were even more basic than we had expected. Even more disappointingly, the wee kid we had befriended at the Reggae Bar in town had left to spend time with his mum in Blantyre, so we were left to bongo away on our own, looking out at the dark lake, before dinner at ‘Froggies’ bar (humorously named due to it’s supposedly French themed food)
Next morning we fought the baboons off at breakfast, climbed the hill behind the national park accommodation, and took in the great view. The morning was cloudy and relatively cool which was great for the ascent. We had decent views from the top and on our walk we saw both Hornbill birds and a reclusive Rock Hyrax – which looks a bit like a guinea pig but is most closely related to the elephant apparently…Down to town for coffee and a crepe then back to the national park accommodation for lunch. Yet again baboons stole my bananas…will I ever learn to shut doors?! Due to pestering from the primates we headed off down the road and found a nicer spot for lunch. On the way we passed another 4x4 on its roof. Concerned, we approached slowly but it had apparently happened the night before (drunk driving) and the people gathered around it were just there to extract their belongings.

After a spot of lunch we headed down the road to Liwonde township, close to the National Park of the same name. Accommodation in Liwonde was a little shabby in comparison to what we’d been given in other places for a similar price, and mozzies were everywhere at this town on the banks of the Shire River - rather tropical feeling. Undeterred, I smartened up with my office trousers, smart shirt, and flip flops…the epitome of Malawian chic! We headed next door to the Shire View mega complex/hotel…where they don’t do food. At least not on a Sunday night. But they can provide a free shuttle to a hotel across the river, Hippo View, which does. Disappointingly the shuttle was in a car, not a boat. So we hung around and eventually got a lift across to the rather smarter and more complete mega complex/hotel. The food was great! Ian even commented it’s as good as he has had anywhere, which must be some claim!

Next morning, we were up at the crack of dawn to head to Liwonde National Park. This is ostensibly the best park in the country, and so we were hopeful for some good sightings. We got a good show of some rather lazy fighting between male horned waterbuck, saw hippos lazing around (one sleeping in the shade a few meters from the track), and an elephant crossed the road right infront of us, and took a few steps into the bush where it promptly disappeared. We saw loads of impala (antelope) as well as bushbuck and nyala. Birds were aplenty, but our ornithological skills were not so I can only tell you that we saw some more hornbills, sunbirds, and pretty black iridescent coated birds. At the far end of the park is a large baobab tree where you can squeeze inside it’s hollow trunk. This was pretty cool, and is at a ‘ferry’ crossing of the river as it leaves lake Malombe, so we had an audience of local people as we fooled around inside the tree.
We then set our course for Blantyre, in the hopes of catching the Hash runners on their run. We arrived too late for the run, but caught up with the post-run festivities which were enhanced by a merry group who were celebrating a birthday. After a great evening of sausages, cake and fizz (as well as all the drunken Aussie chat we could wish for) we headed home tired and happy.

The final full day Ian had with us we got up early (this was a bit of a theme to his trip) and headed off to Majete national park. Followers of the blog will need no introduction to Majete, as Rach and I have been there twice before. This time was our most productive yet. With the combination of a hired local guide, Rafael, and Rachel “sharp eyes” Adamson we saw absolutely everything! Hippo blood from a pretty gruesome fight, crocodiles, hippos, a large bull elephant, buffaloes, impala, kudu, eland, sable, nyala, and many more! Rafael was a fantastic guide, so knowledgeable and easy to talk to. He told us of the poisonous cactus-like plants, the habits of porcupines, aardvarks and termites, and showed us a new viewing place for the falls. What a guy!

The final evening was spent at Veggie Delight saying goodbye to A, who has featured in many of our blog posts and is now heading back to Germany (leaving Blantyre on the same flight as Ian!).

More news to come later! Hopefully a trip up Mulanje this weekend, after a night out with the SVA kids on Friday, then Ian arrives back from Zambia next Wednesday for some more quality time with us…fantastic!

Love to all,

A & R.