Mozambique

first river crossing and head-dunking session to remove some sweat



pretty flowers



another pretty flower



second river crossing, with ladies milling cassava into a powder



rat caught in a trap outside a hut.i guess he thought he'd be ok as he was in the protected zone...afraid not, buddy!



base camp on saturday lunchtime



'Gin trap'



Climbing up through the rainforest to reach the peak



view from the top



pretty flower in a thicket on top



another view from the top



celebrating...or just airing sweaty armpits!



bush with insects mimicking scorpions



descending from the open grasslands of the top 100m, back into the forest



descending in the forest



the trees up ahead had deliberately been killed. Lots of valuable timber there, could be used for anything...but will almost certainly just be burnt.



pretty butterfly. I was being nibbled by ants as i took this photo!



coming back through the villages we were accompanied by a great group of friendly kids



fixing the vehicle



Some of the tea estate buildings


Too many photos again, so there will be another post for the extras!

Hi all,

So, the boring stuff first:

Weather is still good, getting hotter by about 1˚C every couple of days. Currently a lovely mid 20s and clear skies most of the time.

Work is going well, I’m currently ploughing through the final stages of a couple of large funding proposals – one for a project to fight child labour (Malawi has the highest rate of child labour in Southern Africa), and one to create a Peace Education Centre at the youth centre, which would entail doing lots of training and seminars around tolerance and understanding of difference (stop sniggering at the back, I know, pots and kettles…) to reduce the occasional, but very violent mobs that can arise in times of hysteria – for example in reaction to accusations of witch craft.

Rachel’s doing a lot of admin relating to wrapping up and evaluating the workcamps she has run. Also, she has debriefed and said goodbye to all but 1 of the SVA group, and welcomed in 5 new Swedish volunteers. These are folk in the 3 year period between school and uni in Sweden. 3 girls are staying at host homes in the village, which I think they are finding a bit of a culture shock at the moment (nsima for every meal at one house), while a young couple are staying in the compound with us. They all seem nice enough just now, I haven’t really had much chance to chat to them yet though.

Now the fun stuff!

Last weekend the Mountain Club of Malawi (MCM)ran their first trip to a hill in Mozambique called Mount Mabu. This hill was little known until around 2005 when it was ‘discovered’ on google earth by scientists at Kew Gardens who were looking for remnants of rare medium altitude forest in the region. It was then investigated by Malawians working for the Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust (MMCT), who also happen to be MCM members and were on the trip at the weekend. The hill had managed to keep its forest due to the relatively low population surrounding it, and its inaccessibility. The villagers in the area would use the forest as a hide-out during the civil war (1970s to 1990s). These villagers helped with the first scientific trip to the area in October and November 2008 (when it must have been swealtering!). The scientists set up camp at the clearing where the villagers had taken refuge. Their 2 week trip found new species of chameleon, snake, bird and butterfly, as well as rare species of all sorts. If you are a species which likes medium altitude (around 1000m – 1700m this forest is one of the only areas for miles around, and so many species here are isolated – which has the potential to produce new species. The current situation is that, thanks to the pioneering work done by the first and second expeditions there was enough evidence to persuade the Mozambican government to protect the area (around 7000 hectares). We noticed a small amount of incursion from to the swelling population of the nearby villages, but luckily the protection seems to still be holding out against commercial operations. The local villagers are very poor, ‘peasant farmers’ who grow cassava and other crops and also lay vicious ‘gin traps’ for animals in the forest (small antelope being the main target).

There are lots of articles online about it if you want more info.

Our trip consisted of people like myself who were just interested to see the place, and also some employees of MMCT who were semi-working, identifying any species we brought to their attention, assessing any changes since their previous visits, talking to the local chief and villagers, and generally being very useful individuals!

I was collected on Friday morning, and we headed for the border. Things slowed right down at the border but we struggled through and arrived at the town of Milanje in Mozambique. The Mozambican’s are not keen on people coming in…except on a Sunday, when the border is basically open to encourage trade! We waited in a café and those that had been salivating about the thought of non-carlsberg beer quenched their thirsts. Once all cars had arrived we drove off on a dirt road for 3 hot, dusty, sweaty hours before arriving at an abandoned tea estate just as darkness fell. The tea estate is at the foot of the mountain, and the tea plants are now 30ft tall having been abandoned during the civil war! The buildings are basically structurally sound, but have no roofs or windows. We drove to the highest building, which also happened to be the nicest. Food was cooked up, beer and wine consumed, and stars watched until tiredness came and people retired to their rather plush accommodation!

The next morning we awoke with the sunrise and took lots of photos of our spectacular surroundings before packing up, assigning porters (I was not lucky enough to get one, and had filled my bag with things others could not fit, so I think I must have been carrying around 17kg…enough to get a good amount of sweat going!), and heading off into the forest. First we had to walk for an hour or so around a long ridge, through lots of hamlets, and into the valley which would lead us up to base camp. The hike took around 3 and a half hours for my group, longer for some. After a quick wash in the stream at base camp we discussed whether we had time to go for the peak that afternoon, of if we’d have to squeeze it into an early morning. We opted to go for it in the afternoon and the timing was perfect, due to quite a ferocious pace set by our local guide Othelio from the village down the hill (at 42 he is a father of 10 and already a grandfather…men are in noticeably short supply after the civil war in this are – Othelio is a hunter and so knew where all the leg-destroying gin traps are, as he had put them there!).

The views from the top were a welcome change from the dense forest, which has it’s own beauty but also seems intent on causing as much discomfort as possible to those wishing to pass through it! We hung around on top for a while, noting species (I spotted a bush full of insects which were mimicking scorpions. I had read about these, they are reckoned to be unique to Mabu). Then dashed back down, getting to the camp just before dark. Another wash in the river, sorely needed, and then a lovely evening of sitting around the campfire, chatting, occasionally heading off to a bush to find the native pygmy chameleons (sorry, none of my photos of these inch long little beasts came out), and generally enjoying the rainforest.

Next morning we packed up and headed back, some getting an early and fast start to try to fix one of the vehicles which had slipped off the track just next to our Friday night accommodation and fairly b*ggered up it’s wheel and axel. The decent seemed incredulously hotter than the ascent, and we arrived back at the tea estate thoroughly dehydrated and sweaty! An hour or so of bodging work and the car could be towed up to park at the estate building, to be collected at a few days later, whenever a mechanic could be arranged.

So that was my trip to Mozambique. It was different from Malawi in a few ways, such as the complete lack of ‘asunugu-ing’ of white people, even more laughter than Malawi, and sadly far fewer men for tragic reasons of politics and guns.