After an early start - viewing and taking photos of the sunrise, showering in the 'Eco-friendly showers', and having breakfast with the stunning backdrop of the Malawian countryside, Lake Malawi and the coast of Tanzania - we got organised to make the ascent to Livingstonia.
Manu and Tanya (one of the people who was working at The Mushroom Farm) joined us and showed us a shortcut for the first part of the walk. This was a steep climb up a fairly rough piece of hillside. However, we soon met the main road - a red, dusty path - which we followed all the way to Livingstonia.
We passed through lots of villages and skirted the Manchewe Falls and a coffee plantation. We also encountered many very friendly locals, as well as a group of Japanese tourists!
On arrival in Livingstonia we were all surprised at the expanse of the town.
The centre - incorporating the clock tower, House Number 1(the original house of the missionary Dr. Robert Laws), the Stone House (his subsequent residence), the mission church (a church dating from 1894 with a magnificent stained glass window featuring David Livingstone), and a cafe (selling tea and superb scones with homemade banana jam!)- was very colonial. The outskirts were similar in constuction to many other Malawian villages which we had passed through. After wandering around for a while and taking in all the sights, as well as the wonderful views, we began our descent to the Mushroom Farm. It was very warm and the walk home was pretty tough.
Fantas and beers were enjoyed by all on arrival.
Due to the nature of the 'road' up the mountain / hill, Father Chunda and Celia decided to walk back down (15k), whilst the others took the jeep.
The jeep picked up a couple of 'hitch-hikers' very close to the bottom, reporting that they had had a great walk and they had found many shortcuts!
Father Chunda is some man!!
We picked up our car from the campsite in Chitimba, and after another few refreshments made our way back to Mzuzu. Bernadette fancied some chips from a roadside stall en route, so Celia and Bernadette went out to buy some provisions for the journey home - chips and purple tomato sauce, bananas and water.
The journey home was very colourful as usual. In Malawi the roads are just a mass of people; there are many roadside stalls, children playing at the sides of the roads, people walking two or three abreast on both sides of the road and numerous cyclists. As light faded the numbers of people around the road did not reduce. Indeed, men who had been drinking in the village bars added to the 'street commotion'; many staggering onto the road. Father Chunda said that there are many road accidents in Malawi because people / cyclists simply cannot be seen after nightfall. He also reported that some motorists with vehicles which are not roadworthy choose to travel at night. They do this so that they can travel with no lights!!! Scary!
We were all very happy to arrive back in Mzuzu about 7.30pm. After a lovely spread of psima, chicken, rice, sausages, greens, and tomatoes we all retired for showers and early nights.
A great couple of days had been had, with many adventures and tales.
The road to Livingstonia will probably stay with all of us for a very long time!