The slopes of mulanje mountain

Having joined the Blantyre Sports and social Club last Sunday I am determined to make use of the place.  membership cost 10.000 kwacha (about £40) for a month but it does have a nice balcony area where you can get food and a drink at very reasonable prices and a large outdoor swimming pool (pic right)  although the water is freezing!  the only other person I have seen actually swimming was wearing a wet suit!  It does wake me up after a day in the office though.  Monday back in the office and apart from a meeting with the MD of a private school my time this week has been pretty much stuck inside working on various projects.  Time does go quick when there is a lot to get done and I have had a good week and now have the content of two workshops complete and all overheads for the first one finished.  we have also put in two proposals for work. One with the private school and one to conduct a feasibility study for a client wanting to start a dairy farm.  i certainly get a range of experience out here and its really nice that in addition to bringing my skill and experience into the team that I still have plenty of opportunity to learn things too.

Friday being a nice hot day i headed straight for the pool after work and did a few lengths before hypothermia started to set in.  A couple of Kutcher Kutcher beers on the veranda and then we decided to have a drive out and find Chai Makay, a bar /restaurant that we had been told had great views and was a lovely place to sit and watch the sun set.

The picture right was taken from Chai makay while having a beer and watch the sun starting to drop below the horizon. Next

we moved on to Casa Mia, a lovely restaurant where we will definitely visit one evening next week for dinner but tonight we moved on to a chinese place near to the office and had a really nice meal of crispy beef with vegetables and steamed rice.  A few drinks and then back to the 'Big Brother House'  for some rest.

Saturday.  i headed off around town in 'Daisy' to get my suit into the cleaners, do some more shopping at shoprite then over to Ryalls hotel to speak to wilderness tours to arrange my trip up to liwonde national park and lake Malawi in mid September.  In the afternoon we had been invited over to St Andrews International school to watch a cricket match and have a few beers and a burger.  Evening time the entertainment continued down at Doogles bar where we had a few drinks and i bought a few raffle tickets before heading back over to mustang Sally's for a Braii, T Bone and salad.  tomorrow we are off down to Mulanje to see the mountain so a reasonably early night to get plenty of sleep.

Sunday.  By 9am we were on the road out of Blantyre through limbe and heading East to Mulanje about an hour and a half drive away. arriving in the town of mulanje on the south western slopes of the mountain we drove straight along the road which starts to climb the lower slopes and into Kara o Mula country lodge to have coffee, find out about climbing the mountain and view the small conference facilities they have. The picture below is the front porch of  Kara o Mula with the cloud covered Mulanje mountain in the background.

Having spent a little time looking around the country lodge ( and a bit of a wander onto the initial parts of the mountain path) we drove back down into the town to Pizzeria Basilica, a little eating house where they cook your fresh pizza in front of you.  my colleagues had pizza and I had spaghetti which was tasty and the price very reasonable at around £4.  Next door to where we were eating my camera was attrtacting the attention of some local children and teenage girls who were laughing and posing for the camera.  I took a few pictures and showed them the results which had them laughing and giggling and the smaller children very wide eyed.  I asked them to pose as a group (picture below) which they were very pleased to do and even more pleased when I thanked them and gave them 100 Kwacha.

The youngest children i dont think had ever seen themselves in a film before judging from their reactions.  the kids here always have such big smiles on their faces and are so photogenic. The little man in the picture below wasjust so cute i had to include a photograph of him in my blog.  photographs taken, models paid!!  and us fed and watered we hit the road back west towards Blantyre leaving the still cloud covered summit of Mulanje mountain behind us.  if i get chance before leaving Malawi i would like to go back and do the climb which is about 5 hours ascent to the plateau where you spend the night before climbing another 3 hours up to sapitwa, the highest peak, the following morning.

  relaxing this evening with a glass of wine back at the house before the start of another busy week tomorrow.  One workshop Monday and another Wednesday with final preparations for my trip to Lilongwe for a two day strategic workshop on the 6th september.  and ofcourse a dozen other projects and tasks to keep pushing forward.  until next time, take care all.