nyika (sunday)

On the road early to try and get a ride. We’ve been warned that public transport here is very difficult to non-existant. We’d also been told that Nyika on a Sunday was going to be very hard so we thought we could go to Vwaza Marsh instead and try Nyika Monday. So we stood on the road and everyone who asked where to? We said Vwaza. Evidently there is a minibus that goes but it was up as early as we were so we continued to hope for a ride sooner rather than later. Finally a man comes over and asks where we’re headed. Vwaza. Oh, well I was going to Chilenda and thought I’d check. Oh well we’d been told we probably wouldn’t find a ride to Chilenda but if that’s where you’re going and you have room we’d love it. And so on to Nyika (chilenda is the camp that you stay at in nyika). We throw our bags in the back and get in the back seat of his double cab pickup. Gilbert works for the Forestry Commission for Nyika. They are harvesting the pine forest and replanting and he’s in charge. His brother and another guy from the company were also in the car. it was 120 kilometers of dirt road. I’m so glad we didn’t have to ride in the back with our bags…talk about dusty!

The views on the plateau are amazing. Very different from the rest of Malawi that we’d seen. Rolling vistas that you could see for ages. They had done lots of burning for new growth to get through and it seemed like a moon scape at parts. No villages around. When we checked in at reception and asked about the three day hike from Chilenda to Livingstonia that we’d called twice about in the previous 2 days, we were told that it had been put on temporary suspension due to an indiscretion on the part of one of the guides. (why this wasn’t told to us before we came?!). ok then. Went to set up our tent and think about what we wanted to do other than that hike…decided on an afternoon walk to Choisi Point and around to the dams…I think it was about 20k. not bad and a beautiful day for it. we saw kudu and elands (large antelope cousins). Cooked our dinner over the campfire and bundled up as we were told that it gets cold up here (2000m in altitude). Gilbert came to check on us from the timber camp. And after he left…it got cold. We climbed into the tent and ended up not sleeping much as it was too cold. I got up at 2am and stoked the fire back up, warmed up a little but had to get back in the tent as I was tired…woke up to a hard frost and when we opened our tent ice was falling off of it. hard to remember we were in Africa!