bushwhacking

You are possibly tired of pictures and tales of my mountain climbing as it is all the same mountain (but they are short—and beautiful). So on Sunday after church I thought it would be good to get out again. But we came out after church and the mountain had disappeared. It was cloudy and low and there really was no mountain. So though I had mentioned the hike to a few people I figured it wouldn’t be a good idea. Went home for tea and then my options were limited…I would either go to sleep and hibernate for the day or get out and go. When I looked out I could see blue sky and the top of the mountain was visible again so I went for it. rounded up Ed and Rebecca (couple of English doctors here for a few months)and then Lillian and Anelin (dutch nurses) and Mattias (dutch med student) came too. So we were a good crew.
When we reached the mountain hut it looked like the clouds and rain were coming back but they wanted to carry on. So we rested a moment and continued up. Picnic lunch on top of the mountain and then I fell asleep while they did a little more exploring and peak climbing. We watched rains come through Nkhoma but they didn’t come up the mountain (everyone was shocked that we went up the mountain and didn’t get wet because it poured in the village). The way is quite overgrown and we got off the main track on the way down so I retook the lead and bushwhacked our way back over to the mountain hut. It was much thicker here even than our trek to Mbalabala and I am still sporting some of the scrapes and scratches…and I think I ran into some kind of poison ivy because my legs were itchy for about a week after.