Trip to Tukuyu

Donald and I took a trip to Tukuyu for Martyr's Day weekend.  Officially, this was to do some cool hiking that has been sitting there just across the boarder, but also it was just to get out of Malawi for a few days, use up vacation days, and get a few more stamps in the passport (with the year long visa, it costs nothing anyways).

The trip was great.  Saturday, we left from Donald's house fairly early, made it to Bongo Camping where we were staying at a decent time.  After setting up camp, we decided to walk to town, and upon discovering a quiet bar, attempted to "collect them all" and drink every different type of beer the bar offered.  Seeings as Tanzania beers come in 500mL bottles, and they're not exactly low on the alcohol content, we had fun.

The next day was the hike up the Ngoza Volcano.  I had read about this hike in the Lonely Planet guide book, and had originally planned on doing it last year before Aaron highjacked my vacation, redirecting us to Dar Es Salaam and Zanzibar (a highjacking which I am grateful for).  The hike started off on a road through maize fields, but then about half-way we turned into the tropical rainforest.  This is when the tsetse flies found us, and swarmed us.  I mean swarmed, as in 'Everglades mosquitoes in summer' swarming except these are horse-flies African cousins that hurt a little worse, and bite through clothes with total indifference.



So, we were hiking fast.  I'm in horrible shape right now, and after being sick a few weeks ago, what little muscles I had, have gone.  I was fine on the flat part, but when we started actually climbing the volcano (600m gain in about 40min), I was dying.  Donald says he was suffering as well at this pace (which makes me feel a little better about my health).  Once we got to the crater rim and could see the lake, we realized we'd have to walk the whole crater rim to reach the other side and the summit, but we also agreed we had no actual desire to do just that.  We just wanted to go down to the lake (500m down), so we asked the guide to take us down there.  This was a great idea, however it was also a VERY steep drop.  At times, we were climbing down tree roots like a ladder or bouldering in areas without great hand-holds (Lenore and Michael, it was worse than Lava Tower and even I was going slowly and carefully).

However, once we reached the lake, it was awesome.  The flies went away, we were in the shade, and we just had a PB&J picnic lunch (ate through an entire loaf of bread).  The hike back up was a little slower (we put on insect repellant which helped but didn't fix the problem) and much nicer.  Overall, it was a great hike.

We got back and celebrated at our bar with a Bia Bingwa (translation, Beer Champion).  Monday, we took our time getting back into Malawi.  At the boarder, I introduced Donald to my tradition of getting a beer at the G8 Bar, right next to the boarder crossing.  We also got some of the best chips mayai ever, where the eggs were cooked perfectly and still had just a little goo in the center.  I decided to buy Red Gold here for cheaper, then we strolled back across the bridge to The Warm Heart of Africa, where I will remain for 6 more months.

Pictures of the trip on Facebook