Very true Jim - (sorry for delay - moved house and only just got BB connection back). Think I had a quick flick through the text myself in the MMCT library whilst in Mulanje.
also true is Mulanje's importance as a "farming" area - unfortunately very little real food is grown - mainly tea for export owned by non- malawian companies and eycaliptus plantations in order to provide timber for fueling the drying process - a major cause of deforestation and interuption in the water cycle i'm afraid.
Have you never been tempted to see the place for yourself??
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Nice to see a positive thread on Africa!After the best part of a year bumping about the dirt roads of Africa (www.africanadventures.bravehost.com) I just wanted to agree with many of the comments posted regarding that huge lovable continent.
I totally agree with St Rick regarding the ruwenzoris a totally magic place,Did you get into eastern Zaire and Rwanda,stunning places!
The Jurrassic park comment also remindered me of my best wildlife experiences canoeing the lower Zambezi through Mana pools national park (zim)Charged by Elephant one day the next by a hippo to be followed by facing down a lion with just my (unarmed) guide for company so in point of fact in that very special park were you use to be able to venture were youre nerve allowed
you can easily become a walking kite-kat!
Two examples while i was in Zim in 94 was a well documented case of a tourist getting to hot in his tent in Mana pools n.p sticking his head out and unfortunately being taken by lions during the night.
Again in Mana 3 canoeists got attacked by a hippo,one was killed by the hippo another taken by a croc the third got to the bank and survived,Mana is like Jurrassic park,in visiting 70 countries I can,t think of a more beautiful,dangerous or exciting place!
Walking in africa you just have to find from whatever sources were is safe to walk and were would be suicide.
During my visit to Malawi in the 80s I did get my Africa on a shoestring book confiscated (critical of Banda) and told to tidy up but as i was just recovering from Malaria and was getting extreme travel fatigue i did rush Malawi.Pity.
Steph,isn,t the cash crop the curse of the third world?
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Certainly is my friend - also the fact that there is no clean water (if there is water at all) - but u can still by a coke. When will people realise what's important!!!! - now even bloody cassava (similer to potato but easier to grow in drought striken areas) is being turned in to crisps and sold in Tesco's - bad bad bad!! - IF I RULED THE WORLD lol lol lol
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Yeap, no clean water will remain with me for the rest of my life.I never complain about my water bill!
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Well having been looking at maps of Spain (house hunting) with peaks of 800 to 1300 meters within a 20 mile radius it reminds me how awsome MULANJE is - just thought i'd remind u guys - were talking 3002 meters at its highest peak, 20 peaks over 2000 meters starting from ~ 500 meters in Mulanje town. 300 meter vertical drop (longest in sub-saharan africa) for those with a wish to absail. Environments ranging from african savahana to those reminisant of scottish highlands or apline forests. Come on guys - where is the adventurer in you all. If your not expecting 4/5* accommodation or ice climbing it really is worth considering.
Malawi isnt called "the warm heart of africa" for no reason and has sooooooo much to offer.
Please let me know if you're even considering a trip - to the African continent (for African Continent read MULANJE!!).
You could even finish your trek with a chill out at divers paradise Lake Malawi or the Mozambique coast (awsome diving now the fighting has stopped)!!
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I have just recently had a conversation with myself (yep I did say myself  ) I must be mad - who would want to go to Mulanje to absail 300m - you could do that in Wales for a fraction of the cost. OK so I had had a few galsses of vino LOL - 300m is actually 1000m of a vertical drop and IT IS the longest in sub-saharan Africa - oh I do have my blonde moments - apologies folks!!
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Julian b without the again.....No need to apologise I enjoyed reading this thread once again,Africa does defy facts and figures its just the whole package of smells and feelings that attack youre senses.No place like it.
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Hi Julian And here's me thinking no one ever looked at this thread. The good news is that I'm dragging my partner to Mulanje in 2010 as part of a trek from Kenya to Mozambique. If he comes home as gob smacked as I did I'm hoping he will encourage some of his climbing/walking buddies to give the area a try instead of the usual places.
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The chances are that no one checks this thread anymore but i thought i would leave my merories for you anyways last summer me and a group of friends from school (yes, we were still school age so between 15 and 17) went to Malawi with World Challenge and all had such an amazing and emotional time Being so young i guess we were somewhat vein about the conditions that people lived in, but we soon got used to seeing people in such poverty. We had spent a week in Zomba and then a week in a small village where we helped the locals build a school building, when we first saw mulanji for the first time. we then spent the following week climbing it and although troubled with extremely cloudy and windy conditions we managed to get a 20min slot where we could stand on the top before the winds picked up again. the experiance we unforgetable. it will stay with us forever and i already know that one day Malawi will drag me back it is such an amazing place
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 Good to find and read this thread. I had 6 months overlanding thru' Africa in 84/85. I didn't get south of Tanzania at that time, but the trip will be etched in my being for ever. Exposure to Africa changes you profoundly and only those who have experienced it ever really understand how it is. So nice to find some of you on here. I have read 'Venture to the Interior' and have long dreamt of going to the Mulanje highlands. My experience of Africa left me believing that, too often, 'AID' from the well meaning Developed World, has over the long term been more of a scourge than a benefit. It has stopped Africa helping it's self. note to self - must get back to Africa before it's too late! (before I'm too old and before Africa becomes like everywhere else)
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 Haven't been in 'mid' Africa, apart from a week in Kenya, waiting for a flight - looonnngg story, just N & S Africa. Morocco, Algeria, Namibia, S Africa, Botswana, etc. Except Zimbabwe- Refused Entry because of job. Another story. I agree Africa does get 'into your blood'. It's a wonderful part of the world!!! Many happy memories.  Note to self. Must try and get back again before it gets more Westernised..........
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Michael,my sons secondary school does trips to Malawi,are you based in one of the best schools in the country beginning with s in sunny surrey??
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Julian, no we all came from Gosford Hill School in Oxfordshire and we went with World Challenge the school goes to a different counrty each year with the organisation and this year it just happened to be Malawi. next year is India and then Ethiopia in 2012
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