Luwawa Forest, Vyphia Plateau

After our time in Mzuzu Mike returned to Chitimba and I continued on South, alone once more. I don't have a guide book for Malawi and like Tanzania it's never overly clear how to go about getting to places so things can be a bit tricky. Buses here just go when they're full though, so you never need to worry about being somewhere to get one at a certain time which is handy as I'm always late anyway.

My plan was to get to Vyphia Plateau where I'd heard, but wasn't fully sure, that you could do some rock climbing. Mike left me at the bus station waiting on a bus which apparently was headed where I hoped to end up. Whilst I waited for it to fill up a lady sat her baby down next to me, motioned for me to guard it and then disappeared off the bus for ages. I wouldn't have minded except I was not feeling well at all. I'd been persuaded that the water in Mzuzu would be fine for me to drink but I was now pretty sure that actually it wasn't, and all I wanted to do was sleep. Instead I had to keep half an eye open to check the baby didn't fall off the seat, whilst it kept tapping me with the corn on the cob it was chewing at.

I did eventually reach were I was going and the bus driver kindly dropped me off outside where I hoped to stay which was completely in the middle of nowhere. It was all very strange as the guy there looked surprised to see me and all he seemed to want was for me to leave and not explore the area before doing so. He did give me a room though and finally I was able to make full use of the toilet and then sleep for the rest of the day and the following one too. I managed to establish that to get to where I could rock climb I had to catch a bus further across the plateau and so when I was feeling up to it, that's what I did. I later also found out why the guy had been acting so strangely. Apparently his guesthouse had been closed down by the Malawian Tourism Board for being unfit for tourists to stay in. It had seemed fine to me though, apart from a bees nest in the bathroom that is.

I had to flag down a bus for it to stop as there wasn't a bus stop. The first one that past didn't stop but the second one did. I was given a ticket which read ' Punctual. Reliable. Friendly. Luxurious. Comfortable'. This made me chuckle. Punctual was out of the question as I'd waited for ages for the bus to come along and there wasn't a set time for it anyway. Reliable wasn't necessarily true either seeing as one of the buses hadn't stopped to pick me up and it looked the sort of bus that might brake down at any time. Friendly was most definitely true though. People in Malawi are very friendly and greet you so warmly and this was the case with everyone on the bus. Luxurious was also out of the question as the bus was falling apart and was packed with people so no room to sit or even really stand anywhere. To get on I'd literally had to ram my way into the people and let the door push me in as it shut on/behind me. So this also counts out Comfortable too.

I was dropped at a track which I was told I would need to walk down to get to where I needed to stay to rock climb. Still unsure whether the rock climbing thing was actually something that could happen, whether I would be able to stay wherever I ended up, and also still very much lacking in energy from my unpleasant water drinking consequences, I set off carrying all my stuff on a 10km walk. What a long walk it was too and oh how happy I was when I reached the lodge I was to stay at! The lodge was in a place called Luwawa Forest and met all the descriptions that the bus was supposed to.

It was cold up on the plateau but the was a lovely log fire at the lodge. The food was brilliant too. The lodge was run by an English guy who bought the ingredients needed for English food and so after so long without, I ate pie and mash - one of the few things I'd really been craving from home. I also had fruit crumble and custard one evening! There were two dogs living there who were friendly and wanted to be stroked which is rare for animals in this part of the world. And the lodge was in the middle of a forest next to a very pretty reservoir with a watch tower that swayed in the wind which you could climb up to watch the sun setting over the trees.

It was also possible to go rock climbing and so I had a day relearning how to climb outdoors. After so long using an indoor wall it took me almost until I was too tired to climb any more to begin to master climbing rocks and not using handily or not so handily placed feet and hand holds. It was a lot of fun though and from the top of the climbs were amazing views over the forest below.