Day 276 - 278 / 41 - 43

Date: 13 - 15 January 2023
Sleeping location: Mushroom Farm, nr Livingstonia, Malawi
Distance (km today/total/total Part 2): 15 / 17110 / 2273
Estimated climb (m today/total/total Part 2): 300 / 147900 / 29900
Veggie fry ups: 4
Day in three words: Magical mushroom moments

I awoke way too early but was at least able to watch the view appear out of the darkness. It was raining for several hours in the morning and I stayed in bed for a while before venturing out for a veggie fry up and some tea in the restaurant. It was just like being at home (but on a cliff higher AMSL than most British mountains). The veggie fry up - eggs, beans, tomato, potato hash, sourdough, optional extra mango chutney/chilli sauce - was so tasty that I had it four mornings in a row. 

A bit about the Mushroom Farm. It is a farm, not growing very many mushrooms but growing a lot of the produce that they use in the very tasty onsite restaurant. The whole site is strung out along the cliff edge, with the restaurant, a library, various accommodation options, the gardens, ablution blocks, a yoga/massage area, solar arrays, a kitchen using a wood-fired oven and a number of other bits and bobs dotted around amongst the trees and connected by a network of meandering pathways*. The vibe is very relaxed and friendly and coupled with the view and the tasty western-style vegetarian food it is an extremely beguiling place for a weary traveller, so much so that I almost immediately decided to extend my stay from two days to three. The two issues are the terrible internet coverage - it's not that it's just bad, which would be tolerable, it's that it sometimes works perfectly and sometimes doesn't work at all and it seems totally random as to when - and tiny little flies that start to mass around you harmlessly when you stay still for a while. It's an overlander mecca and one of those places that you hear about from everyone, and as a result there was a constant flow of people to talk to. 

The rest of the first day I did nothing except blog, watch TV and enjoy a well-earned $8 hour long full body massage that led to total relaxation. C&AC turned up at lunchtime, missing Flo (who waited until the rain ended to leave) by a couple of hours. We had a nice communal experience that night, as Charles realised that the strange marks that had developed on all of our feet were caused by Chigoe fleas***. Those of a nervous disposition may want to skip to the next paragraph. These little gals burrow into your skin, usually in the foot, sucking up blood and slowly increasing in size over 4-6 weeks until they release hundreds of eggs onto the floor and die. We had clocked them relatively early - we think we picked them up somewhere around Tanganyika so 2-3 weeks ago - so we did some amateur surgery with a needle and tweezers sterilised with a lighter.  (C&AC are both trained medial professionals which made me feel rather more secure about this).

Communal dinner was a tasty lentil coconut thing with aubergine fritters, but one portion allocated to "Sven" remained uneaten. We had seen a Sven post on the cycling whatsapp group that he would be here and we got a bit worried that something had happened to him, but eventually he turned up an hour and a half after dark seeming extremely nonplussed and unaware that he'd missed his dinner. Overnight there were distant booms and flashes over the lake, which was very atmospheric but made for a broken night's sleep. A common theme at MF is the distant rumble of thunder, it's so quiet that you hear them from miles away, and the cliff top perch means that storms over the lake are quite the spectacle.

The next morning over breakfast we caught up properly with Sven, who was an absolute character. He's riding around Africa on a shoestring, raising awareness of environmental causes, and he talks a lot if you get him going but is a lovely and interesting man. After a very lazy morning I did some lazy Maggie maintenance and discovered that it was Sven's birthday, that his mother's birthday was the following day, and that she had died in the past year. I promised that I would stay up to midnight to make sure he wasn't toasting her memory alone. Having planned to go all day, I left it as late as possible to head out on a solo mission to the nearby Chombe mountain. This involved a bumpy ride (during which a big male baboon surprised me as I initially thought it was a dog and half ignored it), then some hike a bike because I took the wrong route, then a very steep and sweaty hike, but the 360 degree view at the top was absolutely fantastic.

On the way back I witnessed something extraordinary (to me anyway). Two boys were holding long sticks in the air whilst swallows flew around. After watching them for a bit I realised that the sticks had clear string and a hook on the end, and they were attaching an insect to the hook in a way that meant it could still fly, then releasing other insects into the air to attract the swallows. They were sky fishing (or perhaps more accurately, birding). I asked them if the birds were to eat, and if they tasted nice, and they replied yes to both questions. 

C&AC&Me decided to skip the communal dinner as we'd had lunch late (including an excellent veggie burger) and Anne-Claire had wildly over-ordered, so we weren't that hungry in the evening. At the bar we met some nice new arrivals, Nick (American, doing his surgery elective in nearby Mzuzu) and Ruben and Ilsa (Dutch, backpacking through Africa for four months) and had a good group to get a little tipsy and stay up to midnight to toast Sven's mum Lorraine. There were thunderstorms nearby and we joked that it would be apt if the rain came to celebrate Lorraine too; sadly it didn't, but it was still a nice moment.

In the morning I had a mild hangover which was easily vanquished with four cups of coffee, a lemonade and a veggie fry up with extra mango chutney. I had the first cup of coffee in bed and watched two geckos chasing each other around my tent and another two hanging out and watching.  I liked them but one did poo on my tupperware. Late morning I went out to the nearby Manchewe waterfalls with C&AC. There was a slightly dubious "entry fee" levied by some young guys, so we eschewed a guide and tried to figure out the way around for free. The main view of the falls was easy, and spectacular, with the water dropping 125m off the top of the escarpment into the lush forest below. For the "secret" caves we had to use some bad instructions on ioverlander but eventually got there. Apparently a local tribe used these caves as a hiding place, although accounts differ as to who they were hiding from. Life would definitely have been wet and loud for them. 

After the falls C&AC went back and I took a solo moto to Livingstonia, a quiet, spread out leafy place founded by missionaries late 19th century. It had some pleasant old red brick architecture including a church and a small university, although many of the buildings seemed to be abandoned or ruined. There was some mildly diverting history in a small museum, including a nice story involving some bricks which I will recount below. The church was quite grand and had some racist stained glass (from 1952!) showing the educated white man coming to save the spear wielding half naked locals. I took another moto back to the Mushroom Farm which involved some odd negotiation; two guys offered their services so I asked how much, the first said 2000 so I looked to the other guy to see if he would go lower. He paused and then offered 2500, then seemed surprised when I went with the first guy. 

We had our last communal dinner, a bean burrito, then played some board games with a good group: me, C&AC, Sven, Ilsa, Ruben and Nick. Mostly we played a very entertaining game called Secret Hitler where the fascists attempt to vote Hitler into power and the liberals attempt to stop them, but only the fascists know who is a fascist. The first round I was a fascist and effortlessly bluffed Anne-Claire/Hitler into power; the second I was a liberal and was absolutely convinced (correctly) that Nick was Hitler but couldn't convince the other liberals. Great fun. I also invented a cocktail called a White Mushroom consisting of Malawian brandy, Amarula and milk. What a lovely few days this was. 

Malawian Signs Corner

Aunt Carla Cafe - good food for an extraordinary academic life 

[In university] CHAIRS ARE NOT ALLOWED (STOOLS ONLY)

Uncle, If God Says Yes Who Can Say No Shop

The story of the bricks

In 1959, when the fight for independence in Malawi was turning violent in some places, British administrators dispatched a plane to drop an empty tear gas canister to Livingstonia's white residents. The message inside said: if you are safe, arrange stones in the shape of an "I"; but if you feel threatened, arrange the stones in a "V." The pilot will return and arrange evacuation if he sees a V.

The next day, when the plane returned, the people of Livingstonia had arranged stones to read "Ephesians 2:14.", which reads: "For He is our peace who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us." A lovely sentiment, plus an impressive amount of work getting those bricks arranged.  

*Ironically the layout amongst the trees means there isn't "mush room".**

**Sorry-not-sorry 

***Tunga Penetrans, parasite connoisseurs