Final weekend at Mitsidi

My final weekend at Mitsidi was spent quite quietly, partly because of the fuel shortage, but to be honest it was quite nice to have a bit of time and space to digest what had been a very busy week.

On Saturday Mari and I joined Linda on a trip organised by the Malawi Society to visit a young couple (South African/Malawian) who make soap and other cosmetics in their home, using local ingredients.  It was an opportunity to dip our toes into expatriate life in Malawi – there were a range of, mainly English, people, most of them in business of one kind or another, and several of whom had lived in Malawi for more than 30 years.  They were very welcoming, and we had several interesting conversations about what it is like to live in Malawi in a very different way from the experience that Mari is having, and to observe change over a long period of time.

The house we visited was a beautiful one storey building, with lovely gardens, and a dinosaur made out of natural materials, which apparently the termites were now beginning to eat!  The couple had three boys, and there were a couple of other children there too, so it felt quite a family occasion.  We were provided with Mzuzu coffee and a variety of home-made cookies, as well as opportunities to sample the products, make our own soap bars out of off-cuts, and watch the husband making soap, which needs to be stirred for about 45 minutes, in this case using an improvised whisk, involving attaching an ordinary kitchen whisk to an electric drill.  He commented that when he first started he had not imagined that the main qualities required of a soap maker would be upper body strength and endurance!

The local ingredients they used were baobab oil and macadamia oil, which is apparently very close to the oils in human skin, and therefore easily absorbed.  They also made a range of decorative items from baobab nuts and other natural materials.

After this excursion we had lunch with Linda at La Caverna, which is a very pleasant restaurant.  I spent the afternoon at home, reading and writing, while Mari went to a barbecue at David’s which I skipped as I had a slightly dodgy stomach, and didn’t want to risk leaving the house.

On Sunday Mari and I went back to Michiru nature reserve, which we had visited the previous week with Hugh and Chris, this time just with Chris, to attempt trail 3, which is the steep one, with trail 4 running off it to go up to the summit of the mountain.  We left reasonably early – about 8.00 -  in order to avoid the heat of the day, but fortunately it was also a much cooler day that earlier in the week, which was good, as the walk ended up taking us about 5 and a half hours in the end.

Mari and I both found it quite strenuous, but Chris was very patient, and didn’t complain when we stopped frequently to “admire the views”.  Actually the views were fantastic, and the change in scenery at different levels was quite striking, with different trees growing higher up, including an area of conifers which had been recently burned, it appeared in order to smoke out either rabbits or hyraxes – a small mammal that lives in rocky areas.  We could see where the holes whatever animal it was had been dug out.

Higher still we could see trees with very red leaves, which when we reached them we found were the new leaves coming, while the old, rather dried-up leaves were still on the tree – it seems spring and autumn come at the same time in Malawi!

We saw quite a few baboons during the early stages of the walk, and a couple of antelopes higher up, and a shed snakeskin on the path – but luckily not the snake itself, as I did not want a repeat of the scorpion incident!

It really felt as if each time we thought we were about to reach the peak, another one appeared behind it, but at last we arrived, and were rewarded by wonderful views in all directions.  We were enjoying these, and our picnic, when we were gradually joined by a group of children and young people, who proceeded to sing hymns – so it was a musical lunch!

On the way down we took the long way round the rest of trail 3, and made it back feeling quite pleased with ourselves.  We drove back to Mitsidi for showers and snoozes, and then I joined Hugh and Linda to talk them through where we had been on our holiday, as they wanted to look at a map, and get a sense of how far we had been.  Shortly after I arrived Mari and Chris came down armed with pop corn and gin and tonic, and we ended up all mucking in to make omelettes for our dinner.  It was a companionable and enjoyable end to the weekend.