We had heard and read so much about Livingstonia that we just had to go there; it’s one of those places that will certainly be a talking point for years to come and we will tell anybody visiting the area that they have to go there but we have ticked it off and got the T-shirt (the one that says I survived the Gorodi Road).
We had the cold shower (same as yesterdays) and headed off to Chitimba. From there, we turned right and headed up the 15 km stretch of untarred and almost vertical road to the plateau housing the Livingstonia Mission. The first 3 km are a gentle slope along the plains. Then the interesting sections begins, it is a tortuous climb up a winding track, for the next 6km, with around 20 hairpin bends gingerly hugging the edge of the Rift Valley. Some of the bends are so sharp that we had to back track before heading on up. We started at 470m and at the top we were at 1150m. My concern was that we still had to come down.
Once we reached the top the last 6km into Livingstonia was your typical potholed track. The next problem was finding the place; after heading off down four wrong roads and landing up at a high school, a Catholic church and on someone’s front porch, Gray was about to give up and go back. I persuaded him to continue as we had come this far, not even his darling Doris had directions for him but I did the girl thing and asked someone for directions. Five minutes later we were in Livingstonia; I had expected a type of Pilgrims Rest Village but besides a fairly run down looking ‘Cathedral’, it was very different.
The history of the village is that, after 2 failed attempts at establishing missions on the southern sections of the lake (because people kept dying of malaria) the Free Church of Scotland, under Dr Robert Laws established this mission in 1884. How he got up there and then developed a mission could only have been with God’s help.
The town still provides a glimpse of Malawi’s colonial past as most of the stone buildings, church and a museum still exist. Its claim to fame nowadays is that it boasts a University, a quiet and conservative one, where no alcohol is allowed (let’s try this at Rhodes or UCT).
As we were heading out of the museum, we bumped into the Director of the University, Jack, an Irish historian, living in Scotland, but spending a year in Mzuzu. He has obviously lived in the area and has an extensive knowledge of the history of the local people. His job for the year is to do a feasibility study on the future of the university. Well Jack, I can do it in 30 seconds - get the Chinese, who are so keen on invading Central Africa, to build you a decent road up here and employ some philanthropic young lecturers and you have your University. One interesting tit bit we gleamed from him was that Livingstonia had electricity before Cape Town (generated by hydro electric power from a nearby river).
From Livingstonia, we headed off to the Manchewe Falls; however, we missed the entrance and so went onto Mushroom Farm instead. This was something else, a bush retreat right on the edge of the cliff. Our roof top tent would never have made it up there. Setting up a ground tent is still a dangerous business; you couldn’t take a leak in the middle of the night for rear of ending up at the bottom of a 400m cliff. Don’t visit this camp if you are even vaguely scared of heights but if not, the views over the escarpment and across the lake must be one of the best in Malawi. We had a coldrink, marvelling at the scene below us and chatted to Joshua, a mad English kid who was doing Cairo to Cape on a bicycle.
Then it was time for the descent; I am one of those ‘let’s go on the roller coaster ride’ types but sliding down those 6km of hairpin bends, with steep cliffs inches away and evidence of cliff slides here and there, left me a little scared. To make matters worse, in one section, we encountered an ambulance coming up and we had to reverse to a spot where he could squeeze past.
Once back on flat ground we headed back to our beach retreat.
The spectacular view
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