33rd Blantyre Three Peaks Walk, Malawi.
Saturday, 24th June 2017
Rupert's
report
Blantyre Three Peaks Walk 2017 –
some impressions
Pitch
dark. Blantyre Sports Club. People greeting each other, paying their fee,
checking their names, leaving excess baggage in Phil's vehicle.
Start
- no shotgun, Gordon just said "1 minute" and walked towards the
barrier, people followed, then he continued without stopping and I realised
that was it!
A
blistering pace, some had to run to keep up. Still dark, many torches and a few cars -
early birds or late night revellers, probably drunk, one can't be too sure.
We
soon turned off through townships (Chilomoni),
on stony
gravel roads, decomposed tarmac, potholes, etc. A few people about. Bottleneck on a short-cut path, narrow descent
down an embankment then over a rickety bridge - it took me another 10 minutes
hard walking to catch up with the leading group. Twisting up narrow lanes in a maze of
indigenous houses. Gradually getting
lighter, switch off torch. Cool breeze, but
heavy breathing, sweating heavily. Tracks above the township, by now light enough
for a photo (but turned out too fuzzy).
After
exactly one hour, just inside the forest reserve, Gordon stopped for a drink of
water. Others who knew the way went on
ahead. Narrow path now, lots
of long grass, freshly cut in places, some left lying across the path, so like
walking on cushions or foam rubber. Up and up, turn-offs not to be missed, but
always following the direction of the top, straight ahead. For half an hour I was following a Malawian
girl with countless pigtails below her white bonnet, skin-tight black tights,
protruding backside. Then suddenly on a
steeper section she stopped for breath and I was able to pass her. Frustrating near the top - some rocks, but
always slightly higher ones further on. Then at last the summit, with a dozen or so of
the party already there. Still before seven,
fully daylight now, sunny but windy. Beautiful views.
Gordon
arrived and announced departure in 5 minutes! No mercy for stragglers! Pleasant path down, through wooded terrain,
easy to follow, quite steep in places. Several
stream crossings lower down, steeply into a gully, hop across then up again the
other side.
We arrive at the Forestry Conservation Office. Chairs lined up in 3-4 rows, biscuits, hot
water, tea/coffee, and all our "hand luggage" laid out in a row – an
exercise that would be repeated 3 more times in the course of the day –
allowing us to change clothes, refill water bottles, etc.
Off as before, Gordon with some branches to
make an arrow further on (turn-off easily missed!) Again, stragglers had to continue without a
break or follow on as best they could, or even abandon.
The
next target was Ndirande, an imposing mountain still looking very far away,
across densely populated townships. Soon
after crossing the Swiya river we were walking through a gauntlet of small
shops, children saying hello how are you, men and women going about their
business, and the occasional pick-up truck. We emerged on the Chileka
road
and crossed it into a kilometre long market - larger shops and businesses, road
choked with vehicles and pedestrians weaving in and out of people selling their
wares. Nobody took much
notice of us, we just tried to push through as best we could.
A
short embankment led to the old Chileka road and another to the railway track,
which we followed for half a mile. Over
a bridge, recently renovated, with solid wooden beams across and equally wide
spaces in between, allowing one to see the stream some 10 or more metres below.
Not the place to trip
up! A few minutes later we were walking
up the drive to the Johnston's house: a beautiful garden and welcoming lawn, with tea
and biscuits already laid out. A very welcome
break before attacking Ndirande proper.
Ndirande
was tough. Initially through
woodland, then old maize fields, on badly defined paths that seemed to meander
uphill in a random manner, a short section of road only suitable for 4WD
vehicles, then the "final" steep slope and "gully". Up an overgrown "garden", followed
by a boulder-strewn slope of long grass and undergrowth, both almost pathless; we then fought our way even more steeply up a
vague track, through steep grass and rock slabs. In the end we reached the summit ridge where a
better path led over some false summits to the rocky top in a few minutes. I was the first in a second group, there were
already about 10 people there. I was glad to arrive,
it was sunny and hot, I found my socks like a pincushion, covered in burrs and
blackjacks, my knees bleeding from encounters they had with a boulder and some
brambles.
So,
the second summit, only one more to go - Mount Soche, clearly visible behind
the town far away to the south. Would we really be there in 4 hours?
The descent from Ndirande, on slightly better
paths, led us to a road and on to Kamuzu View, next to radio masts, which was
our lunch stop. Nice view of Limbe and
suburbs mainly, with Mount Soche beckoning us in the background. Another steep path took us to a gravel road
that led right down gently past Nkolokoti township for another water stop (Phil in the land-rover
with full jerry cans of water), then on across the railway line and a couple of
main roads to Soche school, our final stop for refreshments, just below Mt
Soche.
8-9 small boys from the village, maybe between
5 and 10 years old, accompanied us all the way up. Once they were in the line, they had to stay,
since the path was too narrow to overtake anybody. They were very noisy, which I found somewhat
irritating, but otherwise I thought the whole business interesting, even amusing. They were all bare-footed or with slip-slops.
The quite steep very narrow path
resulted in frequent slow-downs but we all reached the top in good time. The summit rock is quite narrow and exposed,
allowing only a few people at a time to touch the cylindrical summit beacon.
We descended the other side and were soon on a
good path, led by a local guide. There
were many turn-offs and alternative ways down and the inevitable happened. The group with the guide, of which I was one,
reached the first houses of the village.
The guide said we should stop and wait for the others but they never
came; they had followed another path and
reached the village in another place. In
spite of mobile phones it took some time to establish what had happened. We continued down to the main road – by now
it was again dark and traffic quite heavy. In the end I reached the Blantyre Sports Club,
our starting point, with the last group, at 6.20 p.m., for a most welcome beer
or two.
The boys incidentally had followed us down and
realised they were the wrong side of the mountain. At least one of them started crying. The guide put them on to the right path back
to their village and one hopes they weren't scolded too much by their mothers.
In all, a fantastic day, well organised as
regards logistics (thanks again to Phil!); I enjoyed every minute of it except
perhaps the last bit on the main road.
My GPS logged 10 hours 40 walking time, 2 hours 40 for the stops, 48,6
km covered and 2110 metres vertical height uphill.