Mulanje Mountains / Sapitwa Peak (3002m)

The last days I spent with hiking in the Mulanje Mountains ... I really enjoyed that trip! The Mulanje massif is the highest elevation in Malawi. It is located in the south-east of the country and borders to Mozambique. It is also proposed to become a world heritage site! The highest peak is called *Sapitwa Peak*, which means "Don't go there!" ... but this is just a old myth ... the local people here in Africa are thinking, that ghosts are living on almost every mountain and even hill ... however, today a lot of people are enjoying the beautiful nature, the rural life on the huts and the seclusion on the plateau ... as I did!!

I hired a guide and a porter and discovered this awesome plateau for the last three days. We cooked on an open fire and ate all together from one plate while sitting on the ground. The meals are very simple ... some chicken, meat or dried fish with Nshima (it's just water with mais flour steered to a thick paste) ... the people here are eating this every day and especially in the mountains ... because it's easy to made, it's cheap and the ingredients are lasting for a long time! During the nights it is getting very cold up there and so we slept around the fire ;-) ... that was a really cool experience! The huts are quite nice ... every hut has a so called *watchman*, who takes care for the hut.

At the second day we reached the summit and we had a really great weather ... *lucky me* ;-) ... the days before the weather was not that good ... so nice greetings from Sapitwa Peak / Malawi ... and enjoy the pics!!

Entering Malawi - Lost in Transit

Malawi is the only country in Southern Africa, where Austrian people have to apply for a visa. There are two ways to get a visa for Malawi ... the recommended way is to apply for a visa at an Malawian ambassador in Europe (the next ambassador is in Berlin/Germany) ... so if I want to do that, I have to send my passport there ... that means that there is a lot of paperwork to do before, it may take a while until it is issued and it seems that this is not that easy anyway!! However, I decided not to do that, because I heard that it is possible to get a temporary visa at the boarder and issue the visa at the immigration office in Malawi ... that's what I did!!

So I took a minibus from Tete to Zobue (the border town) and leaved Mozambique ... from there I took a taxi through the DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone - software engineers should know that ;-) to the Malawian border office (it's about 5 km). I explained my situation to the border officer and kindly asked for a temporary visa ... whereupon he said: "Sorry, without a visa you cannot enter Malawi!! ... You have to go back to Maputo or Harare and apply for a visa there and than you come back!!" ... Ahhh ... I cannot believe it ... I am lost in transit ... somewhere between Mozambique and Malawi ;-) ... so what should I do now?! ... I won't give up, so I waited 15 minutes and I talked to the officer again, I mentioned that I have heard that Malawi is so beautiful and the people are so nice and friendly there ...it is really a pity that I cannot go there ... so this time he was lenient with me and gave me a 7-day temporary visa ... and of course he wanted a little tip therefore (which costs me 20$ ;-) and everything was alright!!

... but this is not the end of the story! ... I had to apply for the official visa at the immigration office in Blantyre, which seems to be quite easy, because I had the temporary visa already ... but anyway it took me another two days, because on Monday there was the funeral of the former president (which means national holiday) ... so I had to wait until Tuesday ... and then, the migration officer was very annoyed to issue visas ... so that I had to wait about four hours for this stupid visa.

So getting an tourist visa for Malawi was my biggest challenge so far ;-) ... However, now I am in Malawi - *The warm Heart of Africa*

A trip to Boroma Mission and Cahora Bassa Dam

Iris and Andi have taken some days of vacation, so that we can make a short trip together. Our trip started on Monday and leads us to the northwest of Mozambique to the province of Tete. Due to the fact, that the way to Tete is very long, the road out from Beira is really horrible and we do not want to stress ourself - we are on holidays ;-) ... so we splitted up the trip into two days. So on the first day we drove to Chimoio and slept there in a Lodge. On the second day we cruised up to Tete (it is a really nice road up there ;-)

Tete is the biggest city in northwest of Mozambique which is located at the Zambesi river. It is not a typical touristic place, but from the economical point of view Tete is a very important city for Mozambique because the biggest hydroelectric power plant of Africa - the Cahora Bassa dam - is located here ... and a few years ago they found a big coal reservoir, which is directly under the city ... so they are thinking about  to re-locating the whole city ... that's really crazy, isn't it!?

Due to the relationship to the UCM, we visited the University and we were already awaited by the director! He knows a lot of people there and so we got a private guide for Boroma and he organized also a guided tour for the Cahora Bassa dam.

We started very early next morning. Andreas had a short appointment at the University and had to pick up the guide for Boroma. Meanwhile I went with Iris for a *real* cup of coffee somewhere in town ... we really enjoyed it ... and just before we are finished, a guy came to our table and offered us some gold ... that's no joke!! ... he had a big gold nugget (22 karat) and about 40g raw gold ... that's also very crazy, isn't it!?

So now we are on the way to Boroma ... there was no more a paved road, but only a graved road ... we passed by some small villages and drove through dried river beds ... it was really nice ... but than it happend!! ... a small transporter touched us and scratched up our car on the right side ... SHIT!!

So there was recently a discussion on what happened and people came from everywhere to look what's going on here ... the driver was not the owner of the car and of course the car was not insured :-( ... so we took some photos and made an appointment with him in the afternoon to clarify the whole situation ... this stupid accident took us a couple of hours ... however it was another new experience, not only for me but also for Iris and Andi ... and in the end everything will be fine ... I hope so ;-) ... but that's another story which will be published by Iris and Andi soon!!

Our visit at Boroma Mission was - of course - overshadowed by this stupid accident ... however, the place is very beautiful ... it is an very old Catholic Mission, which was built by the Portuguese at the end of the 19th century. The church is located on a small hill with a nice view to the Zambezi river. It's hard to find some information about the mission, but I found another blog from Janet and Luc.

So back in Tete we had to clarify the situation with the car ... as already mentioned above, it tooks us a couple of hours ... however we decided to go to the Cahora Bassa lake today and so we headed directly into the sunset and half of the way we had to drive in absolute darkness ... that was also a nice experience ... the twilight is really cool, the stars were coming out on the sky and along the road a lot of fires appears ;-)

The Cahora Bassa Dam is the highest dam and the resulting artificial lake is the fifth biggest in whole Africa ... it was built in the 60ties by the Portuguese and is since 2007 property of Mozambique ... it is really amazing what they have built there ... and we also got a guided tour inside the dam ... so there is a big tunnel in the mountain, where you can drive down to the bottom - where the turbines are installed.

On Friday we made a fishing trip at the lake ... of course with the aim to catch a big Tiger-Fish ... and jep, we caught two 2kg Tiger-Fishes :-D ... which was of course our dinner for today ... mmmhhhh, it was delicious!

... and in-between ... of course ... I watch out for some Geo-Caches ;-)

So that was it already from Mozambique ... Iris and Andi are going back to Beira ... and I try to get a Visa for Malawi at the border.

Zu Besuch bei Freunden

Gestern bin ich dann nach einer 9-stündigen Busfahrt (davon ca. 150km extremste Muggelpiste) in Beira angekommen ... völlig ausgepowert von dem anstrengenden Trip wurde ich dann von Iris, Andi und Nhica sehr herzlich empfangen und wir sind gleich mal zu einem gemütlichen Strand-Restaurant auf ein Bier und etwas zu Essen ;-)

Ahhh, ist das cool!! ... zu Besuch bei Iris und Andi in Mosambik ... es war ein sehr nettes und entspanntes Wiedersehen!! ... Die beiden wohnen hier in einer sehr ruhigen Gegend in Beira und die Wohnung ist sehr schön, mit einer Veranda und einem kleinen Garten ... klein aber fein ... gefällt mir!! ... und es gibt sogar ein eigenes Gästezimmer ;-) ... danke für Alles, ich hab die paar Tage in Beira bei euch wirklich sehr genossen!!

Am Abend gings dann noch ganz spontan auf eine Überraschungsgeburtstagsparty eines mosambikanischen Freundes ... das war natürlich auch eine sehr interessante Erfahrung für mich, zu sehen wie die Leute hier leben und Geburtstage feiern ;-) ... zum Beispiel wird die Torte gemeinsam angeschnitten und das Geburtstagskind muss dann mit dem ersten Stück alle, die ihm am Wichtigsten sind, verköstigen ;-) ... es ist auch üblich, das jeder eine kurze Ansprache hält ... nach dem Essen wurde dann natürlich noch eine Runde getrommelt und getanzt ... und nach der Party gings dann noch kurz zur Partymeile am Strand auf ein Bierchen ;-)

Der heutige Sonntag startete mit einem richtigen Kaffee (normalerweise gibts hier nur Instant-Kaffee). Danach einen kurzen Spaziergang durch das alte Beira, vorbei am Grande Hotel (siehe Bild) ...

 ... ein Luxushotel der Portugiesen aus den 60er Jahren für ca. 1000 Personen ... heute wohnen in dem Gebäude ca. 3000 Mozambikaner) ... zurück gings dann über den Strand ...

Zu Mittag gabs dann noch einen sogenannten *Fleischberg* (800g Fleisch mit Pommes) am lokalen Markt - das ist wirklich sehr authentisch hier zu speisen ;-) ... den restlichen Tag nutzten wir, um unseren gemeinsamen Trip in den Nordwesten von Mosambik zu planen. Aja, Iris und Andi arbeiten übrigens an der Universidade Católica de Moçambique (UCM) und haben bereits letzte Woche ein paar organisatorische Dinge für unseren Trip nach Tete erledigt ... mit den richtigen Beziehungen ist natürlich auch hier Vieles einfacher ;-) ... tja, und der Plan für die nächste Woche sieht wie folgt aus ... wir fahren nach Tete und sehen uns die Boroma Mission an (eine sehr alte portugiesische Mission irgendwo im Busch direkt am Sambesi) und dann gehts noch weiter zum Cahora Bassa Staudamm ... bin schon sehr gespannt, was uns dort erwartet ;-)

A few days on the beach

After the safari at Kruger Natioal Park I went directly to Mozambique. I left the tour in Nelspurit / South Africa and changed to the Minibus to Maputo / Mozambique. So, this was my first experience in traveling by bus here in Africa ... and jep, it's a real challenge ;-) ... In Maputo I stayed only two nights ... just for relaxing a little bit and planing my further trip ... and of course for searching some Geo-Caches ;-) ... it's a quite nice city, however it's time for a few days on the beaches of Mozambique ... therefore I got already some advices from Iris and Andi ... and so I landed at Tofo-Beach and Vilanculos ... that are really very nice hotspots for swimming, snorkeling and diving ;-)

Safari @ Kruger National Park

The Kruger National Park is South Africa's biggest and most famous national park. It is located in the north-east of the country and borders in the north to Zimbabwe and in the east to Mozambique. The easiest way to get there (if you do not have a car ;-), is to book a safari tour from Johannesburg. So it takes you about 6 hours to get there ... but it's really worth to visit this national park. I saw a lot of animals such as elephants, giraffes, zebras, water buffalos, wildebeests and so on. And not only the animals are very interesting but also the landscape is really amazing there ;-) ... here some impressions from the safari ... enjoy!!