A day in the life: the Chombe to Livingstonia Traverse

Today was a big day, covering dozens of kilometers while climbing a nearby peak. The evening before, we had arrived in Chitumba, Malawi, on the shores of 500 km long Lake Malawi. When we arrived, we realized that we could do a "massive" hike to climb Mount Chombe. The hike is estimated to take 12-13 hours and we eagerly looked forward to a day devoted to hiking through the countryside. As is normal here, we arranged for a guide for the day, which costs less than ten bucks a day per person. Below is a timeline of the day.




- Out of the tent at 5:30, and it does not even feel all that early since we have been watching the red-orange sun rise from 'bed' since before 5. Yes, the sun poked above the lake around 4:45 am. I did not know that was even possible.

- We leave at 6:15, but it feels like mid morning and is beginning to get hot. Uh oh. We can see our goal of the towering Mount Chombe from the lakeshore at camp.

- The steep ridge that we climb is part of the great rift valley, which extends thousands of kilometers to the north up to Ethiopia and is the cradle of human history. We hike aggressively up through small villages and agriculture with grand vistas across Lake Malawi. Our circuitous route finds us walking through a primary school and we hear urgent cries of "mzunga, mzunga!" (white people) - the kids shout to each other. Some of them run out of their school to approach us -- they are shy at first, but get braver as they surge towards us while still shouting "mzunga."

The kids' (and some adults') attention and excitement will be repeated throughout the day and exemplifies a white person's experience here. So many people look at you and want to talk to you -- we're rockstars. We admittedly, and a bit embarrassingly, like (and don't like) these rockstar moments but this attention based entirely on skin tone highlights the injustice of this continent, which has been largely left behind in the world's economic growth of the past 50 years. I think that much of the attention arises from the reality that any foreign traveler has much more money and opportunities than the majority of Africans have.





- Malawi is super poor, for example it has a median family income of $900 (220th country in the world) and life expectancy around 54. Terrible stats, with the latter illustrated by the sad example from our guide's family. Both his mom and dad have died in the last year, one from a bad traffic accident while using public transport and the other from cerebral malaria. Way too typical, and preventable, tragedies in this country.

- Summit: at the impossibly early time of 8:45, we gain the broad summit plateau of Mount Chombe, with the lake and countryside spreading out below us, many thousands of feet below. It has been a challenging hike, the feeling of the heat and humidity is akin to Birkram Yoga (with no cool water or shivasana at the end) and the trails tend towards the direct route over switchbacks.

Wow it is early, we thought it would take several more hours to get up here, but this means we can try to hike to the colonial mission town of Livingstonia (another separate hiking option that we saw back at the camp). Yes! The newly named Chombe-Livingstonia Traverse, should be about a 45 km triangle in total --camp to the summit of Mount Chombe to Livingstonia and back to camp.

- With renewed purpose, we head out across the broad valley towards Livingstonia. On the side of the road/trail, we stop and buy 10 deliciously sweet bananas for thirty Malawi kwacha from the family that lives in the below enclave. This works out to one cent a banana and means we could buy 60 bananas for the cost of a soda back at camp. I am a little embarrassed at how cheap this food is.

Traveling by foot in Africa evokes Europe in the ubiquity of human presence. It is pastoral and tranquil, but in contrast to hiking in the U.S. where you range far from the imprint of civilization. Here we are never far from a family hut, or school or other people. Both are fun, but I tend to prefer the U.S. model of vast, wild open space.

- Dixon, Mu and I pull into Livingstonia at 11:15, with five pretty, and hot, hiking hours under our belt. Livingstonia is fully 900 meters above lake level, and has commanding views over the countryside. The plateau is quite large, at least a kilometer or two in either direction. The town was the 'founded' by missionaries from the Free Church of Scotland in 1894, and there is a church in the center of the town from that year. The sense of colonialism mixed with missionary zeal remains today, over a century after the missionaries were some of the first Europeans to arrive in the country. There is an ordered benevolence and purposefulness in the air, as the town is now the home of a large hospital and two universities, even though it does not have many actual residents.

- After a much welcome lunch and some chilled water, we head out of town towards the lake/camp via mix of a dusty 4x4 road and shortcuts, with kids calling out to us throughout. We walk by two massive waterfalls, 2 or 3 steps that must add up to over 300 feet from top to the bottom. The water spills into a shockingly steep canyon. We edge to the top of one fall and peer over the top, man is it far down! I am always surprised how calm waterfalls can be on the top just an instant before the water becomes the epitomy of dynamic movement in its flight down.

- From the falls, we head down the 4x4 track towards camp. It sure seems far away. In a couple of hours, we make slow and steady progress. Along the way, a few highlights include:

- Mu taking pictures of a bunch of woman hiking back up from the valley floor market with huge bundles on their head. They do this at a minimum weekly, and do not seem noticeably tired from the extraordinary effort. They all get a kick out of seeing their picture on my camera's viewfinder.

- Later we cross paths with a girl wearing a short skirt, with a heavy bundle perched on her head. The skirt is not much shorter than Mu's hiking shorts, but here in the very conservative country she certainly stands out. Until just a few years ago, woman were not legally allowed to wear pants, much less a mini skirt, in Malawi. Media as banal as magazines and medical textbooks were banned in the country because of their perceived ability to corrupt. The vestige of conservativeness is still in this girl's psyche, as she is tugging at the hem of her mini every 15-30 seconds until we pass.

- Back to camp by the Lake @ 3:15 and we are quite dehydrated. We both drank over a gallon of water, but with hot yoga hiking and the accompanying rivets of sweat sustained over many hours, there was just no way to replace all the water while moving. We set forth diligently re-hydrating, a process that will take the better part of a day to complete.

There it is, a day in the life for the korol's. Dinner was a truck tradition of a huge roast cooked over hot coals and all the fixings, which I very happily devour.