Climbing Nkhoma

On Monday morning, we thought, what better way to celebrate Malawi's Independence Day than to hike up the nearest tall mountain and have a look at the place? So we piled in a couple taxis and headed off to Nkhoma Mountain, about a 45-minute drive away. Here's a group shot from about a third of the way up.

We opted against the usual "village kid who says he's headed there anyway and then asks for 1000 kwacha" and ended up with two fantastic guide dogs instead! Just another example of why dogs are fantastic creatures - they trotted off ahead of us at the trail-head in town, and took us the ENTIRE trip up the mountain and back down! Not an easy climb, especially when you're covered in fur!

Halfway point, a guard's house where the dogs stopped to rest on the cool cement porch. A few Malawians were gathered here, singing and chanting off the side of a cliff. With my very limited Chichewa I tried to figure out if they lived here - and what I could gather was "Nope, its just a holiday, so we came up here to hang out and do some four-part harmony." Sweet. Anyway, this was the easy half of the hike. Rock face in the background = slightly more difficult part.

Emily, at some serious elevation. At this point we were using all 4 limbs, clambering over boulders and such. Really fun!

This rock face reminded me a lot of El Capitan in Yosemite.
View from the top!
Emily pondering the Zen of these dogs.
Honestly, this felt so high, I felt dizzy...

Happy 7th of July, Malawi!