Our trip to Zomba-the hike

We stayed in a two bedroom house surrounded by woods on the Zomba plateau. It was so cold that Dan needed to build a fire every night. We loved every second of wearing sweat shirts, socks and hats. Our hike began just a mile or so from our cabin. We started at a Trout farm. Elson was our guide. He is the cook who takes care of the cabin. He was a wonderful guide and really fun to get to know. He grew up in Zomba and has never really left the area. He loves his home and knows a lot about it. We learned a lot from Elson.

Dan, Eli and Elson check out the trout.

Here's the group (minus me of course). Dan, Eli, Michelle (Academy teacher) and Emily (Academy teacher). The other guy works at the trout farm.

We borrowed a baby backpack from our neighbors the McDonalds. Eli loved being in it.

Our first stop was this waterfall. It wasn't huge, but it was long. It continued down the plateau behind us. It was beautiful.


During the hike up, we passed men who were cutting down trees. They come all the way up there early morning, cut down the wood, bind it and put it on their bikes and then walk it all the way down to Zomba from the plateau. Just to help you understand how much work this is, it took us 20 minutes to DRIVE up to the Zomba plateau. At this point where we reached these men, we had already been hiking for almost an hour. Their bikes are so weighed down with wood, they have to go carefully slow down the plateau. I can only imagine how hard working these guys have to be to do this every day.

Elson told us about the fire that lasted over a month and took out this whole section of woods. He says the fire department and the forestry department could not stop it because of a lack of resources. It's so sad. But, these men are able to use the wood for fire wood and char coal.

Bringing wood down the plateau.
Elson, Dan and Eli take in the view

We had lunch at the Chagwa Dam (a very very small dam). It was the perfect place to rest.

Eli taking a rest

This is Queen's view, our last stop. It was pretty cloudy but we could still see the beautiful view.
On our way back down, we saw the cutest little mushroom.

It was refreshing to see so many trees. We all kept taking about how it reminded us of home even though we are all from different parts of the States.
Thankfully, Eli got a short nap in on our way down. It turned out to be a 4 hour hike, so I was glad he got to rest a little bit. It's hard work being carried for 4 hours.

I took Eli the last bit of the way down. He had fun pulling on my pony tail.

The hike was challenging but good. I was glad to be out in the wilderness but also glad to be sitting back in the car. We we all sore afterward. On the drive home, we came across some baboons. They were really cute!

Eli waits patiently while we unpack the car.

Up next, the horses!