I was told to go take a hike...: Holiday Weekend for International Labor Day

This last weekend was a holiday weekend in Malawi because Monday was International Labor Day. Because my friends had four days off in a row, we planed to see four big sites in Malawi over those four days. It was to Dedza for pottery, the Zomba Plateau, Mt. Mulanje, and Monkey Bay to see Lake Malawi; however, we only made it to the first two. Greg was progressively getting sick all week but we thought that he would be fine and be able to kick it. He felt tired and generally horrible as he drove us to Dezda and then the Zomba Plateau on Friday.

The first stop was a Dezda which is famous for it’s pottery, somewhat mountainous hills, and ancient rock art. We stopped to check out the pottery but it got me thinking about how all countries seem to have at least one area that is famous for it’s pottery. I lived near on in Peru and Dezda was this place in Malawi. We didn’t get to see it being made but had a great lunch at the restaurant there. Essentially, it was a stop at a tourist trap but fun nevertheless.

The drive for this weekend went from somewhat flat around Lilongwe to rolling hills to small mountains near Dedza(there are some pictures below). I found out along the drive that there are not really any big African animals left in Malawi (think lions, giraffes, cheetahs, etc...but there are hippos). After Dezda, the scenery got flatish with the Zomba plateau rising in the background. All throughout the drive, we went through little villages and small towns where the markets would be going on along the road. This meant people were spilling out in every direction as people tried to sell us things, sell the other cars items, and as minibuses picked up passengers. Thankfully, I was not driving (oh and they drive on the left side of the road).

We got to Zomba and up to the plateau right before sunset and it really arose out of nowhere. The weather is so different on the top that it is the only place that berries and rhubarb are grown in Malawi. We stayed at a cottage (it was more like a hostel) run by the Catholic Church in the area (there are many cottages run by different groups and churches on the plateau) and got some great views of the surrounding area (see pictures below). We made ourselves dinner and played some games and had a great night there.

Greg felt worse the next day so we headed back to Lilongwe with a few random short stops along the way. One of them was to see if we could see hippos at one of the rivers (we didn’t). The rest of the weekend was spent in/near Lil’. We went to the animal sanctuary in the city and it was like a really small Wild Animal Park. We saw a ton of monkeys there.

Enjoy the pictures below.