by TeamMalawi | Sep 3, 2009 | Expeditions, Malawi 2009
Hi All,
This will probably be our final post.? I’ll leave all the good stories and pictures for the team to relay at the presentation. We are now at Fat Monkeys in Cape MacClear, and have just finished our final breakfast in Malawi. The flights have been confirmed and the times have not changed. We’re all packed and will drive back to Lilongwe soon before flying out very early tomorrow morning. The team are all well and happy!
Thanks to everyone for their comments and support. It’s been fantastic to hear from you all and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone at the presentation.
Best wishes,
Joe
by TeamMalawi | Aug 29, 2009 | Expeditions, Malawi 2009
After painting signs and sweeping paths for the Michiru center, we broke camp and headed straight for mulanji, after pitstopping at shopright to stock up on vital food for our treck up mulanji or sapitwa as the highest peak of 3002m is called. After 2 days of relatively easy trecking, first day up 1000m onto mulanji? plateau the second along to the base of sapitwa from the mulanji plataeu we had our summit day.
So after setting off in three groups the weather took a turn for the worst and Matt made the decision to turn back with the second and third group in tow, but the first group was already near the summit and with Jo’s charm and persuasion they got the guide to lead them up to the summit, after Jo lended his jacket to the guide and some difficult scrambling and bouldering in parts they reached the summit in typical british weather, and by far the worst conditions that the guide had gone up in ever. We congratulated the vicotors on there 1000m summit with complete cloud cover and absolutely no views in freezing temperatures of Joe, Hal, Mike, Jack and Hayden.
Our final day was an easy decent but seeing as we’d underestamated our food intake for the 4 days we hit a restaurant for our evening meal, superb food and a great atmosphere. Off early to the Joshua project back in blantyre where we spent our next?two days soughting out a library and rebuilding someones roof, with an amazing send off to finish with local cultral dancing and?a volley ball game where, once again like the football, we lost.
After a few annoying punctures we made our way back to Makwawa for a final days tidy up, and a TV crew came and video’d and interviewed us, we believe we got into the 6pm news because in lilongwe national park they gave us a 20% discount for being famous. Three days of safari with a?boat, a car and a canoe safari each. Seeing annimals from hippo’s to crocodiles and elephants to wilderbeasts, it was trully beautiful and the sunsets to finish with a herd of elephants migrating by was spectacular.
Fabulous meals and great breakfasts were the cherry on the top to an amazing safari, now heading off to the lake with excellent GCSE results all round we can commence our final week.
Paul Meekums
by TeamMalawi | Aug 29, 2009 | Expeditions, Malawi 2009
First update on the Malawi blog for a while, due to the fact that we’ve been really busy recently , something about building a school or something…
Since our last update we’ve been to Mt Mulanje where we embarked on our epic climb to try and summit the highest peak, Sapitwa which holds an ancient Chichewa curse of bad luck for all those that set foot upon the peak. After 3 days climbing 5 members?of the team?were succesful?in reaching the summit of 2998 metres with the remainder all succeeding in climbing to 2600 metres before being forced to turn back to poor weather conditions. Our Guide, Jeffery, said that it was the worst weather that he had ever summited in and genuinely looked shell-shocked when he made it back down to the lodge!
After safely making it down the mountain we traveled to a community just outside Blantyre where we worked together with?a youth group?as part of?the Joshua Foundation project?to help rebuild some thatch roofs for the community and to rearrange a library and build a sign for the Milo School of Secondary Education.
After saying goodbye to our new freinds and exchanging email addresses we returned to Makwawa to continue our work with the Malawian scouts to finish building the school. Our good work received the attention of the Malawian Media and we gained a spot on the Malawian evening News.
We then said goodbye (But not forever, as the Malawian scouts sang!) to Makwawa and Headed to Liwonde National Park where we have been for the last 3 days. We’ve been lucky and have seen Elephants, Kudu, Water buck, Hippos, Impala?and Crocodiles on a Jeep, Canoe and motor boat safari. There was also much celebration with much of the team receiving their GCSE results to the sight of elephants in a malawian sunset 🙂
We’re Currently on the way to Mangochi for the next part of the trip.
Hope Everything is alright back in the UK!
David Cribb
by TeamMalawi | Aug 13, 2009 | Expeditions, Malawi 2009
Hi from the Team!
We?re currently in Blantyre having successfully finished the vast majority of the school project in Songani. We?re all safe and well and currently helping clear paths (to create fire breaks) and repainting signposts on the trails at Michuru Nature Sanctuary about 8km outside of Blantyre. We?re now camping in the middle of the bush and sharing the site with hyenas (we can hear them but haven?t seen any yet!).
The pics below include; the project as we left it (the contractors are currently finishing the roof, the plastering and the drainage channels), the completed climbing frame with actual children using it ? the creosote hadn?t quite dried but they didn?t seem to mind, post footy (Malawi 3 – England 0), sunrise from Zomba plateau, Mike and his commissioned tea pot and Hayden complete with an M16 (please note parents the lack of a magazine i.e. it?s not loaded!). Just in case you were wondering where the gun came from, it belongs to the Michuru rangers who use it to apprehend poachers and also for keeping us safe.
Anyway, best get back to work, hope all is well in Blighty!
Joe
by TeamMalawi | Aug 8, 2009 | Expeditions, Malawi 2009
We have nearly finished building the classroom as the roof is going up today and tommorrow. We are having a football match against the malawian scouts tommorrow and on monday we are going to have a trek upto zomba plateau and to the waterfall.
Everyone is fine we’ll try and update again soon. Here are some photos for you to enjoy.
by TeamMalawi | Aug 4, 2009 | Expeditions, Malawi 2009
I haven’t got much time – we need to find somewhere for lunch and meet joe in 10 minutes.
The brick work didn’t get completed yesterday, I don’t know what else we expected to happen after we showed the Malawians how to tea-break.
We?are in Zomba, and have had a look round the market. Have managed to buy fod and some rediculous y-fronts.
Mike
