Day 33 (around the bend)

Woke up early to embark on a 30 kilometer hike up to the town of Livingstonia, nestled among the mountains ringing Lake Malawi.  Did you get that?  30 kilometers?  That's like, 20 miles, for those following along with American goggles.  In canvass shoes like these.  Worst blisters I can recall.

We began along the paved roads, passing children carrying bushels of wheat-ish shrubbery to school: a punishment for prior tardiness.

The flat before the 20 mile hike

Overlooking Lake Malawi

Eventually the school children thinned out, and we turned right, away from the main road, to begin our wide switchbacks up into the hills.  Along the way, we were joined by two friendly dogs, mutts of the mushroom farm around the bend.  And they were so happy to be trotting along side us.  Sniffing the ground and begging for ham sandwiches.  Which made me both glad and sad... this is the best life for a dog, roaming free and leashless in the sun-warmed dirt.  One I'll never be able to provide in a San Francisco studio.

Dwarfed by Eucalyptus

We walked beneath Eucalyptus trees, which are some of my favorite.  We stopped to refill our water atop a waterfall, dropping sharply over the cliff.

 

At the top, I bought and ate a Mars Bar from a local canteen.  Begging the question, on a town on top of a hill in Malawi: Are we ever really that far from familiarity?

Also, a goat with a bouffant haircut, scratching his chin on a rock.