Hello everyone!
May is a month with many public holidays in Malawi. One of them is Kamuzu Day, which commemorates the country’s first President. To say he has a controversial past could be seen as an understatement. Nonetheless, his official birthday is a national holiday and gives an opportunity to get out of Lilongwe.
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| Dzalanyama Forest Reserve |
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| Kamuzu Day didn't happen from 1993 until 2009 |
We decided to travel to Dzalanyama, a forest reserve southwest of the capital. Looks intimidating to say: silent D. Za-lan-ya-ma. A mere 60km from Lilongwe as the crow flies, it is an easy day trip and somewhere you may be surprised to learn that we haven’t been before.
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| Dzalanyama is Chichewa for 'Place of Animals' - we didn't see any |
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| The reserve forms part of the border with Mozambique |
It’s not that we’ve never tried to get here. We tried 18
months ago, back when the world was a very different place. That time, we all
gave up after seeing the state of the bridge that our group’s packed Land
Cruiser would have to cross.
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| That twig bridge proved a no-go |
We were now aware of a better route, which initially heads west towards the main Zambian border post. The map also validated this idea, suggesting it would take an hour-and-a-half. The place’s website also stated that this was the best way to go. All set. What could possibly go wrong?
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| In 2019 we took the grey road on the right |
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| Mini should have been checking the map instead of looking sorry for herself... |
About half an hour later, I flicked open the map to check how far we were from the turn onto a dirt road. We’d missed it. With hindsight, this was the problem, as the map must have recalculated from our new position.
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| We had ended up near Namitete - this was the revised route... |
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| It seemed that there were quite a few villages |
It was shortly after driving over a large tree stump that we
paused to take stock. This was an hour-and-a-half into the journey. Hardly a
tree in sight, let alone a forest. We were slightly off the blue line,
resulting in scraping through some bushes to get back to the ‘road’. The road,
which was at times as wide as a footpath. Lovely scenery on the way, mind.
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| One of quite a few bridges we had to cross |
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| Quite a few stumps are hiding in this grass |
It was a little over two hours in, and after a brief panic when the phone lost GPS signal and therefore our map location, when we paused to take stock once more. Well, paused and waded through a puddle to decide whether it was too deep for the car to handle. It wasn’t, thankfully.
Maize season has now finished
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| A road we would have liked to have been on for a lot more of the journey! |
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| Much of the water that goes to Lilongwe comes from here |
This is the base from which to explore. Well, it is if you can pull yourself away from the stream…
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| It was made a reserve in 1922 to protect the water source |
It may look alluring but you need to be pretty brave to get under the water. Fresh is how I would describe it, and I was happy the Sun was out to warm me up afterwards.
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| This was my cold bath to refresh me after the drive |
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| The Makata stream |
There are quite a few walking trails emanating from the lodge. We took a simple one called the Confluence Trail, which was a calm, peaceful and quick route through part of the forest.
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| This was by far the best walking our dogs have done |
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| Brachystegia woodland stretches across the reserve |
A key reason for taking a shorter walk was to give us the chance to get back before the Sun started to slip away. The people we met by the brook told us a different route back. A much, much easier route.
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| Not a tree stump in sight |
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| A cyclist transporting wood - from the other side, this looks a bit like a map of Africa |
This will be our route of choice to get to Dzalanyama in the future. We will be back. A lovely and, now we know how to get there, pretty easy day trip from Lilongwe.
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| The dogs enjoyed Dzalanyama, once they'd shaken themselves warm after a dip in the stream |
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| Dzalanyama Forest Reserve |
Love you all,
Matt