Malawi - Magic Mushroom (Farm)

 December 27-30

Hello everyone!

When you live somewhere for a while, you get wind of some of the hidden gems which are sometimes missed. The next stop on the northern Malawi trip was to one such place: Livingstonia.

View of Lake Malawi from Chombe Plateau

Manchewe Waterfall

Getting there from Likoma Island involved a seven-hour ferry to Nkhata Bay. This was pleasant enough until disembarking - strange considering this is one of the few places with an actual jetty. Getting off involved vaulting the barrier at the top of the slippery stairs as no one had bothered to take the padlock off, before surviving the crush of many people getting off whilst, simultaneously, loads of people squeezed on. Some people took to clambering down the side of the boat. The police watched the whole event, completely unmoved.

Quiet as we came in...

...and utter madness as we got off!

A day in Nkhata Bay was followed by driving up to Livingstonia. I really do mean ‘up’. It is significantly higher than the lakeshore, even though its location on the map is pretty close to it. There are two routes: one is a long, laborious route on dirt roads; the other is a steep, rocky, windy stretch (I hesitate to call it a road) up from the lakeside town of Chitimba. We took the former.

I've add the extra info Google Maps
should state in the future!

Once you get up, the view is spectacular

Much of it was fine. Some of it was a little bit dodgy, such as the bridge below. The stretch where there was a paved road but it couldn’t be used due to people stringing boulders across it? Just very annoying. The car slipping slightly through one muddy section was an ominous sign of what the road may be like in worse weather.

Wooden bridge: rickety

When I didn't have to fully concentrate,
I could take in the beautiful panorama

At least we had cars with 4x4 capability. Imagine how the Brits who came to create the Livingstonia Mission about 150 years ago coped with the climb! They located themselves here after being swarmed with malaria down at Cape Maclear. Being almost a kilometre above the lake helped them avoid the pesky mosquitoes. I’m grateful for their decision.

Being wet season, much of the landscape
is currently a lush and vivid green

No malaria carriers but still some
intriguing insects around 

This mission and it’s three tenets - Christianity, commerce and civilisation - were an effective weapon against slavery in the region. There’s also an argument that religious missions such as this helped consolidate British colonial rule. The importance of Christianity to the region is still evident today. This mission later became the Church of Central Africa (CCAP), one of the larger denominations in Malawi. Its main church dominates the village itself.

The bell signifies the HQ of the CCAP

They started building this church in 1916 - lack of money
meant it was only completed after the Second World War

As in Likoma, the caretaker let us clamber up to the roof and showed us around. He kept talking about the importance of donating. We did by putting money in the donation box. The caretaker seemed annoyed at this. It didn’t take us long to realise that he wanted his own personal donation. Should’ve been more specific, really.

As in Likoma, some rather unstable ladders
and stairs needed to be navigated

The stained glass shows Livingstone
talking with the local Ngoni tribe

Back to the mission, though. A lot of the developments by the mission chief, Dr Robert Laws, are still here today. Not sure what he’d make of the billboard outside proclaiming that ‘breast milk is the best’.

The hospital dates from 1910 and
looks better than most in Malawi

Not in my cup of tea, it ain't

His life is commemorated in a stuffy and scruffy museum in Stone House, where Dr Laws lived for 28 years. Inside are some letters, a section on the slave trade which really hammers home the evils of humanity less than 150 years ago, and a piano that the man played. You can actually rent the living room for a conference or for dinner. Can’t imagine many fancy National Trust houses in the UK going for that.

The main street. Livingstonia is small.

No photos inside. Also no shoes if they're
muddy, which was interesting.

One interesting story from the Stone House is actually visible just outside it, where the phrase ‘EPHESIANS 2:14’ has been created using white stone. They were laid down in 1959, at a time of political unrest in the country. The colonial government was concerned about the welfare of the missionaries so dropped an empty tear gas canister in the village. The canister contained instructions as to how to ask for evacuation (write V) or say that they were OK (write I). The missionaries didn’t like either option as they wanted to show that locals and missionaries could still live in harmony together. They instead wrote the Bible information. The plane flew over the next day, saw the message, took a photo, and it got shared around the world (well, it was in the Guardian). I’m sceptical whether the pilot knew the cryptic meaning but I like the story.

The stones as seen today

The stones seen back in the day from an aircraft

There’s plenty here which is little to do with Christianity as well. One such example is Manchewe Falls, a waterfall which is a few kilometres outside the village. We visited twice, as our initial attempt to see the 125m waterfall was lost to the mist. The following morning, a clearer day, was more successful, allowing us to witness the twin jets career down the Rift Valley Escarpment. 

Lost World vibes

The drop is 125 metres - apparently there are caves behind it

I felt like I got the beginnings of vertigo whilst in Livingstonia, but it wasn’t at the waterfall. Instead, it was at the top of the Chombe Plateau. Significantly hyped by a man I met the day before as ‘Malawi’s Table Mountain’, it offers quite simply ridiculous views from the top. As you look down on birds as they glide through the clouds smothering the sides of the plateau, you get a real sense of the steepness of the Rift Valley. Particularly when you see how close the beaches of Lake Malawi seem to be...

A view I could look at all day

That's a cloud. We're in the clouds. With the lake
less than 10 kilometres away. Ridiculous.

The trail itself has challenging moments but is beautiful in its own right. We passed through some houses and a diverse range of colourful flowers.

Walking up took less than an hour

No good with flower names. I'll call this 'purple'.

If you tell a traveller you’re going to Livingstonia, they’re likely to ask you whether you’re staying at Mushroom Farm. Far from being a narcotic factory, the ‘Farm’ is an eco-friendly lodge which sits on the edge of a cliff.

Where the magic happens. Not that magic, though...

Not sure why this photo isn't working -
it should show the view just after sunrise at 5:45am

Yes, I wasn’t joking about that. We stayed a day longer than anticipated and were not the only ones to do so - it’s the kind of place where you could easily lose track of time and days. Lovely food, too, though definitely a place where stomachs get expanded!

Main bar area, with a variety of homemade liquids.
Don't need to have kombucha again, mind...

Lentils - yum!

The combination of Livingstonia and the Mushroom Farm is one of Malawi’s most interesting places to visit. From stunning and occasionally scary views to a storied history, with plenty of fun and frolics in between, it is certainly a place to visit if you visit Malawi for a while. All you have to do is get there...

We all stayed an extra day - this
is where I spent some of mine

Not your usual find walking back to your car!

To paraphrase Drake:
started from the bottom, now we're here!

Love you all,

Matt