We took a break from our activities in Blantyre and went hiking in Mount Mulanje, a 1.5 hour mini bus ride away from the city. The mountain is actually a massif with some 20 peaks reaching over 2500 meters.

We were looking forward to a quiet weekend in a remote mountain hut but for the first night we had to share the overcrowded cabin with 9 Dutch NGO workers, 2 Dutch and 2 German hikers and a 14 person congregation from a local church on a retreat.

The trail from Likabula base to the hut is extremely steep and we had rushed up a little to fast so we where exhausted and felt asleep early. Our night was cut short by a sudden screaming outside of our window at 4 AM. There were multiple voices screaming on top of their lungs, ecstatically. We rushed to the window to see who would need our help and discovered the church group going into ecstasy. The watchman tried to interfere but there was no stopping anymore and the cacophony went on for one hour until the sun climbed
above the mountains.

Luckily for us the congregation as well as everybody else left that day and we enjoyed another day and night of pure nature and quiet.