malawi: a death-defying road and the surprising town of livingstonia

we had wanted to pass by a little town named livingstonia on our way down, but you might recall the border held us up a bit. but this time we were determined to hit it. we had no particular reason except that we had come across a picture on the internet that looked pretty.

as usual, malawi served up its usual beautiful and relaxing drive, with glimpses of the lake every now and then.

but then we took the turn off to livingstonia, and the beautiful tarmac abruptly ended about 10m from the highway. then the road started to climb higher and higher. it was getting on to evening and we could only go something like 10kph because the road was so bad. then we came to a sharp turn, with a sign 'turn 1.' it was the first of 20 hairpins. the turns were so sharp on some of them we had to do a 3-point turn. and the road was one lane wide with a sheer drop on one side.

actually i cheated: the photo above was taken on the way down, and on a section that had a bit of concrete poured so i had space to get out. on the way up, my fingers could not be unwrapped from the steering wheel, it was so scary. also, it was getting dark fast so we didn't want to get there too late. we got there in pitch dark, and the campsite was absolutely empty. no one to be seen - maybe it had shut down and we didnt know? we pitched our tent anyway and the milky way came out to play.

the next morning we discovered we were staying in one of the prettiest locations i have ever seen, looking down on the magnificent sunrise over lake malawi.

the campsite, called lukwe, had the most beautiful little building. all built out of wood and thatch, but with such care and skill that you could not see a single nail. we had our breakfast in this beautiful swing overlooking the valley. this moment is one of the highlights of this trip.

wishing we could have stayed longer we packed up and decided to explore the little town of livingstonia (named after david livingstone, if you hadn't already figured that out). the tiny little cramped road carried on for a few more kilometers upwards and then to our surprise opened up into a generous main street lined with tall trees and handsome and stately red brick buildings, including a large hospital, a post office, a clock tower, a roundabout, a little coffee shop, a university and a massive church.

the story of livingstonia: in 1894 by missionaries from the free church of scotland. they had tried before lower down on the lake shore and kept on dying because of malaria, so relocated 900m up in the hills. dr robert laws, a remarkable man, designed the settlement in such a practical way that most of his buildings are still in use. he even installed hydro-electric power. the picture above is the church of livingstonia. doctor laws was apparently so good at medicine that people from hundreds of kilometers around, including his fellow missionaries made the arduous trip here for treatment.

apparently he focused on teaching the locals practical skills that would allow them to be self-sufficient, which is a principle worth repeating today, 100 years later.

when we got to the church, the guy you can see in the picture beckoned my over.

guy: 'come in, come in!'
musa: 'whats good inside'
guy: 'oh its beautiful, just come inside and see'

so i stepped inside.

guy: 'that will be 1000 kwacha'

after a short argument and a lecture about deceptive advertising, we left.

we tackled the death-defying road back down in a much more relaxed mood, and only passed one car coming up that we managed to squeeze past at one of the switch backs and headed towards the tanzania border.