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  • Day 79

    Livingstonia

    July 24, 2017 in Malawi ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    Great name, for an unusual – you could even say a little odd -- place.
    Up the mountains 15km on a very rocky, potholed road with 21 switchbacks, which took about an hour to drive up and scared the hell out of Christy with sheer drops off the side of the mountain. We picked up 3 travellers at the bottom of the hill (many people walk up) and gave them a ride up to where we were all staying-the wonderfully named Mushroom Farm. Our passengers were 3 young ladies, 2 from Chile and 1 from The Netherlands. The amazing coincidence was Elise, from Holland, had been on our night drive in South Luanga. Another meeting in the middle of nowhere with someone we’d met in a different country, several hundred kilometers away! We got some good information about Chile and are now even more excited to visit, even if it’s still a few months away. We’ve had some great campsites, but this one was spectacular. High up on the plateau we were perched on the edge of the cliff, overlooking the valley and Lake Malawi below.
    Livingstonia, named after the famous Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone, looked like a ghost town, but was still a busy place. It was established as a missionary outpost in the 19th century, with a hospital, university and large church. Most of the university buildings are now empty, but the church still has services every week. There’s an old house built of stone, now a museum, that used to house the mission’s doctor and other staff. We walked up about 5km from our camp to look around, and realized this was the longest walk we have done since leaving the US – it sort of hurt, but it was good to stretch our legs a bit.
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