Driving from Dedza to Mtakataka

Saturday, Aug 30, 2008

The landscape of Malawi is beautiful. Of course the geography is vastly different from the land where I was born and bred (dear Newfoundland how I miss thee), but it has its own beauty and grace to be appreciated.

There are times when I am returning home from the day and as I stop to glance out the window, I find myself drinking it all in, filling myself with awe. Simple things like the sunsetting in the sky. Honestly, every sunset I’ve seen so far has been incredible. I've never seen such colours as these vibrant pinks, reds, oranges, yellows. The heavenly rays of light casting down from the clouds onto the ground; the contrast of the pinks and oranges of the sunset with the browns, blues, greens of the terrafirma paint the landscape into an image that cannot be captured on the tv screen. It is simply put - beautiful.

I find myself happiest when I get out of the office. The days when I travel to the villages or simply drive to another town and can thus take in the landscape, awakens a part of me that was asleep.

My favourite drive is the one from Dedza to Mtakataka. Its only 100km, but the change in scenery is incredibly dramatic. Malawi is in the Great Rift Valley of Africa. There are mountains along the western side, which lead down an escarpment to the valley floor where you have Lake Malawi and the Shiree River. Dedza is in the mountains (the second highest point in Malawi actually) and Mtakataka is on the shores of Lake Malawi at the bottom of the rift valley.

Come along with me for the drive! At the beginning breathe the crisp air of the mountains and pull on a warm sweater to keep out the chill of the air. Now hop into the truck and begin the descent. At first the grade is low, the descent barely noticeable (unless of course you are pedalling a bike back into Dedza!), but then you come out from the plateau and meet the winding road that leads down to the lake. The road is not long, but its steep and winding, a snake that is made of a dozen SSSSS climbing up the mountain from the lake. At the top, the trees are short, stunted, surrounded by boulders, hilltop peaks filling your view. Descending down the mountainside you leave the peaks behind and your vision is replaced with slopes, covered in waterfalls, rockslides, terraced farms where there is vegetation, precariously placed villages clinging to the hillside. The driver motions to a particularly dramatic drop off and says, ‘Don’t Talk’. Looking over to the left, just a few metres away, the road drops off from the mountain to the valley floor, a dangerously beautiful sight of cliff and waterfall in view. This section of the road is called Don’t Talk, Just Pray. The rest of the descent is done in silence, wonder and awe. Clearing your ears, you break from your descent down the mountainside and emerge onto the valley floor. Looking around, its as if a heavenly hand just swept away a pile of rocky debris to clear your path to the lake. The stark contrast from the vertical mountain to the horizontal valley floor, flat as a pancake. You could draw a line where the two meet. The temperature here is warmer and you need to pull off your sweater, letting the warmth of the sun and the thickness of the air surround your body and warm your soul. You can see the lake nearing as you drive through the flatlands, passing the green and orange mango trees and the burning red coloured flame trees. The villages are more spread out here than back on the mountains and children and dogs, less confined by gravity, chase after the trucks and each other. After a few moments the smell of moisture fills your nostrils, that same familiar smell you get when you reach a great body of water. But here it’s also mixed with the smell of markets, chambo and smoke from the cooking fires. It’s the warm moist smoky smell of Lake Malawi late in the afternoon. It was worth the drive.