"I lift my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from?
My helps comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth.
He will not let your foot slip,
He who watches over you will not slumber;
Indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you, the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
The sun will not harm you by day nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm,
He will watch over your life;
The Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore."
~Psalm 121
This passage was cycled on repeat in my head last week over and over again as I found myself scaling up the side of the third tallest mountain in Africa.
Mount Mulanje is a mountain full of surprises. For instance, the standard picture that everyone sees of the mountain is this...
It looks big and all, but you tend to think... "I can handle that... no biggie."
Well... I found this to be a very misleading ideal. This picture in fact is no where near the height of the mountain, but merely the first level that veils the true summit hidden within.
We spent our first full day in staircase mode. It was absolutely grueling! The group of eight of us was constantly stopping, because each of our bodies were screaming to us at different times. The only consolation for the agony was the fact that it was an absolutely beautiful day. There are always clouds hovering atop the mountain... but for some reason, it was crystal clear on this day. So, we were able to take in some spectacular views.
Despite the gorgeous scenery, day 1 would not be a day that I will look back fondly on. Once we climbed uphill for a few hours, we reached a plateau of sorts. The rest of the day would be relatively flat. Praise God! However, my legs were still a little bitter about what I had previously exposed them to, and they weren't going to let me off the hook just because I fed them some boiled eggs and a tangerine!
As we began walking again after lunch, I began to get some slight cramps in my legs. "Slight" quickly turned in to "extreme"! At one point, I felt the cramps coming on and began shedding my gear.... by the time my backpack hit the ground, my legs had both completely locked up with cramps up and down them, and I simply fell like a tree to the ground and squirmed for a while. It was sheer agony! I thought I was just gonna have to jump off the mountain and call it a day. Despite the fact that I felt like someone was digging into my body with a machete, everyone around me found amusement in my sufferings! In attempts to alleviate the pain, I was doing some pretty bizarre things with my body. We ended up calling it the "white-boy tribal dance". I will never forget the look on the face of one of our porters while he was watching me. He probably thought I had just loaded up on heroine or something.
Needless to say, by the time we reached our destination the first night, we were forced to have a little "come to Jesus" meeting and rethink our plans for reaching the summit.
It was rather quickly decided that we would go with the Malawian cultural practice in regard to the summit and stay away! The very name of it, Sepitwa, translated means "never go there".
Although my pride was a little dented, I knew that it would be better to come home with both legs than to come home with extra pride. So, I didn't mind all that much that we had to change the plan.
After that first day though, my legs forgave me and we moved on. The next two days of hiking were hard, but I didn't really have any troubles. When you are in such an amazing environment, you just can't think about how bad everything hurts for too long.
I think that one of the other highlights of the trip was that it was basically like a three day crash course in Winter for me. You see, I've pretty much skipped a whole season in my life. When I left the States, it was hot. When I got to Malawi it was hot. Pretty much the entire time I've been here it's been hot... and when I return it will be even hotter! But, three days on top of a mountain will do the trick. Nights were bitter cold. We took turns waking up at night to keep the fire ablaze as we were buried beneath layers of clothes and heavy sleeping bags. So, with my long-sleeves and new scarf on, I was understandably giddy!
As we began our decent on the last day, there was only one thing on everyone's mind... pizza! As soon as we hit the bottom, we loaded up in the cars and headed to this little Italian restaurant in the middle of nowhere and had amazing brick oven pizzas. I just don't think pizza will ever taste the same again.
All in all, climbing Mulanje was an incredible experience. I learned more about myself, about God and about the amazingness of His creation.
Enjoy a few pictures...
My helps comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth.
He will not let your foot slip,
He who watches over you will not slumber;
Indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you, the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
The sun will not harm you by day nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm,
He will watch over your life;
The Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore."
~Psalm 121
This passage was cycled on repeat in my head last week over and over again as I found myself scaling up the side of the third tallest mountain in Africa.
Mount Mulanje is a mountain full of surprises. For instance, the standard picture that everyone sees of the mountain is this...
It looks big and all, but you tend to think... "I can handle that... no biggie."Well... I found this to be a very misleading ideal. This picture in fact is no where near the height of the mountain, but merely the first level that veils the true summit hidden within.
We spent our first full day in staircase mode. It was absolutely grueling! The group of eight of us was constantly stopping, because each of our bodies were screaming to us at different times. The only consolation for the agony was the fact that it was an absolutely beautiful day. There are always clouds hovering atop the mountain... but for some reason, it was crystal clear on this day. So, we were able to take in some spectacular views.
Despite the gorgeous scenery, day 1 would not be a day that I will look back fondly on. Once we climbed uphill for a few hours, we reached a plateau of sorts. The rest of the day would be relatively flat. Praise God! However, my legs were still a little bitter about what I had previously exposed them to, and they weren't going to let me off the hook just because I fed them some boiled eggs and a tangerine!
As we began walking again after lunch, I began to get some slight cramps in my legs. "Slight" quickly turned in to "extreme"! At one point, I felt the cramps coming on and began shedding my gear.... by the time my backpack hit the ground, my legs had both completely locked up with cramps up and down them, and I simply fell like a tree to the ground and squirmed for a while. It was sheer agony! I thought I was just gonna have to jump off the mountain and call it a day. Despite the fact that I felt like someone was digging into my body with a machete, everyone around me found amusement in my sufferings! In attempts to alleviate the pain, I was doing some pretty bizarre things with my body. We ended up calling it the "white-boy tribal dance". I will never forget the look on the face of one of our porters while he was watching me. He probably thought I had just loaded up on heroine or something.
Needless to say, by the time we reached our destination the first night, we were forced to have a little "come to Jesus" meeting and rethink our plans for reaching the summit.
It was rather quickly decided that we would go with the Malawian cultural practice in regard to the summit and stay away! The very name of it, Sepitwa, translated means "never go there".
Although my pride was a little dented, I knew that it would be better to come home with both legs than to come home with extra pride. So, I didn't mind all that much that we had to change the plan.
After that first day though, my legs forgave me and we moved on. The next two days of hiking were hard, but I didn't really have any troubles. When you are in such an amazing environment, you just can't think about how bad everything hurts for too long.
I think that one of the other highlights of the trip was that it was basically like a three day crash course in Winter for me. You see, I've pretty much skipped a whole season in my life. When I left the States, it was hot. When I got to Malawi it was hot. Pretty much the entire time I've been here it's been hot... and when I return it will be even hotter! But, three days on top of a mountain will do the trick. Nights were bitter cold. We took turns waking up at night to keep the fire ablaze as we were buried beneath layers of clothes and heavy sleeping bags. So, with my long-sleeves and new scarf on, I was understandably giddy!
As we began our decent on the last day, there was only one thing on everyone's mind... pizza! As soon as we hit the bottom, we loaded up in the cars and headed to this little Italian restaurant in the middle of nowhere and had amazing brick oven pizzas. I just don't think pizza will ever taste the same again.
All in all, climbing Mulanje was an incredible experience. I learned more about myself, about God and about the amazingness of His creation.
Enjoy a few pictures...
This is the crew (minus the photographer, Candy)
Chombe Peak... This is basically a mountain on top of a mountain!
These are just different peaks that are all considered part of Mulanje...
This is me in my poofy pants looking like a lumberjack!
The last day was wet and cold!
A cool tree on the side of a cliff...
3 comments:
Those are GREAT pictures!! Thanks so much for getting someone to take some of you! I think you look pretty darn good as a lumberjack ;)! I am glad you survived and didn't fall off the cliff!
I hope your legs forgive you soon!
Hey Ryan! Great pictures! I had a flick through your slideshow. Like the ones with the cup. also the one of Cynthia eating that apple! and of the beautiful landscape.
thanks. You'll be heading home soon huh. all the best with that and thanks for sharing your journey in Malawi. it's kept my memories alive too.
Margs
That was a high mountian! How long did it take u to climb that high??
My dad was wondering when do u come back? I hope soon. I will be there in the summer for a month.(YIKES)I hope I see u then!
your cousion,
Kendall
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