Hiking the Mountain

Composed by Jordan Heinzel-Nelson

May 23:
6:00 am
We are getting ready. Today we will climb Mulanje, the biggest mountain in Malawi. It is HUGE. If you spent four days on top you wouldn’t cover the whole mountain.
7:50
Our porters are ready. Porters are the men who carry our clothes. I feel so awkward giving them these huge packs, even though we are paying them. At least we carry one pack. We start the hike. I do not know how long it will take, but other people said 6 hours. It will for one thing be my longest hike. Soon enough I have my shoes off and take the lead with one of the porters, Mission. The other one, James, who seems more experienced and also knows more English stays with Terra, Mom and Dad.
8:00
We stop to rest. We will do this throughout the trip.
11:00
We stop at the half way point. It has a stream by it so we fill up our water bottles. Then we take a break before starting up again.
12:00
We stop for lunch. While we eat, a black bee comes. I eat my sandwich, it follows me. I run away to Mom, it follows me. I run to Terra, it follows me. I run to Dad, it follows me. I try to ignore it, it hovers around me. I move away from the food. It follows me. Finally it flies away.
1:45
The place where the cabin is, is visible. Mom and I move quickly to get there fast. On our way, I stub my toe. It starts to bleed. This already happened a few days ago. This time its on the other foot. Ow! We get to the cabin. We look out. It sits in the middle of trees surrounded by open fields of wild flowers and tall grasses.
3:50
James takes us out to the view.
4:00
We look down at the massive map of land stretching before us. It is the view point. It is so beautiful. We see for miles around. There is nothing like watching the sun set from a mountaintop. It is so cool!
5:00
We are having dinner. There is no electricity so we cook over a fire. The spaghetti is so delicious especially when you are hungry. Then we go to bed.

May 24:
5:00
Mom wakes us up for the sunrise! We quickly get changed and go outside. We look out. The sun has already risen and hides behind a hill. It is beautiful! The clouds spread out along the mountain top.
8:00
There is a hill on the mountain that Terra and I want to climb. It doesn’t look too big. We set off to the hill. First we trudge though the long grass.
8:30
We finally get to some rocks but soon we are back in the grass. You do not know how hard it is to hike through high grass.
9:00
We’re still so far away and we still must hike back down this day. We decide to turn around. That was so BORING! We pack to go back home.
11:00
We are leaving.
1:00
While we are hiking down, I stub my toe again, badly! It starts to bleed again. I stub it again. Then the other foot. Ow! Dad had my shoes and was way ahead of us. When I caught up to Dad, I finally put on my shoes because my feet couldn’t take it any more.

I am glad that I finished the hike. I am excited to take Jem and Clay. My next challenge is to climb Sapitwa, the highest point of the mountain. Sapitwa means "Go No Farther".