Traveling Tims: Zomba

Our first adventure in Malawi was to visit the Zomba plateau, just north of the city Meg lived in while in Malawi. This was also our first adventure with Malawian transportation. Unless you own a car, there are just a few ways to get around Malawi. Almost everyone walks everywhere they go, this can be upwards of 2 hours to get to work! There are buses, (these come in two varieties to be explored more later), boats (again, more on that later) and taxis. Taxis also come in two varieties, the bike taxi (see Meg's description here), and the hired car (or truck) taxi. We didn't have a car, there are no buses that go up the plateau, and a bike taxi wouldn't go up such a steep climb, so we hired a car taxi to take us to the top of the plateau. They picked us up at Meg's house and started up the hill, then about 2/3 of the way up the plateau, the car just stalled out. completely. and would not start again... But we were in luck, because just then there was a truck going by doing 'group taxi' style. Here you just ask someone to take you as far as they can (presuming they are going in the same direction), and just jump in the back of the pick-up truck for the ride (and usually pay some small fee). The truck assured us they could take us to the top of the plateau, so we jumped in the back of the truck. Good thing that Meg had been to the plateau before, so when they turned off the main road, and started going the other way, we knew it was time to get out, and walk the rest of the way up the mountain. So, 3 modes of transportation to the top!