Mountain stories

view from above

Women are planting potatoes before the rain season starts. The potatoes will be sold to the hotel on the plateau.

Zomba town

Their path is steep and leads into the city. It is a 3 hour walk down the mountain.

Hiking on Zomba plateau took 6 and a half hour nonstop. The guide had set a fast, unchanging pace, stopping at viewpoints for about a minute. There was not even time to enjoy the landscape. While managing breathing, drinking, walking and taking pictures all at the same time, we arrived at Chingwe’s hole completely exhausted. Chingwe’s hole is on top of the plateau. It is about 3 meters in diameter and thought to be 60m deep. In ancient times, natives with leprosy were thrown into the hole. A few months later, corpses were swimming in the river of Zomba and so it was predicted the bottom of the hole leads to the river. However no explorer has ever managed to get to the ground of the hole. It is completely unknown what’s at the bottom or where it ends. One expedition to discover the depths of the hole was led by three Europeans. One climber attached to a rope descended into the darkness, assisted by two companions who managed to hold the rope until it was completely extended. Pulling back the rope, it came empty. The climber never seen or heard of again, deprived of sunlight for the rest of his life.