TNM staff enjoy MaHape moments by conquering Mulanje Mountain’s Sapitwa peak

* Sapitwa is just the beginning — we look forward to having other experiences

* Like Nyika Plateau, Livingstonia Machewe Falls, Salima 7 Hills, Mulanje Lichenya, Minunu and others

* We believe that through these tourist destinations, TNM can benefit by creating a strong presence

By Duncan Mlanjira

Hiking up the great Mulanje Mountain up to Sapitwa Peak, the highest point on the massif at 3,002m above the sea level and also the highest point in Malawi, is not for the faint-hearted but a team of 22 TNM Plc employees successfully reached the peak this weekend — enhancing the spirit of local tourism as part of MaHape moments.

Mulanje mountain is a highly sought adventure by foreign tourists and not many Malawians have attempted to hike it up to Sapitwa Peak — thus the TNM staff decided to undertake one of Malawi’s most challenging expeditions to market local tourism.

And it does not end there as the staff are geared to have such experiences in other areas like Nyika Plateau, Livingstonia Machewe Falls, Salima 7 Hills, Mulanje Lichenya, Minunu and others.

“Sapitwa is just the beginning,” said team leader, Bright Seyani. “We look forward to having other experiences as we believe that through these tourism destinations, TNM can benefit by creating a strong presence.”

The three-day extreme sport adventure saw the team successfully exploring the beauty embedded on the Mulanje Mountain whose attractions include rolling grassland at elevations of 1800–2200m, intersected by deep forested ravines.

It has many individual peaks reaching heights of over 2500m, including Chambe Peak, the West Face of which is the longest rock climb in Africa. Sapitwa peak was first climbed in 1894, and is now the most popular climb on the plateau.

Seyani said the hike to Sapitwa has helped to develop a strong bond among the TNM employees, while testing their physical fitness and endurance.

“TNM is a big company with different departments, as such we brought representatives from different sections who may have never met. The biggest value we gained at the end of everything is that there is power in team spirit,” Seyani said.

He added that the trip presented several opportunities that foster the growth of an organization like TNM,” saying: “It was an amazing experience to endure the hiking and enjoy together.

“During our stay, we have leant how to communicate better and effectively while maintaining fun and collaborations at workplace.”

Seyani stressed that the inaugural expedition has proved to be a great success and the movement will continue to explore other tourist attraction areas.

The team had an amazing fun and happy moments as there was incorporation of other activities.

“TNM represents happiness as tagged in our MaHape moments and the expedition reflected this aspect. We had different games and above all there was a powerful acoustic performance by Praise Umali, the hitmaker of Tachoka Kutali song,” he said.

Wikipedia records that the Mulanje Massif was formed by the intrusion of magma into the Earth’s crust about 130 million years ago. The surrounding rock eroded away over time, leaving behind the erosion-resistant igneous rock of the Massif.

The first European to report seeing the Massif was explorer David Livingstone in 1859, but archeological investigation reveals evidence of human visits to the Massif from the Stone Age onwards.

The elevation of the mountain is high enough for it to disturb upper level air flow and induce rain clouds to form around it, making it an important source of rain water at the head of almost every river that runs through this part of Malawi.

The mountain is protected by Mulanje Mountain Forest Reserve to preserve the Mulanje Cedar (Widdringtonia whytei), which has been so heavily logged that it is considered endangered and the park contains the last remaining stands of this tree, as well as a number of other plant and animal species — many of them endemic to the area.

Examples include forest butterflies, birds such as the cholo alethe and white-winged apalis, a dwarf chameleon, geckos, skinks the squeaker frog, and a rare limbless burrowing skink species.

The Massif is popular for hiking and climbing, and has several mountain huts scattered across it which are maintained by the Malawi Mountain Club and the Malawi Forestry Department.

Last year, Ministry of Tourism, Culture & Wildlife disclosed that they are waiting for investors to finalize plans of introducing cable cars on Mulanje and Zomba mountains as one way of improving tourism services in the country.

Spokesperson Simon Mbvundula told the media that a study on establishing the cable cars on the two mountains was completed after doing a pre-feasibility study.

The Ministry was optimistic that the cable cars would be successful as Mulanje is a popular tourist destination which can attract investors to accept the project.

“Cable cars are intended to assist in creating job opportunities, increasing tax revenue and levies for the country, promoting a sense of pride among citizens and residence, enhancing Mulanje, Zomba and Malawi profile and bringing infrastructural development and of course spill over benefits to other sectors.”

He had said the Tourism Department shall provide a marketing strategy to popularize the investment to both local and international tourists.

An economic expert, Arthur Ngwende told the media following the development, saying the project was significant on both economic and service level sectors, adding that the initiative “was suggested long-time ago and if such services are available in the country, it will create opportunities for people to spend more on the service which will bring forex to the country”.

“If we have more services, those mountains will assist in bringing more money and increase the country’s Gross Domestic Product,” he had said.

Cable cars are a type of cable railways used for mass transit in which rail cars are held by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed.

In 2019, Stewart the Cyclist, the young man who went on a charity adventure for Friends of Orphans (FOMO) by successfully hiking Mount Kilimanjaro before cycling back to Malawi to also climb up Mulanje Mountain, was surprised when he and the other hikers were only asked to pay a meager K1,000 each as the hiking fee.

He was incredulous that this was less than US$1 each yet back at Kilimanjaro, hikers pay US$800 as park fees. In his yet to be public memoir, he says: “I felt sorry for my country that tourists pay that low to access our Mulanje hiking park. And I do not know where this K1,000 goes to, because I know for sure at Kilimanjaro the fees go straight into government coffers.

“I wished we could learn from our Tanzanian counterparts. We are sleeping on the job in as far as tourism is concerned for Mulanje Mountain,” he writes in his yet to be published book.