Meramana and Zomba to Liwonde 



Unfortunately, this otherwise delightful spot is 

 somewhat unhealthy, for th6ugh the climate was 

 exquisite and the mosquitoes few at the time of our 

 visit, in the wet season the damp heat was reported 

 to be very trying, and the numberless mosquitoes 

 which then emerge from their hiding-places give 

 rise to a good deal of fever. At that time of the 

 year the flat summit of the mountain is often used 

 as a sanatorium, and is also much visited at week 

 ends; we should have liked to have gone up to the 

 top but could not spare the time/ 



Zomba has one great drawback from the travel- 

 ler's point of view; there is no place set aside for 

 him to pitch his camp, as is usually the case in those 

 parts of Africa where there are neither hotels nor 

 rest-houses, and he has consequently to be a burden 

 on one of the residents, whose hospitality, however, 

 has never been known to fail. Probably good sites 

 could be found on the side of the mountain, and the 

 local authorities would do well to appropriate one 

 of these to the use of visitors. We had not been 

 an hour in the place before two officers of the 

 King's African Rifles came to invite us to stay at 

 their comfortable bungalow in the military lines, 

 and very glad we were to accept their kind invita- 

 tion, for there was no accommodation available in 

 the Mandala house, while the ground about it was 

 much used by Indian traders, and was consequently 

 uninviting as a camping-ground. We spent two 

 pleasant days in Zomba. The universal means of 



^ See p. 122. 

 31 



