I am so frickin’ proud of myself!! 60 mile day!! The first 30 miles today was massively hilly — with a stronger than expected crosswind/bordering on headwind at times. I kind of missed a turn or two leaving Lilongwe and was on a horrible road with construction. I saw a hill ahead so just stopped for a minute as I saw I could potentially get a ride. The road felt very dangerous. A guy come over and says, “What do you need mama?” (I'm always "mama" or "madam.") I said something about Salima and he says, "You’re on the wrong road," and indicates I missed a turn back a ways. He does tell me I can cut over up ahead, after the hill of course, an that’s what I did.
The correct highway was much better. I climbed and climbed, but most of the hills were gentle. But the wind. Yikes! Not good! I did walk one after my lunch break as it was steep and I knew I still had more climbing to do so didn't want to wipe myself out.
Kids think it’s great fun to run along side of me and when and on the hills, they kept up. It helps distract me and there’s lots of laughter. I handed out a bunch of fist bumps. The other thing that has really picked up is “Azungu, give me money.” It’s non stop from most of the kids, but I just say, “Hi, how are you?” Or sometimes I wag my finger at them if it’s more than a brief encounter and tell them “no.” If it’s too aggressive, I ignore them entirely.
Ok, my last big climb was close to six miles. I took a nice lunch break half way through and rested up.
I finally started the downhill and it was awesome except for the little jags of up interspersed in. Some were longer than expected. I went too long without a break and found a place to stop, eat and rest a bit. My legs were shot and I was getting worried, but after my break, they felt fine again. Lesson learned! Eating and rest is important.
I considered camping in a village, but near the end they all had mice for sale so figured it’s best I not camp in that vicinity as they were obviously more poor and perhaps more desperate. I ended up flagging down a car (thinking it was a truck) and he said a truck was coming and he'd have them stop for me. He gave me the truck ID number so I would know, but told me to keep cycling. I found a hotel before they passed me. It's actually only 2.5 km from where I was planning to stay, but I didn't realize how close I was.
It advertised conference center which is always a good sign. I paid, went to my room only to find out there’s no electricity. Thankfully, they turned on a generator shortly and now the electricity is back on.
P.S. Today’s ride was very scenic!!! Ya, that's the bonus of having big hills involved.
The blue building has a sign painted on it that says, "Never Give Up." Kind of like one of my favorite songs, "Never Surrender"
