To Lilongwe: Up, up and away from Lake Malawi

October 11, 2015

The children's chorus continued today, "give me money...give me money...give me, give me, give me," and not with even a hello first. We wonder if this ever works? And fear it's only a matter of time the children will start throwing rocks like we've heard in Ethiopia.

The rest day yesterday has helped us recover from the heat. We drink and drink water, often stopping for a Fanta, yet our lips and throat are parched. Today, Patrick fills our extra large water bottle at the local water pump to be filtered later if needed. There were not many shops along this stretch of road and what shops we found didn't have power to keep the drinks cold. Our water is warm so a nice cold drink would be so refreshing. A bit of tailwind and a few clouds kept us a little cooler today.

This was one of those days where maybe not knowing the profile of the road would have been better, especially if the profile expectation is different from the reality. We leave Lake Malawi behind and head into the hills. It's Sunday, so we hear choirs singing as we pass churches, there are fewer mosques on this section. Also, seems to be butcher day. We've seen more goat heads and goat carcasses hanging in almost every "village" we pass through. Not sure we should call them villages, more like a collection of families.

Charcoal also appeared to be the item of the day. As we rode out of town early morning, lots of charcoal was being brought in on the backs of bikes. And many more bundles displayed at the side of the road. This area also has lots of basket making and wicker-like furniture being constructed. Men do the basket making, they get to sit down in the shade for this task while the women are out in the sun collecting water and bundles of grass that is used as fencing.

Patrick had made contact with a warmshowers host in Lilongwe and we planned to camp in his yard. However, connecting up with him didn't work out and we found a very nice guesthouse, the Mufasa Lodge, close to the "old town". We walk to a modern unlike Africa shopping mall and ....wait for it....we find Mexican Food! Very good Mexican Food! And soft ice cream for dessert! We just might have to take more than one day off the bikes. The plan is to arrange a tour from here to South Luangwa Park in Zambia, taking our bikes and being dropped off in Chipata Zambia after the safari.

Guy stuffing goat meat into what looks like sausages. "I wouldn't want to call him a butcher though," Patrick says.

Fist bumps are popular. Only to be excecuted with kids that do not start the conversation with "give me money" though.

The profiles shows one gradual up, a downhill and another gradual up. Not! There are many downhills during the main climb which makes us lose hard gained altitude.

Reward for the second 100km day in three days. We find mexican food in Lilongwe.

Today's ride: 100 km (62 miles)
Total: 7,870 km (4,887 miles)

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