October 8, 2015
To Nkhotakota: one more beach
"Patrick and Rachelllll", a muzungu shouts hanging out the window of a big bus and waving his hat. Patrick recognizes Andrew, a Brit we met in Nhkata Bay. He has been travelling around for 25 years.
The day starts once again with a beautiful sunrise. Women are sweeping the dirt making dust, or carrying plastic tubs to the communal water pump, or carrying the water on their heads back home. This would be an incentive not to waste water as some in the West do by letting the tap run. Around the pump, many women wait patiently, this is the social aspect of collecting water, the time when women are together without the men around.
Then 4kms out of Dwanga there's lots of activity with markets. We notice a nice looking guesthouse on the edge of town. This would have been an option yesterday to continue on the 18kms. Yesterday would have been longer and today shorter.There is a huge sign from a sugarcane factory to watch for trucks the next 40kms.
After we make our way through Dwanga, the shoulder of the road disappears. The edges of the road also disappear to almost a one lane road. More big trucks are on the road, but still not heavy traffic. We see green landscape! Sugarcane fields on both sides of the road and there is an irrigation system in place. The hills become less flat and more rolling, rumble strips warning of one lane bridges continue to ruin a good downhill and the hot dry landscape returns.
At Nkhotakota, we stop to shop at the People's Store for supplies and a cold Fanta. We could stop here, there are guesthouses, but decide to continue on another 12kms to check out Safari Lodge where other cyclists have stayed. It's 4kms off the main road and there was no camping advertised. We continue on another 2kms to the turnoff to another lodge that is 3kms off the main road on a sandy dirt road. There are two choices in lodges, we go for the one that offers a nice room at a reasonable price. It's early afternoon, time to enjoy the last day at the beach on Lake Malawi.
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Today's ride: 95 km (59 miles)
Total: 7,670 km (4,763 miles)
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