This area is lush and green and increasingly busy as we got to the capital of Lilongwe. After arrival found nearby hotel. Leg was still hurting some and we went to clinic in Malawi. Tests looked fine, but not using different antibiotic to see if it clears up. Otherwise planning for very restful double rest days in Lilongwe.

Ir was dry when I awoke, but drizzle as I packed in the tent. Put my bike on the truck and skipped ahead 65km. Across multiple hills and through some lush areas.

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Still raining when I set off but after 20km I could stow my rain gear. There were some smaller hills both to climb and descend – but according to reports, I picked the right half to ride.

After 40km, the racers started passing. Each very focused on grinding out distance as quickly and efficently as possible but still time enough for a greeting.

It was nice to arrive at camp a little past noon. As photo below shows, I wasn’t only one welcoming some sun to dry things out.
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There is a school here for ~1000 students with ~11 teachers. We met one who was a peace corps volunteer from Seattle and who had lived and taught in this village the past two years. Apparently this is densely populated area and we see kids running in packs but adults are also back in their homes.

When sixty tech-savy cyclists arrive at these small hotels, we seem to stress all the systems. Limited internet gets tested with variety of computers, ipads and other devices. We’ve got a healthy appetite so kitchen is kept full. The few rooms available get snapped up quickly by first to camp. However, beautiful and peaceful place to be. My laundry is mostly clean from two days ago, so a few bike chores to do and otherwise a chance to kick back and relax before an almost 500km ride to Lilongwe over the following four days. As we leave the lake we’ll climb up the escarpment and have more rolling terrain.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]

So far we’ve had ~150km of cycling in Malawi. It has been warm and humid, particularly mid-day. Along the lake we saw rice and tropical fruits. This is a poorer country than (southern) Kenya and Tanzania. We see fewer school uniforms and fewer speed bumps in towns. There are more signs from foreign aid donors and the kids are more likely to yell “money”. However, still better behaved than children in Ethiopia.

My bike has been riding well. A US sectional rider (Ben) joined us in Arusha. He brought with him an extra rim. Thanks to his efforts and also Sugar Wheel Works for getting me this spare. He also brought an extra lockout on my front suspension. Not yet installed (we also keep mechanics busy and additional items ahead in the queue).

Photos and other web updates will wait until have a better internet connection but otherwise having fun in southern part of Africa.

On sides of road people were drying corn and a white flaky crop (not sure what it is). These villages were a little more off to the side but I was able to find one with coke stop at 44km. After this, a few gentle grades and I continued with to lunch at 56km. At lunch an enterprising local came up with cooler of popsicles!
After lunch, still some gentle grades and hills but not too far before I came across the last few hills and via Chilenla and the Chitenga Beach camp. Nice for a rest day tomorrow.
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It was a long ride and included a border crossing and a time change.

Left the hotel rooms and packed up everything into my locker. The first 12km were busy leaving on the main highway heading east and very gradual climb. However at 12km we left the main road heading to Dar and instead starting climbing. It took 17km to reach the summit as we left the valley behind.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
After this we had a wonderful 20km long descent with good grade. It became warmer, more humid and correspondingly more lush with bananas and other tropical fruits. The kids on the side were still well-mannered with a lot of “good morning sir” and an occasional “good morning teacher”

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After this we had occasional climbs with a few steeper ones. Lunch was welcome at 81km.

After lunch we had a sequence of rolling hills with the summit of each hill a little lower than the previous one. We could see Lake Malawi in the distance and came to the border at 115km. Here it was one stamp on the Tanzania side and one on the Malawi side.

I exchanged money without problem at the G8pub. However perhaps half a dozen riders ran into scams at the border. A common way this happened is someone would approach on the street offering a good rate. They would take your cash and dash off to get some in exchange. Come back and indicate that unfortunately wouldn’t be albe to make the trade and hand back what you thought was your money and quickly disappear. As you counted things, you’d notice that the $50 you handed was instead $20 or bills were replaced with counterfeit.

Malawi so far is very flat, hot and humid. There are marshy areas and areas to grow rice. Kids are a bit more unruly here and we’re back to asking for money. Looks poor and now need to learn the new coke stops.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
It was a long ride, but we had nice camp in Karonga. It will now get used to the time shift again.