Day 281 / 46

Date: 18 January 2023
Sleeping location: Macondo Camp, Mzuzu, Malawi
Distance (km today/total/total Part 2): 81 / 17318 / 2481
Estimated climb (m today/total/total Part 2): 900 / 150200 / 32200
Bob Marley song of the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqVy6eRXc7Q
Day in three words: Dirt road moratorium

We awoke to rain, lots of rain, and the animals all stayed away in their tents or gazebos or whatever. All in all it was a bit of a waste of time coming to Vwaza, we saw hippos and baboons but I'd seen those loads before, plus some far away gazelle and the cute frog. Full of trepidation about the state of the dirt road, we set off on the mud/sand/mudsand, all of which were slippy slidy and slow going. Soon I figured out that the best approach was to either go very slowly or build up some speed then hit the dodgy bits, hold my nerve and surf through. Early on we took a wrong turning which subsequently turned out to be very good luck indeed. When we joined back up with the correct route at a crossroads we came across a river running across the road. The road to the right, which we needed to take, was clear. The road to the left, which we should have taken, was now the river. It was knee high and flowing quickly, and we could see that it was actually rising as we stood there. We removed all our panniers and quickly rushed everything across via multiple trips. As Charles said, "a good star was shining on us"

Up to this point things had been OK as the surface was mostly rideable, but after the river things got quickly and drastically less fun. Maggie's chain started jamming badly and my left cleat came off in the pedal for a third time this trip. Given the amount of mud it was pointless trying to refit it, so I rode without, but twice when the chain jammed my left foot slipped off the pedal, which then smashed into my shin, which is just as painful as it sounds. There were frequent unrideable sections and frequent massive puddles to squelch through. I was really pissed off by lunchtime and needed a break to calm down. Just after this I saw two guys dancing wildly at 2pm on a Wednesday, seemingly completely sober - oh Africa I can't stay mad at you.

The rain had stopped around noon and after that the road began to firm up, and so by mid afternoon we finally hit tarmac again after 50km of mostly difficulty and annoyance. Given the underwhelmingness of Vwaza it was essentially a waste of a day, a lot of energy and a lot of poor Maggie's health. As a result I codified the Rule of Dirt Roads:

"A dirt road more than 10km in length shall not be taken during the rainy season unless it either a) leads to an attraction deemed "unmissable" by the cyclist or group of cyclists, or b) reduces the overall distance travelled by the length of the dirt road or greater."

Back on tarmac I decided to take the little ring out of action to stop Maggie's chain jamming, put on some angry music and bustled up all the gradual hills at some pace. This was surprisingly fun, if tiring. We stopped for drinks at a petrol station and I bought a lot of cold things including the revelatory delicious Malawian ginger kombucha, which is sharp and fiery and almost as complex as a decent sour beer. Malawi has similarly bad food and drink to the rest of Africa so far (Ethiopia excepted) but it has two tricks up its sleeve: ginger kombucha and a great range of nice chilli sauce (I'm still on the fence about the corn puffs).

We came through Mzuzu via the suburbs to get to Macondo Camp on the other side of town, where we'd heard that long distance cyclists could stay for free. On the way I saw two dogs chasing a man carrying a load of big sticks on his bicycle, proof that the old cartoon cliches are still the best. We arrived at Macondo just before sunset which was a good hustle given the difficult conditions. It was a little mzungu paradise run by Italians and featuring an Italian restaurant, and we were indeed offered free camping OR the equivalent discount on a triple room, which made it very good value so we took that as it was by now raining pretty hard. Don Poncho returned unexpectedly at dinner as they had communal woollen ones in the restaurant and you can't refuse a woollen poncho when offered. We had some steady Italian food and Nick from the Mushroom Farm came to eat with us, although he wasn't wiped out from a hard day's cycling and had to make most of the conversation after we'd all carb overloaded. Nice to see him again though.

Malawian Signs Corner

Bluetooth Bar

Edinburgh Girls High School - gentle and strong 

Truesoy Soy Pieces - truly a top relish

Fannie Fashion 

Tipsy Liquor Shop

[On an enormous billboard] BREAKING NEWS: JESUS IS COMING SOON