Day 297 / 62

Date: 3 February 2023
Sleeping location: Limbikane Lodge, Mwanza, Malawi
Distance (km today/total/total Part 2): 109 / 18290 / 3453
Estimated climb (m today/total/total Part 2): 1100 / 156900 / 38900
Stamps: no chameleon
Day in three words: A new low

I accidentally slept in until my emergency alarm went off at 7, then had an overly relaxed pack up before heading to the “Blantyre institution” of Cafe Mandala for second breakfast. This was situated in a rather nice 1880s building with a timber frame and supplied me with a rather good fry up and some coffee. As I was eating a couple of British pensioners appeared, then more and more of them until it became clear that this was some kind of seniors meeting club. The building was also a gallery and I saw, and loved, a beautiful wood carving of a chameleon riding a bike, but when I spoke with one of the proprietors, Geoff, he sadly said that international shipping was too expensive and too risky to justify buying it. We spoke a little about my journey along with his co-proprietor, Dony, who unexpectedly then gave me a load of random Malawian stamps*.

After all this faffing I set of after 11, giving me a fair bit of ground to cover in seven hours to get to the Mozambique border town by the end of the day. Thankfully the road was initially easy, a long, mostly gradual, downhill towards the Shire River 700m below. I was being overtaken fairly often so I had to be vigilant and stay wide to avoid being forced towards the edge of the road, but most vehicles were again quite respectful. For a quick lunch I stopped for a portion of chips then added my own chilli sauce and (quite sweaty/melty) cheese, which all jumbled together to become rather tasty. The chips were cooked on a sort of brick and mud oven with a wood fire inside and a big metal panel on top for frying. Maybe I should get one of those in my garden.

The Shire River was surprisingly small and unimpressive considering it’s the outflow for the whole of Lake Malawi. On the other side the road split, most of the traffic went the other way and the landscape emptied out into mainly open grassland and sparse trees, with few people. This was as low an altitude as I'd hit in Part 2, below 400m, and it was very hot, especially with the sun blazing down and no more breeze from descending. The light headwind was a double edged sword as it cooled me a bit but also slowed me down. Feeling in need of refreshment, thankfully I found some cold drinks in one of the few villages, but an annoying man came and sat next to me and started asking for things, although his English was bad so it was unclear exactly what. 

After a small (hot) climb I had an unexpectedly beautiful view of pointy green hills rolling away into the distance, tinted blue by the low hazy sun behind them. I got to enjoy this and a nice descent before hitting another river and the main kicker for the day, a quite steep, tough and sweaty 300m climb in the heat to get me up to the end goal of Mwanza. Towards the top I got a bit arsey with someone because he seemed to be changing me inflated prices for onions, which was unwarranted and maybe onions are just expensive. The problem is that after three weeks in Malawi I just don’t trust people not to rip me off. 

Despite the climb Mwanza was still roasting, but I found a nice enough lodge at a nice enough price. My room had an African tribe/Bob Marley motif across the ceiling, which was a plus, but the electricity was off (town-wide apparently) which was a minus. I also had a picture of Jesus holding a lamb saying "my grace is sufficient for you"; I would have liked some electricity but apparently according to Jesus that's an excessive request. Dinner was a pretty decent soya mince bolognaise with a massive avocado, cooked in the dark outside whilst trying to hide from the billions of mosquitoes. The room was horribly hot and also mosquito ridden; the fan wouldn't work because the power was off, but somehow a nearby soundsystem was able to blast tunes with impunity, so it was also noisy. Thank goodness for diazepam. 

Malawian Signs Corner
Food For All Pork Centre
If God Says Yes, Who Can Say No Juliano Tombstone 
Dolphin Liquor Shop
Happy Homes Super Corn Puffs
Camp David Lodge 
Bellyfull Restaurant 
Hash Tag Emu One [a bar]
Wisdom Barber Shop right next to Clever Barber Shop 
Travellers - the best stop ever!
Busy Mind Park - bottle store, guest house, events ground 

*Usually I try to make a donation to my justgiving page when people gift me things, so that it’s the charity benefitting rather than me personally, but usually it’s things that I wanted anyway and also know the value of. For this one I had to guess and went for £20. This is also a segue to remind you that there’s a link to the donations page on this site, GIVE GIVE GIVE

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