On the Road again: Malawi

Greetings,

Before I start this off, we actually left Malawi over a month ago now. We have neglected the blog for one reason alone, Tanzania rocked big time and we have been so busy with activities and long days of riding that we simply have not had the time. There will be an entry for Tanzania shortly as we have now just crossed into Rwanda. So, all the way back to Malawi...

It was all action as we crossed the border and this kind of shaped our time there. It was literally between Mozambique and Malawi that we noticed a giant bolt sticking out of our rear tyre. Seriously, it was as thick as my finger and we knew we were in trouble. We decided to ride on and see how far we got, Blanytyre, the nearest city was about 100km's away. Maybe, just maybe....

But 30km's later it was not to be. We heard a ping and just like that we were skating on the rear. Finding a level patch of road to commence work we unpacked the tools, got the new tube ready, had some brief chats with the local village folk who had come to watch the shenanigans and started to change the tyre...no worries you would think.

All went well... tyre off the bike, old tube out, new tube in, tried to get rear tyre back on the rim. This is where it all went wrong... we simply couldn't. We tried everything but the hard carcas tyre would not stretch enough to fit back where it had come from. At one stage we had about 7 people all involved with the tyre levers trying to lever it back on. Long story short, the well intending local folk butchered the tyre and two of our tubes. We managed to patch one of the tubes and late at night, after about 7 hours working on this blasted tyre, we limped into Blantyre desperate for a bed! As luck would have it, my sister has business connections in this city and after accidentally stumbling on them without any prior consultation, we decided to see whether or not they would have any 17" tyres. Turns out they don't. Thus, time to fly one in via courier. NB, always have someone on hand back at point of origin who can help with goods and shipping. My sister Lynn was an absolute champion, within twelve hours of me telling her about my dilemma, she had gone out and with the help of a mechanic friend of mine, had a new rear tyre and some advanced tyre repair kit ready to be shipped to Malawi. Beautiful job sis, thanks so much!

So we had a week to kill while we waited for the new tyre to arrive, we reverted to buses, bicycle taxis and bakkies as a means of travel, and it was quite nice for a change to have a third party in control of the logistics. We went to Lake Malawi, it is after all the main focal point of the country, and did our first fresh water dive which was interesting. The lake was amazing, it really looked like the ocean, with waves and an endless horizon and the water was amazingly clear. The lake forms the direction of the country, it is a long and narrow land. After the trye arrived and was fitted, via a machine this time, we rode the lake shore in a northerly direction, had a few relaxing days of swimming and hiking, and slowly made our way towards the Tanzanian border.

Interestingly, Malawi was the first country that felt like we were travelling proper. People ride motorbikes with no helmets, there are practically no traffic laws and most notably, you can eat from street stalls wherever you go. South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and indeed Zimbabwe are all very westernised and people generally eat in restaurants which can be tricky at times when you are in the middle of nowhere. In Malawi, much like most developing countries, you can grab a wide variety of food for next to nothing from almost anywhere. We had been missing that on our travels thus far and this was really welcoming for us both.

We had a great time in Malawi bar one thing, the people could be challenging. While we did meet some really lovely people, quite often the local folk would have a go at us, yell and then laugh in our faces. We tried time and time again as we had both heard constantly that Malawians were amongst the friendliest in Africa. We tried to work out why this was happening and never came up with a definitive answer. We speculated that as 85% of the people in this country live in rural areas, are relatively uneducated and not overly accustomed to tourists and the local benefits of tourism, they instead see the passing 'whities' as richo's who have loads of money and should be giving it out freely. That, and perhaps also seeing Karla rock up in all her bike gear with closely cropped hair. She was called 'Hey Mr' on several occasions, so maybe they didn't know what to make of us with her legs wrapped around me and squeezed onto the back of the bike...perhaps we were a 'strange' site.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed Malawi. In Livingstonia, we stayed at what we both think was the most picturesque location ever. The Lukwe permaculture camp! Cabins were built out of natural materials and simply hang off the cliff edges. You could see for miles as you were so high up and best of all, we were the only ones there...perhaps because the road up the mountain was a 4x4 track. However Yele managed it with all the gear, minus poor Karla (she caught a bakkie as the road was too rocky and we were nervous about getting another puncture). What an amazing place and best of all of the lovely food served was all grown in the luscious cliff slope gardens.

But Tanzania it is not! I would like to switch my focus to that entry now so stay tuned. Here are some shots that we feel encapsulated our time in Malawi, hope you enjoy them.

Until next time, love always.

P and K xxx

A local girl.