25 February - Lake Malawi

25 February

Salima – Nhkotakota

70 Miles

Steph:

I woke up really well rested but SORE! Breakfast was delicious, way better than the overcooked chicken last night. Fried eggs, bread, and chips. The french fries here are so good. I don't know if it's just that they make them fresh all the time or what, but they rock.

It was a long but great day. The terrain was way more forgiving. We had a lot of firsts today, ready?

• First time we eat the mystery meat they fry up on the side of the road. I think it was pig's foot, but I'm not sure. It was funny standing there in our silly hats surrounded by men stuffing their faces with this stuff and not understanding a thing as they laughed and pointed at us. Of course, the only seemingly crazy one of the bunch decides to come talk to me the whole time we were there. He called me his sister and officially welcomed me into his country about 10 times :) As we left, one of the guys told Erik to hand over his hat. Erik said he couldn't give it to him because he's too white and will fry in the sun like the meat. That got a big roaring laugh from everyone. What a comedian.

• First time seeing Lake Malawi! It's huge! You can barely make out the ginormous mountains of Mozambique on the other side. Very pretty. I thought this meant we were done with the hills, but no. The road zigzags all over the place.

• Frist time trying raw SUGAR CANE!! We need to have this in phx for the bike rides. Forget gels. It's hard to rip it apart while you're riding but with a little concentration we made it work. At first we just got two short stalks from a random guy on a bike. A few hours later we stopped to buy a full cane cut in half from a very nice older gentleman on the side of the road. We didn't have the right amount of change so we gave him a few extra kwacha and he was very thankful. I think we spent $0.30.

• We bought a mystery fruit that we've been wondering about for a few days now. I've seen them every once in a while in the villages and they smell good, kind of like guavas. But they're the size of large apples and are a yellowish green. Anyway, I saw a lonely basket on the side of the road and stopped. Erik said, "but there's no one here to sell it." I told him, "don't worry, someone will come running". And sure enough, as soon as we slowed down, a woman and three kids came bursting out of the bush where their house it. One of the kids yelled, "MZUNGU!!!" and two more girls popped out. Then they all just stood and stared while I awkwardly tried to make conversation. They were GUAVAS!! Huge ones! Really yummy.

Erik:

Getting up was hard this morning. Cycling was flat and mostly easy but the 60 Miles in the heat got to me and it was my turn to be grumpy. Today there was less begging and more "how are you I am fine" and "MAZUNGU!" (We're not quite sure on the spelling, it depends on how old the kids are, haha) in desperate voices as they run down the hills towards us.

We're staying at a place called Setima Inn. The view from the top balcony is beautiful and we can watch the sunset and moon. The "tink tink" sound the frogs make is awesome.

SUGAR!!!!

Random family on the side of the road

Lake Malawi

Cute kids on the bike

Lake Malawi in the moonlight