5 March - Best ride EVER

5 March

Chitimba

0 Miles

Steph:

We decided to stay another day because we heard that a group of orphans is coming to take a few pitcures with some shirts that were donated. Dave wants to give them all a ride in the truck and the three of us (erik, ishi and myself) agreed to supervise the back.

They showed up around 3pm and there were 23 of them. In total, there about 500 from the village and surrounding areas, but only 23 shirts were donated. 500 Orphans. It breaks my heart. Anway, they were so excited about the truck. Most of them have never ridden in a vehicle before. The man in charge of them, George Washington, is older, beautifully wrinkled and a complete saint. You could tell from the huge smile on his face the entire ride that it meant a great deal to him seeing these kids so happy. And they were exstatic. Running from one side of the bus to the other, waving at everyone we drove by, singing songs and laughing. We put on Bob Marley and they went balistic. Something that we do every day without even thinking about it was an experience of a lifetime for these kids. I was on the verge of tears the whole entire ride. It was unbelievable. By far, one of the best experiences ever.

Enjoy the photos :)

Erik:

Today we rode in the truck for 45 minutes with 23 orphans from the village. They sang the whole way and were very excited. It was great. If nothing else had happened in Malawi, this would've made the whole trip worth it.

Good day.

That's Dave :) Bless him

Unfortunately, not everyone got to go

Ishi with the kiddies :)

George Washington, mayor of the town

Happy happy happy

It's all about the poses 

Ishi's glasses got passed around

Awesome kids

4 March - But you are...fat!

4 March

Chitimba

0 Miles

Steph:

Last night I recruited the camp guards to show me how to play BAO. David, Samson and John were super fun. Their english was limited but good enough. David is the self proclaimed "Master" and is really good. They seemed really excited about teaching me, so while everyone else was talking and drinking at the bar with all the pretty lights and music, I hung out with these guys by the guard shack. The way they play is really impressive. It looks simple at first but the game is very strategic and requires a lot of forethought. It took me forever to count everything out for just one move but they play lightening fast and always have their next 4 moves figured out. It's crazy cool to watch. I'm not very good but I think I'm getting the hang of it. When I went to bed everyone else was already asleep.

This morning was nice. We made breakfast and the 4 of us just sat around talking about all sorts of things. Mostly about the state of africa and possible solutions to the multiple problems. That kind of stuff. It's fun to hear about Ishi and Dave's prespectives.

Eddie, the owner of the camp invited Ishi and I to go visit a project that he's been working on in the village. We drove to a school that he helped build. I think he's on to something in the way he's helping. It acutally related a lot to what we had been talking about earlier. So many organizations, charity groups and NGO's come in here and hand things out. Whether they come in a give out food, or build schools or bring in temporary volunteers, it's all handouts. This has been going on for decades (especially in Malawi) and the result is a unfinished projects and not much of a work ethic. We've seen it as we ride by. This is why all the kids yell, "give me, give me, give me!" when they see white people and why there are so many incomplete buildings and projects along the road. As soon as the foreigners finish the initial project or set up a school or give away 10 pens, they leave and it all stops. The locals don't take the initiative because more help will come. Except now that the world is in a bit of a financial crisis, less help is coming and people don't really know what to do. What Eddie is doing is small, but it's worked. Basically, when he arrived here from the Netherlands, about 8 years ago, he asked the community what they needed. The village talked it over and said that a school was very necessary. So instead of bringing in the supplies and volunteers to build this school he told them that he would find the funds but they had to do the work. He basically forced them to go out and find some designs, find the supplies, the construction material, the whole thing and then he funded it. But they did the work. They, as a community, built their own school and got it running and now they have 3 buildings with 8 classrooms teaching grades 1-8. They work very hard to keep it going because they are the ones who made it happen. The only thing Eddie does is check the receipts and go visit every once in a while to take pictures for the donators in the Netherlands and say hi to the kids (who adore him). It's brilliant. I think it's all about empowering the people and their communities, not about doing it for them.

So we went to see the school and a few teachers showed us around. It's simple. Open aired and plain. The higher grades have posters and maps on the wall. They do really need books and pens, so Ishi is going to work on getting a few donated from their passangers each trip.

We had a group of kids following us around the whole entire time. The three of us had cameras and the kids went nuts over posing and then looking at the photos. It was incredibly fun and slightly chaotic.

There's another storm coming tonight and the lake looks really cool with the black clouds rolling towards us. I'm going to play BAO with my buds again tonight. Woo!

FUN NOTE:

As we were looking at the classrooms, one of the teachers asked what I was doing in Africa. I told him that I was cycling and had come up all the way from Cape Town. He paused, looked at me, looked me up and down and said, "But you are...fat!".

No joke.

To make it even better, he put up his hands and made "grabby" gestures as he said it.

Yup.

I didn't even know what to say so I laughed and said, "yes, I am fat, but my fat legs are very strong". He looked me up and down again, shrugged and just nodded.

Ouch.

It might take a while for my self esteem to recover from that one.

Bastard.

3 March - Trading & haggling

3 March

Chitimba

0 Miles

Steph:

It rained and stormed all night and our tent got wet. Boo. But by breakfast it had cleared up and after swimming in the lake, meeting the pet impala and its protective goat, we visited the wood carving market at the entrance of Chitimba Camp. It's all really beautiful and I want it all. They have all sorts of things; engraved boxes, masks, picture frames, figures of the animals, chairs, incredible tables and chests, etc. These guys are eager too. As soon as we stepped out they were all over us luring us to their stands and introducing themselves with names like Vegemite, Will Smith, Samsonite and just plain Tim. We went out already knowing that we wanted to get a "Bao" game set. I used to play a version of it with my brothers when we were little called Mankala. The rules are a bit different here. Tim offered to carve us one just the way we wanted and charged us 10,000MK (~$30usd). We agreed and I think he felt he was ripping us off slightly and threw in two personalized key chains for free. Haha! It's ok, the box turned out amazing and I think it was worth it.

Ishi told us that these guys also accept trades. She traded in a tshirt for a nice little mask. So we decided to try it. We'd already agreed that we were going to get rid of a bunch of stuff before going home and now that we were on the truck we can get something bigger. We wanted a Malawian Chair. I don't know if that's the official name for it but we saw them in Botswana and they called them that there, so that's what I'll go with. It's a really simple design; just two pieces of wood. One is the back and the other is the seat, kind of a stool actually. The backs of them are the incredible part. These guys carve the most intricate and beautiful designs on them and some get really creative. They're awesome and pricey. After a LOT of negotiating and going back and forth, we traded:

• 2 handle bar bags – still looked good after being manhandled 5 months
• 1 pair of nice, barely used water resistant Colombia pants
• 1 REI shirt
• 1 blinky bike light
• 1 journal, empty & nice
• 1 mechanical pencil – big, big hit
• 4 pairs of adidas socks – used but clean
• $3 usd

for a magnificent chair carved out of teak with the big 5 on it. It rocks! This was my first real haggling experience and I'm super excited. Now we just need to figure out how to get it home :) Sorry, don't have pictures, you'll see it at home.

Chitimba Beach!

2 March - Bamboo Bridges and drunk guys

2 March

Kande – Chitimba

144 Miles

Erik:

The drive was sweet! Those hills were killer but the views are nice. We got stopped by the army and police and were told to wait. Wait for what? The president to go by, of course. After standing around for about 45 minutes her troupe rolled by. Her very fancy car slowed down, she rolled down her window and waved at the villagers (and us). A very big woman with a very bright orange dress on. So now we've seen Malawi's president AND Namibia's as well. Cool beans.

Going to Chitimba was a breathtaking ride. Snakey roads on the side of mountains overlooking the lake. This would've taken us at least a week on the bike. It was beautiful.

We stopped at a "100 year old" bridge made entirely out of bamboo (the original one was built in 1905 and has been rebuilt on a regular basis ever since). The villagers are super enthusiastic and self driven about it and are trying very hard to get tourists to stop here and visit the bridge. The man in charge had the whole village singing songs for us and showed us their little "museum" of artifacts that his "forefathers have been using for many, many years". Dave and Ishi want to see if this place would be good for them to stop with their passangers, so we did the whole spiel and walked over the bridge. 50M long and scary wobbly. Haha! When Steph was walking back, a drunk dude jumped on it and started bouncing. It was hilarious. Then they sang us the history of their tribe, showed of lots of neat stuff, prechristian. I hope they stay successful. More people like that and this continent would be in a much better place.

Check it OUT!!!!

Rickety old Bamboo bridge

This guy was hilarious

Beautiful mountains that we're not riding over :)

1 March - New friends AND a ride?

1 March

Kande Beach

0 Miles

Erik:

This morning I woke up and my knee hurt so badly. I couldn't crouch on it. Don't know how we'll do these hills that are coming up. Kande is very relaxing. Tomorrow we'll head to Nkhata Bay though. We need the atms there and camping is supposed to be very cheap. The overland trucks left this morning, so the camp is nice and quiet.

We met an overland truck driver, Dave, and his trip leader, Ishi (also from west scotland!). Had a great time chatting with them. They explained how the Overland thing works and showed us their really well equiped truck. Their trips seem really cool. They basically last for 75 days, Nairobi to Cape Town, then drive back up to Kenya empty. Right now they're on transitioning back up north, so they don't have any passengers with them.

We chatted with them for most of the day and really hit it off. Around dinner time, Dave offered to give us a ride to Arusha, Tanzania! We're slightly behind schedule and I'm hurt, so I'll talk to Steph about it.

Steph LOVED it!! So, to Arusha we'll go by truck. We'll spend a couple of days on another beach farther north and then do some bush camping in Tanzania. It should be great. We'll see stuff that we wouldn't be able to see on the bikes or by train. It also solves the mountain/knee issue. Woot!

Steph:

Dave and Ishi are amazing. They told us all about their job and living off this truck, which is yellow. Haha, I don't think I'll ever escape this color. Anyway, they think that the two of us would be a great team on an overland truck. Maybe in South America. Erik can drive and be the mechanic, while I take care of the passangers. Sounds like a great job to me.

About getting a ride up there. At first I though, "really?", but about 4 minutes later it dawned on me that this could not get any better, here's why:

• For weeks now, we've been trying to figure out what to do next. With the elections in Kenya coming up, we aren't sure if things would get as violent as they did a few years ago and whether to try to fly out of Dar Es Salaam instead. We've already changed our tickets to go home 2 weeks earlier due to some stuff at home that we would like to be back for, but the rest was still up in the air. This clears things up a bit

• We are running out of time. Spending so much time in Lusaka was great and we don't regret it but it set us back a bit. The train from Mbeya to Dar only leaves once a week and to make it without having to spend time in Mbeya (which we don't want to do), we'd have to cycle every day for the next week. Erik's knee is giving him problems and the mountains we're facing are the worst of the entire stretch, so that would be tough and not fun. Chances are, we probably won't make it in time.

• We're tired. I know that sounds lame, but the past week and a half has been tough on us (mentally, more than anything). It's been great in terms of getting to know Malawi and its people but the cycling part has become more work than enjoyment and we find ourselves focusing more on our daily destinations rather than enjoying the ride.

• If we go to Arusha with Dave and Ishi, it'll open up Tanzania a little more. Just with our bikes, we would've taken the train to Dar from Mbeya, then gone to Zanzibar and then Nairobi. That's not much of Tanzania. On the truck, we'll see the whole route from south to north and maybe find a good deal for a safari in the Serengeti or Nhgorogoro. These guys like to stop in villages and markets just as much as we do and we'll bush camp so that'll be better than the train. And more comfortable, since we'll have the back to just ourselves and our bikes.

• PLUS, these two are really cool and I'd love to hear more of their stories and get to know them better.

So we discussed it and decided to go for it. And are actually really excited. The only thing is that we won't go to Nhkata Bay (free snorkeling and canoeing), but we're over it. Mostly, we're over it because now we'll be able to go through the Valley of the Baobabs and a National Park as well. Woop.

It is weird to think that we're done cycling though. I look at the bikes, all muddy and dirty, and it does make me a little sad. But the point of this trip was never really to "cycle" Africa. It was, and still is, to see Africa. We've cycled 3000 miles, which I think is still pretty good and quite an adventure. Now we have a big tour truck to ourselves and get to chill with its crew which I see as another adventure.

Oasis Overland 

Kande Beach

Sweet setup. We scored some eggs for breakfast :)

28 February - More cyclists

28 February

Ngala – Kande Beach

41 Miles

Erik:

We had a lovely evening last night but didn't sleep well. It got cold and my leg kept insisting on cramping. By 8:45 we were packed and had finished our breakfast.

It felt a little cooler than yesterday. About 20 miles into the ride we ran into two other cyclists. Jan from the Netherlands and Janis from Latvia. They have both been at it for 8/9 months or so. Jan did Netherlands-East Africa and down while Janis came down the West side. Janis was really cool. He had handmade perniers and a rad beard. He said he got arrested and strip searched in Uganda because the villagers said he looked like a terrorist. Really funny story and super chill dude. We all chatted for about an hour and then rode on. They were shooting for Nhkotakota which is quite a ways away, especially this late in the day.

We went to a secluded beach for some lunch, the water is really clear here. For a lake.

At like 3pm we got to Kande. At the open market I bought 2 tangerines, 5 guavas, 500g rice, 6 tomatoes, 5 avocados and 2 "ice drink" thingies for 750MK. That's about $2USD. The ice drinks are flavored water that they freeze and put in a little plastic bag. Delicious.

Kande Beach Camp is super nice, but very tourist ridden. Those big overland tour buses are here. The ones we've seen on the road so much. It's super cheap to camp and the beach rocks, so we'll hang out here for a couple of days.

We played fussball with a west scot who lives in Peru and a nice Malawian. Really good night.

Steph:

I got up early to watch the sunrise and it was beautiful. There was a group of fishermen launching their boats and one of them walked over to me. His name was Leuben and he's only 14 years old. We ended up talking for almost 45 minutes. He just kept asking questions about everything from what kind of music I like to what I do for "entertainment", to why I am in Africa and what I think of Malawi. Malawians seem very proud to be Malawian. This kid was so sweet. He kept telling me that he was proud of me being in Malawi and that he was proud. Proud Proud Proud. It was really nice talking to him.

Ooh fun story: We were riding along this mountain, close to the beach and wondering whether the plants growing on the side of the road were Mary-jay-juana or not when we stopped to switch out our water bottles. A very old, little wrinkly man came walking up the road towards us and I greeted him in my now perfected Chichewa greeting. He smiled and started saying a lot of words that we did not understand. He realized this and invited us, in very broken english, to go back to his house to smoke with him. It was amazing. I wanted to go really badly but we declined politely and he smiled and said, "no problem, no problem". I guess that answered our pot question, since I'm pretty sure he was already pretty stoned.

It was a good day. I kicked Erik's butt in Fussball and then a Malawian named James kicked mine. Good stuff.

Good morning! Storms in Mozambique!

My young friend, Leuben

Jan, the dutchman and Janis, the terrorist :) Cool guys

Market in Kande

27 February - Ngala Camp

27 February

Dwanga – Ngala

10 whole miles

Steph:

Short day!! Haha! I don't know why we're so tired or whiney. Maybe it's the humidity, I don't know. We arrived at the lodge in Ngala which was highly recommended by the chileans. They were right, it's incredibly beautiful but we didn't realize how expensive it was. It's really fancy too. Since we weren't able to get cash in Dwanga, we really couldn't afford it. The owners were lovely though, both South African, and were willing to work with us on the price a little bit. The camp ground was right on the beach under some trees. We made our lunch at the run down palapa right on the water. They use it as a beach bar during the high season but right now it's completely empty. Rice, avocados, tomatoes and onions all mixed into our cool little pot. It was delicious. God bless cheap, fresh vegetables. Erik napped for a while and I accidentally fell asleep in the sun. Now I'm a lobster. Oops.

Erik:

It was a hort ride to Ngala. Sadly, it's too expensive to stay here for more than one day. I need some time off from riding. It's about 38 miles to Kande from here, so hopefully that won't be too bad tomorrow. We have all day to chill out here. It's really pretty. Ngala Lodge is much too fancy for us. I hope Kande has a more "backpacker" feel to it.

Our tent right on the beach 

Fishermen on the lake

26 February - Modi Bwanji!

26 February

Nhkotakota – Dwanga

40 Miles

Erik:

Today's highlights:

• 1 hour of silence (no people) as we rode through a mountain
• Golden baboons, two families
• riding through the misty rain
• All in all, I'm dead.

The atm at Dwanga doesn't work which means we have no money until Nkata Bay. We'll make due.

Steph:

We had breakfast in town today and learned a few things. Patrick and James (our waiters) taught us some basics in Chichewa. "Modi-Bwanji" – Hello, How are you? "Tidibueno" – Fine. "Caieno" – And you? "Zicomo" – Thank you. Woo! We practiced and tested it out all day. Most people just stared and said nothing but some actually responded! Very exciting.

There was a bit of road today that did not have people or villages. It was about 45 minutes worth of silence that were surprisingly wonderful. It made me realize a few things.

• I miss the quiet! Just the two of us huffing and puffing up the hills and the birds chirping. Saying hello to every single person all day long on top of the huffing and puffing is kind of exhausting. It was nice to be in nature again.

• Then again, I forgot how stressful it can be just to be in nature. Haha. We saw a few baboons on the road and stopped to watch them for a while. They're smaller than the ones down south but it reminded me of how it was in Botswana and the Caprivi. Always on high alert, listening to crunching twigs and other scary sounds. Constantly starring into the bushes hoping nothing comes charging out at us. Sleeping with one eye open and freaking out about the slightest little sound that seemed out of place (like we would ever know if it was out of place :) Don't get me wrong, I loved it. It was so exciting never knowing what was around the next turn. But also just slightly nerve racking.

We stayed in Dwanga instead of going all the way to Ngala. We were both tired and I'm really dehydrated. We found an ok place to stay and walked to the village to try the atm. We're total celebreties. The kids go crazy when they see us walking around and the adults just stare. It's weird man.

Rain clouds

School girls that came to talk to me for a while :) Really sweet

 

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

23 -24 February

23 February

Lilongwe

0 Miles

Erik:

More hanging out with the Chileans and company. Last night was fun. The cool thing today was that I met the Tuk Tuk guys. I remember reading their blog when researching this trip. They are two teachers from the UK who are traveling around the world in their awesome little Tuk Tuk. In each country they meet up with and promote an education NGO. Here is their info:

http://www.tuktuktravels.com/

Donate if you can!!

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24 February

Lilongwe – Salima

62 Miles

Erik:

We said our farewells to Jorge and Ben and by 830am, we were out. It was sad leaving those two. It was really cool to be on the EXACT same page as they were and have someone to share meals with that can relate directly to our own journey.

As far as cycling went, it was hot and hilly. We had some kids chase us a bit, bought tomatoes, etc. Steph did not have a good day, but I did ok.

We jumped on the first lodge we saw in Salima. It was nice but way too much money. Oh well, it was needed. For our weak little butts.

We also met George. He has two club feet and runs an NGO to the mobility impaired. He basically builds wheelchairs and teaches vocational skills to people who need them so that they don't have to beg. This guy has a heart of gold. He ended up having dinner with us and told us lots of stories of the people he's been able to help. When I have money again, he'll defenitely be getting some help from me.

Steph:

I died today. Just plain and simple. Died. I felt like we were back in S.Africa on our first week. Everything hurt and I was a whiney little girl. Oi.

As soon as we left the city, the "Mzungu!" calls started from all directions. I swear, I don't know how these kids spot us. We'll be riding along, not a soul in sight, and a little voice yells out at us from nowhere. We'll look around until we spot a house half a mile away, deep in a corn field and behind trees. The screams conitue on forever. It's like Children of the Corn. We can't escape!

The country side continued to be covered in corn fields with villages every 5-10km or so. Bicyclists and villagers carrying their goods from one market to another dominated the road, which was nice and smooth for the most part. The views from the top of hills (when we finally got there) were quite spectacular. We haven't seen mountains like this since S.Africa, except this place is more green and feels more alive somehow.

I really like Malawi. I really hate my bike.

Cute old couple

Pretty country

22 February

22 February

Lilongwe

0 Miles

Erik:

After a wonderful night's rest, we ventured to the market. It's HUGE!!! Steph found some fabric she liked. My favorite part was the food. We got chips (fries) with veggies on top and a peri peri sauce. So good! Especially for 50 cents.

After about 4 hours of walking around and exploring we headed back to base. I then found out that Tanzania takes only USD for their visas. We don't have nearly enough cash. Commence me riding around town looking to buy US dollars. It took two trips and a few hours but I did it!

Riding around, the Malawi people really seem to like my bike. I raced one dude up the hill and he kicked my butt! On his clunky, wobbly, single speed bike with chickens on the back. It was funny.

Spent the rest of the day hanging out, meeting new people and listening to music.

The market was super awesome.

Steph:

I wanted to find some fabric that's used all over africa. The women use it for everything; Skirts, dresses, shirts, wraps, to tie their babies to themselves. They're extremely colorful and fun and come in all sorts of cool designs.

We asked where the nearest market was and headed off on foot. Lilongwe is cool. Lusaka was this modern marvel, or at least it seemed that way. The theatres, the malls, the cars, the sidewalks, even the fancy landscaping were really nice. Lilongwe is a little more third world. In a good way though :) The streets are occupied equally by cars, bicycles and pedestrians. There are no traffic laws and everyone does what they want. It's a little more dirty and everything is a little more beat up. The same goes for the market. There were so many people. Just rows and rows of stalls that go on for ever. The vendors stand in front of their stands showcasing their wares. From dress pants, jackets, shirts, socks, underwear, etc. Boys walk around with trays filled with small bags of ice cold water. I thought that was interesting. Others would buy them for a few cents, poke a hole with their teeth and just suck it right out. We walked deeper and deeper into the maze; through clothing, headphones, phones, speakers, dvds, soaps, shampoos, anything you can think of. The pathway got smaller and more narrow until we finally reached the end. I really liked that no one pushed us to buy anything or shoved us into their mini stores. I honestly think they were slightly surprised to see mizungu so far in there. People greeted me with "hello my sister" and "mizungu how are you?". When we turned around, a gentlemen asked what we were looking for. I told him and he said, "yes, follow me", and there they were! Beautiful fabrics of all kinds. They were a little more expensive than I thought but that's ok. After that, we wandered back towards the main street and found the food.

The very cool gangster looking fellow who served us the chips was really nice. We grabbed our plate, sat down on the bench, pulled up a plastic crate and ate our lunch with our fingers. It was really nice to sit and watch people walk by. They would see us and stop and stare for a while. We'd just wave and smile and the'd smile back.

Good stuff :)

Really pretty mosque

Busy street

The market. Shoes galore!

walking down the street

Erik :)

21 February

21 February

Mchiji – Lilongwe

68 Miles

Erik:

Today was a good day. We got breakfast in bed for 1USD. Super win.

Started out at around 8am. The weather was really nice. On our way out of town there were no cars but tons of bicycles and people walking. A whole new kind of rush hour traffic. All the kids run after us and scream "MIZUNGU!!!". Sometimes they sing it, like a chant. Haha. We saw a church choir singing by the road. That was cool.

At one point we saw some people selling bananas on the side of the road so we stopped for a snack. I wanted 4 and thought it was 50KW (15 cents) per banana, so I gave him 200KW. It ended up being 3 bananas for 50KW. The guys started loading our bags with 12 huge bananas. We were both confused. It was hilarious. He seemed pretty happy though. We ended up eating a third of them and gave away the rest to an old man hanging out by a mosque.

Everyone is super friendly. This is Africa. What I thought it would be. The colors, the singing, the sniles. There are crops everywhere. People people people. It's nice.

One of my favorite moments of the day was this little girl, about 3 or 4, who just stood, mouth open, on the side of the road and pointed at steph the whole time as we rode by. With a completely baffled look on her face. MIZUNGU!!! A white girl on her bike!

It was a great day. Long but great. Just as we were about to enter Lilongwe (the captial), it started raining cats and dogs. We got soaked. We came into Mabuya camp around 3pm. I was putting the bikes away and, lo and behold, two more bikes!!! I enquired about who the riders were and found them. Jorge and Benjamin de Chile. They had actually heard of us in Namibia, from Martin, the Argentine motorcyclist we ran into in Botswana! They also met Johan, the german cyclist we met in Namibia. Small world! They have been doing the same route as us and are now heading south into Mozambique. It would have been cool to continue riding with them for a bit. But oh well. We hung out with them the rest of the night swapping stories. It turns out they hated Garies, in South Africa, just as much as we did. Haha!

MIZUNGU!!!! MIIIIIZUNGU!!!!!!

These ladies were all smiles until I said, "three!" Then it was all business. They were so nice

20 February

20 February

Chipata – Mchinji

23 Miles

Erik:

We woke up in the morning to the thundering of rain. Absolute downpour. It sounded as though the roof would cave in. During breakfast, one of the servers said it would most likely die down around noon. We reorganized our bags and changed things around a little to balance our load better. At around 1030am we headed out. It was a nice chill ride. Mostly uphills, but we took it easy and just talked and pedalled. There was only like one car as far as traffic was concerned. Lots of bikes though.

The border was a bit of a joke. Haha. So easy. It was just a room on both sides. Stamp. Done.

I changed Zambian Kwacha to Malawian Kwacha and got way ripped off. Oh well. On the Malawi side they won't even take Zambian KW. I hope they do in Lilongwe of the airport.

Malawi is beautiful. The people are lovely and everything is cheap. Finally. I really do love the people so far though. Just so friendly. The kids are back to asking for money, pens, our bikes, etc. Pens is the best request though. Steph wishes she had brought some to give away.

We found a gem of a place to stay in Mchinji. The room is clean and it has running water and it's so cheap. We got lunch /dinner and watched as they peeled and chopped the potatoes for our fries and feather a chicken. All for 2USD each. Win.

Tomorrow will be a longer ride. 60-something miles. Should be good though, based on what we've seen so far.

I am really happy to be on the road again!

(Steph says, "me too!")

:)

The rain in the morning. Woo!

Welcome to Malawi. So pretty :)

19 February

19 February

Lusaka – Chipata

354 Miles

Steph:

Today we left Lusaka. Our home away from home in Africa. Gigi was kind enough to give us a ride to the bus station at 430am and it was tough saying goodbye. I'm excited to have new friends though and can't wait to see them all again.

The reason we're taking a bus to Chipata (border with Malawi) is because we don't have time to cycle the 354 miles to Malawi before our visa here in Zambia expires. I'm going to be honest and say that I don't really mind. It's a hilly way to Chipata and the road is not that great from what we've heard, so we might as well, right?

Right. :)

Erik:

Yeah, Gigi gave us a ride this morning which was very sweet. The bus station was just as crazy busy at 4am as it was yesterday afternoon when we bought the tickets. We got on the bus, stored our bikes safely underneath with all our luggage and left relatively on time.

We then got to listen to 7 hours straight of Zambian gospel music. Along with the music videos. It was interesting and at least not in English. The country side was marvelous. Rolling, jungly hills and huge rocks shooting out of the greenery. Steph needed to pee the whole time and here's why:

We stopped once for a potty break in the middle of nowhere. Everyone piled off the bus to pee. The dudes street side and the ladies behind the bus. Steph went out with everyone but when she got back she seemed upset. It turns out all the women were just squatting in the long grass and she tried to go but got gunshy and "just couldn't". Haha! So she had 5 more hours of waiting.

Getting off the bus was a circus. But we pulled it off ok. There were a bunch of guys offering to take us on their taxi. They wouldn't accept the fact that we had bicycles and didn't need a taxi. Even while they watched us pull them off the bus and load them up. We road around town for a while and ended up staying at a pretty posh place with Airconditioning. I'm glad we did because it was bloody hot.

LUSAKA #3

Steph:

FAMILY!

Since everyone had to work and go to school during the weekday, Erik and I hung out at the house. We had a lot of fun cooking for everyone and trying new things, such as making bread, yogurt, cookies and banana bread. We also had little projects to keep us busy and off the computer :). Erik built up the family's playground out in the backyard while I organized Gigi's impressive arts and crafts room. Since they recently moved from Ghana, a lot of things were still in boxes, so we unpacked and put away a bunch of stuff. I honestly enjoyed myself quite a bit and felt like we were at least trying to give something back for their incredible hospitality.

While they were at home, I spent a lot of time hanging out and talking to Gigi. During one of those conversations, she mentioned that she really wanted to get a dog. The size of the house and backyard would be perfect for one! Woo! Puppy shopping! She and I took a day to go to a kennel and we picked out an adorable little mut for the boys. She was playfull and super sweet. The kids ended up naming her Pizza. Coolest name ever. From then on, Erik and I also had puppy sitting duties. She was a handful but I loved it. Here's a picture.

In the evenings, we would all hang out at the house together and mostly watch soccer. We were in Lusaka for the whole African Cup. It was exciting because last year, Zambia beat all odds and became the underdog champion. Woo! So at the beginning of the Cup, the streets were full of vendors selling posters and scarfs and green and orange Chipolopolo (Zambia's team name) shirts. Erik caved and bought one :). So every night we watched soccer and yelled at the tv. Unfortunately, Zambia lost and didn't make it to the quarter finals. BUT Yuyu's team, Cabo Verde (he's from there), did exceptionally well. It is the tiny nation's first time EVER in the African Cup and they did amazing. There was a lot of screaming and cheering and booing at refs.

The kids were hilarious and we got to know them pretty well while their parents had to work late a few times. Alex is a very witty 12 year old who was fun to bug and tease, especially because he teased right back. And Leandro (6yrs old) kicked my butt at Cars Monopoly a few times.

Gigi, Yuyu, Alex and Leandro were amazing hosts. Really, we got incredibly lucky meeting these crazy people. They welcomed us into the family as if we'd known them for years and I don't know if they'll ever know how much we appreciate it or how much fun we had. Thank you thank you thank you!

Erik, Sylvester and Kedis building the play set 

Pizza :)

The Family in all it's glory :)

Leandro drew us a good-bye letter

TICKETS

One reason we stayed in Lusaka so long (besides being lazy and comfortable) was that we really needed to figure out our Flight situation. After hearing a lot of "iffy" things from family friends and talking to a few other people who have lived there during national elections, we decided to skip going there. It breaks my heart a little because that's been our end goal all along. Also because that means we won't be able to go see our elephants. On the other hand, things are already getting violent over there and we would be in Nairobi right in the midst of the elections. We really don't feel like risking anything or being worried and stressed about it. So, after a lot of going back and forth and trying to get a hold of our ticket agent at Airtreks, we decided to cut our trip short a few weeks. We'll take advantage of the extra time at home by signing up for the fall semester at ASU and going to the Las Palomas Triathlon in Rocky Point with our families. We wanted to make sure that we had all of this squared away before heading out to Malawi, where internet may be harder to get.

So now, Officially, we flying home on the 11^th of April from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

LUSAKA #2

Steph:

HASH RUN!

Gigi also introduced us to Daryl and Fritz. A really fun couple also from the embassy. Daryl is american and has lived all over the world for the government. She met Fritz while living in Austria and they got married and continued travelling. Now they are in Zambia and really like it. They invited us to go to the HASH Run. It's a weekly event that brings people from the US embassy as well as a lot of other ex-pats from all over the world and a few locals. It's a run/walk but they change locations every week. One week it'll start and end at someone's house, another week a restaurant or bar, another week a park, etc, etc. The week that we went happened to be a special one called the Internation Hydration Hash. I think it was the 700^th run in Lusaka. We ran (or walked) from one house to another and every stop had a different theme (germany, usa, england, scotland, etc). At each stop, they would have a typical snack and alcoholic beverage from that specific country. Everyone got a little tipsy, to say the least. Then we were officially initiated into the group by having to down a few beers in front of everyone. It was a lot and we met a ton of people from all different backgrounds who had eventually landed in Lusaka and now call it home. Awesome. I realized that although my cycling muscles are alright, my running ones are way weak. It all hurt :)

OTHER!

What else happened...

About 2 weeks in, Erik went for a walk and tweaked his knee somehow. It stunk, he had to really baby it for about a week, but thankfully it got better.

We got pretty into the show "24" with Kiefer Sutherland. They had all the series and I got to season 3. I watched way too much tv. Haha. Oops.

Yup.

Oh! There was a rat in the house! For weeks, the family had heard it and seen it randomly and Gigi was FREAKING out. We finally discovered where it was coming in and almost caught it a few times. Eventually some rodent experts came and blocked off their entrance. By the time we left, it seemed to have gone :) That was pretty amusing. Except for the time we couldn't sleep because the thing was running around inside our room.

Erik worked a lot on his spanish. He has improved a lot and we can actually have little conversations now. It's very impressive.  

Stay tuned for LUSAKA #3 tomorrow!!

LUSAKA! #1

Steph:

So instead of staying a week, as we originally planned, we ended up staying with Gigi and Yuyu for over a month. I know. It's crazy. This is something that we definitely did not plan, BUT IT WAS SO NICE!! After both of us getting sick in Livingstone we really enjoyed the down time and hanging out with this crazy, fun family. We've manage to do a lot of fun things as well as a whole lot of nothing.

Don't worry though, I won't go day by day and bore you guys to death :) We'll just do highlights, ya?

MOVIES :)

We had been super excited about this city for a while. Just because it was a city. Not that we don't love the villages and towns, but this place had a movie theatre! It was a little upsetting for me to admit how much I missed 1^st world stuff. I think I just really like movies. The fact that they cost close to nothing helped as well.

The Hobbit: Pretty fun. As fun as the other LOTR. The theatre smelled badly, but the movie rocked.

Django Unchained: We went to see this one with a bunch of cool people from the embassy. Ehh. The story was cool, but Q. Tarantino is a little over the top for me.

Les Miserables: Totally awesome. I didn't realize the whole movie was just singing. Pretty impressive. Anne Hathaway's rendition of "I had a Dream" was lovely. But that's just me.

Zero Dark Thirty: I guess there was a lot of contreversy about this film in the US. Especially between the political parties. Which meant that we pretty much had to watch it. I thought it was awesome. Very exciting and interesting.

There you go. Those are my reviews. The theatre we went to (with the exception of The Hobbit) was in a mall called Manda Hill. This is also where we went to grocery shop and run any other errands we came up with. It was a 15 minute walk from Gigi's house and a very pleasant one at that.

SALSA!

We met Jose through Yuyu and Gigi. He's one of the marines at the Embassy. We clicked right away after finding out that he is also from Arizona and speaks spanish. He was incredibly nice and we hung out a few times. One of these times he took us to a hotel in a very seedy part of town. It ended up being a salsa class that he goes to every once in a while. Oh man, it was so much fun. Completely random. There were a lot of people there. And a lot of people who knew what they were doing. These Zambians know how to salsa! Erik and I were taken aside by one of the instructors for a crash course :) We've decided that we'll need to take lessons when we get home. After our little class, we sat and watched everyone else shake their booty and chatted. It was a really good night.