to Lusaka, Zambia

April 3rd - rest day in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, which as usual means a day of doing laundry and cleaning bikes, etc. But it was a nice campsite with a swimming pool which we took advantage of. And a walk into the city where the central area was full of people selling locally-made wood carvings with a modern mall in the background.


"Give me hockey give me life" says a banner across the main street - surprising to us to see that in tropical Africa.


Friday April 4th to Tuesday April 8th - five days to ride 725 km to Lusaka. we leave Malawi and enter Zambia and Terrain was initally a gently rolling mix of farmland.


In Zambia, it changed to forest that was much less populated than Malawi.


And it got hilly - lots of climbing. The scenery is beautiful but hard to photograph with trees and high grass encroaching at roadside.


Approaching Lusaka, the hills were more gentle and we were back into more farmland and even palm trees.


Here, the rainy season had ended and the skies were clear, the sun was hot, the humidity high - we sweat enough to get just as wet as when it was raining. We were typically on the road between 0630 and 0700 in the morning.

Bicycles are well-used for transportation here. Usually women are passengers on the back seats of bicycles or they walk and carry things on their heads. This photo shows one of the few women cyclists we have seen - look carefully and you can see her child on her back.


Men normally do the bicycling, carrying passengers or goods.


Yes... that is a live goat that is tied down to the luggage rack.


With some long distances during this segment, we rode in a small peleton with Henk and Louisa, a Dutch couple, to make it easier.


Before leaving Malawi, a stop for tea attracted lots of local attention. We still haven't figured out what is so interesting about msungu (white people) drinking tea.


Here, the rainy season had ended and the skies were clear, the sun was hot, the humidity high - we sweat enough to get just as wet as when it was raining. We were typically on the road between 0630 and 0700 in the morning. We'd have 40 km behind us by 0830 and the sun would already be extremely hot. Lunch at 60 km might be at 0930. Back home, we'd be lucky to have eaten breakfast and walked the dog, let alone gone somewhere to even start riding the bikes by that time of day.

The stage length for the second day was 195 km - the longest we'd ever done in a day, and there were hills and not much help from the wind. We finished after 1700 after over 9 hours in the saddle - a very long and tiring day, but we did it.

The next day, we took a rest in the morning, rode on the lunch truck to the half-way point, then rode in the afternoon. The day after, we started as per normal. By lunch, Rae was still feeling the effects of the long day. Ursula hung in and rode the full day, again joining Henk and Louisa.




One of our overnight stops was at the Luangwa River, a major river that flows out of Zambia into the Zambesi River...


...and is crossed on this substantial suspension bridge.


The campsite was a few kilometres down the river. Mozambique is on the other side of the river here.


As we travel the highway, as in Malawi, one sees evidence that villages may have had a grander past than present. What appear to have been thriving businesses are now shuttered, buildings that were probably built during colonial days now falling into disuse.


That may reflect the cultural divide between the colonial powers and the indigenous population. Who's to say European style buildings are the best way to build things when the local expertise is in the construction of their traditional style of dwelling? Here the well is the gathering point for village people. Typically, there is no indication of electrical power supply to these villages although satellite dishes are often visible indicating either battery or generator power.


Houses are typically clean and tidy. The ground around the houses is baked hard and we often see people sweeping it to keep it clean.


School buildings along the way, although very basic by western standards, also appear to be well kept with clean outhouses, good playing fields, and mostly with electrical power. Elsewhere, we have seen schools that look run down and have no electrical supply.


A major product here is charcoal, bags of which are in the background here. Our understanding is that it is put out for pickup for further distribution.


Roadside stands also sell directly local production - potato, corn, peanuts, horseradish, tomatoes, bananas, squash, etc. We wonder if the volume of traffic along the road can really justify the quantity of produce for sale.


And then there are the flies that come with the heat and humidity. There are just so many of them, here seen trying to get at an insect bite that is healing on Rae's leg. The bite itself is dry - the only reason to cover it is to keep the flies off, but they obviously smell something.


Wednesday 9 April - A much needed rest day in Lusaka along with the usual bike cleaning, laundry, and this blog.

The last week has produced a couple of milestones:

• The longest distance we have ever cycled - 195 km and over 9 hours in the saddle
• Total distance on the bikes is now over 6000 km during this great adventure

Other impressions of Zambia - it is more expensive than prvious countries. Petrol is about $2 a litre compared to $1.30 in Malawi and Tanzania. Soft drinks are about 50 cents versus about 25 cents. It's about 3500 Zambian Kwatcha to the dollar, and paper money is denominated down to 100 Kwatcha (3 cents) so we always have wads of money, we spend thousands even for a coke, and every trip to the ATM makes us millionaires for a few fleeting moments.

Rural areas in Zambia do not seem much different than Malawi or Tanzania except for being less densely populated. Considerable contrast between town and country - Lusaka is the most westernized city yet - two shopping centres are relatively close to our camping facility and they even have a cinema. We found our first familiar grocery chain store name - SPAR - with products that we know. Their house brands are produced in South Africa so presumably we'll see more of this style of shop as we continue south.

The next segment is three riding days to Livingstone and Victoria Falls. At about 500 km, they say this is the longest three-day stretch of the Tour. Fatigue is going to be a factor especially for Rae - Ursula is amazing how well she is performing. A lot of folk on the Tour are showing some sort of symptom of depletion from the constant level of effort - you simply can't put in six to nine hours of effort in the saddle every day for a week and then expect to fully recover while doing the laundry and cleaning the bike on the day off. Okay, the younger faster folk aren't putting in that much time, but they're still putting in the daily effort, and they aren't immune from its effects - they may be younger and more resilient when it comes to recovering, but they still have their challenges to manage all that. Several folk have minor ailments that they're having trouble shaking off - nothing life-threatening, but it's hard to put out six hours of heavy effort if the body is fighting even a mild cold.

Despite all that, the only way I can think of not to be exhausted is build in shorter riding segments and/or more days for recuperation. That would mean a much longer Tour and doesn't quite seem consistent with the overall philosophy of doing something like this since the physical (and mental) challenge is all part of the territory. So tomorrow it's back at it - we'll give what we have and take the lunch bus when there's nothing left - after all, the idea isn't to kill ourselves. We'll have two non-riding days days at Victoria Falls and hope to take full advantage of the attractions of the area and with any sort of luck, we'll post the next blog from there.