Ear plugs were definitely the way forward last night as 'Planet Club', the source of the loud music for the last few nights, banged on until 6am this morning. Just to make sure that we hadn't had a noise free night, the staff then started shouting at each other shortly afterwards. I for one though was shattered last night and managed sleep through the worst of it!
Just for a touch of variety we had egg and chips for breakfast, except this time they had run out of coffee. Just as well that we have our own supply, because I didn't fancy tea with watered down hot milk. Having dragged getting ready out as long as possible we finally hit the road at about 9:30am.
When we first entered Malawi we were straight into a headwind and we are pleased to say that nothing has changed since then! Our 80km trip was to be accompanied by that, favourite to cyclists, headwind for the duration of the journey. Sadly it was also accompanied by the cries of 'give me money', it isn't just the border region then! We have come to the conclusion that in school English lessons, before they even learn hello, they are taught the sentence 'give me money'. Other variations that we encountered are 'give me my money', 'give me your money' and one particularly hopeful 'give me all your money'! The adults clearly didn't want to be outdone by the children; one went for the 'hello' followed by a hand-out routine; another woman demanded quite aggressively 'give me 100 kwacha!' and one of a group of guys who had previously ignored our hellos ran down the road trying to get our attention, when we stopped, thinking maybe we had dropped something, he held out his hand and said 'give me money'. We both simultaneously called him an idiot and he trotted back to his friends. It looks like this going to be the soundtrack to our time on the road in Malawi. The obvious solution seems to be to plug our headphones in, turn up the music and not bother speaking to anyone. That of course would be to ignore the genuinely friendly part of the population, of which we have encountered quite a few. It does also appear that the kids don't always know what they are asking. If you counter their questions with a 'why', they grin and look puzzled. When Debs actually stopped when some kids were pursuing her and asking for money, they looked terrified and ran off. Malawi is taking some figuring out!
Having struggled our way against the wind for what seemed like ages we eventually arrived in Chilumba, or at least we would have if we hadn't missed the unsigned junction. Having to ride back up a hill we had just gone down wasn't in the day's plans! Quickly we were back on track and followed the road down to the ferry port. There was no boat at the jetty, but being early we didn't expect to see one just yet. What we didn't expect to be told was that it was running late and wouldn't be here until 4:30am. We were in for a long wait, which got longer when the ticket guy turned up and explained that the boat was actually a day late and wouldn't arrive until 7pm tomorrow! We declined his suggestion to sleep in the waiting room, instead asking after a guest-house. Which is how we have come to end up in a cheap and not particularly cheerful place on the edge of town. The toilets are especially less than cheerful, as is the fact that we have had to have two rooms, due to the fact that despite their insistence, we will not both fit in a single bed! In fairness, the ticket guy has been really helpful, he took us to the guest-house, found us some food and has generally made sure we are alright. While waiting for dinner, the ticket guy turned up with another cycle tourist, Thomas from Austria, who was even more disappointed with the accommodation as he had just left a nice lodge that was only 18km away. We ended up doing what any sane person would in the situation, which is to go to the local bar. A few beers later and the guest-house looked a lot better.
Instead of hanging around all day tomorrow, it looks like we will accompany Thomas back to the lodge that he had been staying at and spend the day on the beach. There seems to be very little to do in Chilumba, although I desperately need to have a haircut and the ticket guy recommended a barbers to me. I will have to see if I am sufficiently psyched up to chance my first African haircut!
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