A strong wind got up during the night and I had to go out and rescue our laundry from the line and make sure the tent was secure in case we blew away. We had hoped that it would have died down by morning, but it was not to be. It looked like our day back on the road was going to be a tough one, especially as we had a fairly long distance ahead of us.
After breakfast in the restaurant, we have run out of food, we paid our bill and said goodbye to Pete. We hope you have a safe journey and will let you know when we get to Capetown.
Farewells said, we headed back to the camp-site, packed the tent away, loaded the bikes and set off up the track to the road. The money demanding children of the journey in were obviously elsewhere, because we had a largely bother-free ride. The few kids that were out were pretty chatty, even if a couple of them kept asking me for a football. Where they believed I had said football hidden is a bit of a mystery, obviously we 'mzungus' can be quite sneaky!
Arriving at the road it was straight into the expected headwind; it looked like being a very long day. Which was fortunately accompanied by some of the friendliest, nicest, happiest, locals we have encountered in Malawi. For once it was a pleasure to be riding through the country.
Of course it didn't last and a few more kilometres up the road we were back into the money demanding, grabbing at your bike brigade we have become used to. Fortunately we were still on a bit of a high from the reception we had enjoyed earlier.
Having ridden about 30km we encountered the first of what would end up to be three cycle tourists today! Rodrigo is from Argentina and has ridden to Malawi from Capetown. We are not really sure what his plans are, except continuing up towards Tanzania and possibly Kenya. A couple of photos later and we continued, back into the wind, towards Salima.
A further 20km down the road and we ran into Pius and Margrit, two Swiss cyclists who have been on the road for 4 years and have ridden over 60,000kms! They were also heading north as they slowly make their way back to Switzerland. Once again we took a quick photo, wished them well and carried on into a much lighter wind.
With dwindling supplies we tried to find somewhere to get a meal. Malawi unfortunately came up short, as getting a meal on the road here is a real problem. Instead we had to settle for a warm drink, which was made better by a group of sweet children who got very excited at having their photo taken.
The next stop was no better when we ended up in a village with a particularly unpleasant atmosphere. Eventually we bought some cooked meat from a small stall in another village. The meat wasn't much of a triumph, but we did provide a certain amount of entertainment for the locals. It seems that white people eat the same things as they do, who would have thought it! Another short break later, where we ate the last of our on-board rations, and we were ready to face an afternoon in the saddle.
A combination of some friendly locals, a rapidly dropping headwind and finally finding a cold drink meant that we pretty much flew along for the last 40km. If we hadn't passed through a group of especially aggressive money demanding children and adults when we turned off to Salima, we would have arrived outside the 'Half London lodge' feeling pretty good. Instead we arrived tired, hot and still struggling to find much positive to say about cycling through Malawi. Fortunately the reception at the lodge was a warm one and we are happily settled into a nice enough room. A night in a proper bed is going to be a bit of a luxury. Dinner at the restaurant was the cheapest we have had for a while, but the food was very nice, even if it took an age to arrive. By the looks of Debs it is going to be a very early night. We have less distance to cover tomorrow, so hopefully we will have a good day.
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