Another night where we weren't trampled! While there were definitely elephants in the camp last night they didn't come near our tent, instead staying off to the side. Morning brought a beautifully calm day, the river was flat and the trees were barely moving. It looked like we were going to have an easy cycling day, especially as we only had about 35km until our next stop.
Having breakfasted and packed we said a fond farewell to Ron and Jo, with the promise that we will see them in Cape Town, if not before. They will be following a similar route to us on their way home, so we may meet on the road. A cold drink has been promised if the see us, so we will keep our fingers crossed.
Having settled the bill we carried our bags down to the jetty and were ferried to the other side by Henry, our guide from yesterday. Unloading the bags the other side, I went to retrieve our bikes and we quickly got loaded and under way, watched on by some golden baboons. Signing out of the park took a few minutes and then we were off onto the dirt track back to the road. A few of the now expected 'give me' moments and an upsetting moment for Debs when some kids were grabbing hold of her bike as she tried to ride through a village, put a bit of a damper on what would have been a pleasant ride. As it was we were glad to get to the road where we stopped for a drink, before moving on.
The river may have been calm this morning, but we hadn't escaped the headwind entirely. It was certainly a lot lighter than it has been, but the occasional gusts still made for heavy going. With such a short ride ahead of us, it was never going to affect us too badly though. One annoying occurrence during the ride was that I had completely forgotten that we would pass the 9000km mark today. We had expected to do it on the ride to the park, but the map misreading had meant that we hadn't gone far enough. When I eventually remembered we stopped for a photo, but then got disturbed by a Malawian bicycle taxi rider who seemed convinced that we could employ him somehow. At least he did come up to us looking for employment as opposed to just asking for money.
After just over two and a quarter hours we arrived at Shire camp in Liwonde. Having had a look at the camp-site, we decided to treat ourselves to one of their rooms. The light, airy reed buildings are very spacious with what appears to be a very comfortable bed. Which will be nice after the often hot and occasionally uncomfortable tent. Lunch may have taken an age to arrive, but the setting right on the banks of the Shire River watching hippos made up for it, just about!
It eventually arrived not a moment to soon as Debs was losing the will to live. Fortunately it was tasty which was just as well as it was also cold. I have no idea what they do with the food they prepare, but they obviously have no way of keeping anything warm.
For the rest of the afternoon Debs fell asleep, or at least tried too. The wind got up during the afternoon and knocked over first Debs' bike and then mine. Sadly breaking my rear view mirror in the process. After a couple of hours I woke Debs for round two at the restaurant. The service wasn't any swifter and they gave me boiled potatoes instead of the rice which I had ordered. As it turned out though the boiled potatoes were really good and we were fed up with waiting by then anyway. With dinner eaten it was back to our room to do battle with the myriad of flying insects that seemed attracted to our computer screen while we tried to watch a film. Having had enough of the bugs, we pulled down the mosquito net and settled down for the night.
Tomorrow we have another shortish day, although this one involves some climbing, when we head to the city of Zomba.
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