Day 320 Mozambique 18/09/2011, Zambeze Hotel, Tete – Changara rest-house, Changara. 57.34miles/91.52km, 5hr56minutes, Av9.6mph.

Thankfully we had a good night sleep and the buffet breakfast was pretty good so the hotel was almost worth the money.

Having woken early we set off at 7:30am heading for the small town of Changara. Knowing that it was on a main junction, we thought that there would be a fair chance of finding a guest-house. Failing that there was always a free camp. We feel much more comfortable about free camping here, than we did in Malawi. The people seem a lot friendlier and are not so in your face.

After riding out of Tete we were straight into the hills and straight into the wind. Changara, at over 90km away looked like it might be a step too far. Especially as yesterday's overcast skies had given way to a cloudless, very warm day. Still, we pressed on making steady if not rapid progress. After about 16km we were past the steep hills and started to get along better. The earlier winds dropped, which made the cycling easier but certainly didn't help the temperature any.

As on the last few days we were helped along by the friendly waves and greetings from the local people. We even received the odd wave from some of the many truck drivers that race up and down the road we are on. The giant American rigs are a bit of a feature of the road so far in Mozambique. Thankfully though they have been very considerate of us along the road, generally giving us plenty of space if they can. It will be interesting to see if we encounter many more of the trucks when we reach the turn off to Zimbabwe. It looks like that is the quickest way to get to South Africa, assuming the trucks are heading that way.

It was a pretty tough cycling day all in all, but by just carrying on we eventually made it to Changara. As we entered the town we saw a sign for a rest-house and went to check it out. Considering the look of the place from the outside they had some surprisingly nice rooms, which is reflected in the price. In fairness we did choose the luxury of an air-conditioned room and could have had a much cheaper fan room. At least this room has a bed big enough for both of us, so there will be no sleeping on the floor. We will be back on the road again tomorrow heading for another potential guest-house. With any luck it should be a bit of a shorter day.

As we have just had dinner, I better add that it was very good and very reasonably priced. Washing it down with a very cold bottle of Manica (Mozambican beer) has rounded up another good day. Roll on tomorrow!