now in Malawi!

   28 Mar Tonight we camped in a pine forest. The ground was covered by waist high grass and we were crawling around in it to find even spots for our tents. We ended up camping pretty close to each other. When we all settled down at night there was suddenly some commotion from one of the tents: squealing, rustling, tent zips opening and closing, and more rustling. And all of that while 60 people were trying to fall asleep. Well, it wasn't what you are thinking as we found out the next morning! One of us had discovered a mouse in his tent and was chasing it around in an attempt to get it out 29 Mar A lot of people we see along the way are not wearing much more than rags. And our clothing starts to look like that too. After almost 10 weeks of living in the same shorts and t-shirts and hand washing them, holes are starting to appear all over our garments and we start looking more and more like gypsies. 30 Mar Today was the best riding day of the tour so far. The morning was cold and very foggy. We could only see for about 50 m. We had to climb out of a valley - a 750 m ascent. The fog lifted quickly and gave way to a beautiful clear sky. Once we were at the highest point of 2300 m we realised that we had actually just risen above the clouds and we had the most amazing view over green hill tops and the white mist around them. Some more rolling hills, through lots of villages and, after lunch, we started our descent towards the Malawian border. 60 km of almost uninterrupted freewheeling to an altitude of about 500 m and great views of Lake Malawi on the way 31 Mar Malawi is hot and humid. It was quite a sweaty ride along the northern shore of the lake towards our next rest day at Chitimba Beach. 1 Apr A group of us have found a little lodge with its own secluded beach, 6 rooms, and a cosy bar & restaurant. We booked out the whole place and are spending a relaxed day at the lake. 2 Apr The thought of getting up at 4:30 a.m. to mount our bikes was not very appealing. So, we used local transport from Lake Malawi to Mzuzu today. We first traveled on the back of a flatbed truck and thereafter in a minivan accompanied by lots of Malawians. The local transport system is quite efficient. You just stand at the side of the road, stop a car negotiate a price (usually 1-3 USD) and hop on. At least half of all bypassing cars happily accept passengers. The driver will continue loading the car until it is bursting at the seams. Every time the car stops all sorts of local trades people come up trying to sell tomatoes, nuts, cassava … - so you can do your shopping on the way. The trip is long due to the many stops but it got us to our destination cheaply. 3 & 4 Apr Two more days cycling amongst and over the hills of Malawi. Some of the roads took us up into the clouds again. It rains almost every day for a couple of hours here. Luckily for us that’s mostly at night. The vegetation is very lush and green and all the farmland looks quite fertile. Although this is such a poor country the Malawians seem to be happy people. We are greeted by genuine smiles everywhere. By the way, I am getting used to being cheered at by hundreds of people – mainly kids – every day. I might miss that when I’m back! Despite all the cheering I must admit to some cycling fatigue. After 10 weeks on the road the body does not recover that easily from the long days anymore. 5 Apr We arrive at Lilongwe today for another day off. And I will go and explore the Malawian capital now.