We got away from Blantyre rather late on Wednesday morning and it was after 8 am that we finally took to the road. We made our way through the traffic, took a wrong turn which cost us almost 20 km in the end and eventually headed to the border town of Mwanza. The first part of the route was a breeze, most of it downhill. But the last part of the road to Mwanza was all mountains and we had some heavy climbing to do before eventually reaching Mwanza where we stayed in a cheap local guesthouse for the night.
The next morning we cycled the last 5 km or so to the Zbu border post and went through the Malawian customs. As we were heading up the mountain towards the Mozambican border post about 3 km onwards, we saw a truck screaming down the mountain at great speed. People shouted and yelled to the customs officials below who just managed to open the gates into Malawi in time. It turned out that the truck’s brakes has failed. It came to a halt on a hill on the other side and fortunately nobody was injured. We said good bye to the land of the lake, a remarkable little country with remarkable natural beauty.
Entering Mozambique was exciting, as it always is when crossing into a new country. We stayed in the city of Tete on our first night and were fortunate to meet a group of South Africans working there who kindly put us up for the night. Tete is a fast developing city with huge coal deposits, situated on the banks of the Zambezi River. It is also the hottest city in Mozambique, with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees in summer. When we were there it was 35 degrees, quite hot considering it is the middle of winter!
The next few days after that we had a long trek through the interior of Mozambique to get to the town of Chimoio, the first town with proper accommodation after Tete. It took four days of cycling to get to Chimoio and it was not easy at times. The day we left Tete it was very hot, the days after that the weather changes dramatically and it was cold and overcast. We stayed at a number of interesting places: one night at a half-finished locally owned guesthouse, one night in the grounds of a clinic in a small town and one night at a police station at a village in the middle of nowhere. Apart from the cold conditions we had a persistent strong headwind and the terrain was also very hilly. We finally reached Chimoio on Monday and booked in at a local backpackers. It was a relief to be able to have a proper shower for the first time since leaving Tete! We are taking a day of in Chimoio, a beautiful town with old Portuguese charm.
From here we continue our long trek to Vilankulo, with still about 460 km to go and we will probably have to sleep in villages along the road until we reach he coast, but who’s complaining?
