Fundraising status: 4859,23€ or 43% reached, thanks to two persons for the big jump of the last days ! To highlight how important your support is, I can tell you that we discussed with a young lady in Chitimba and she told us that she could not go to school any more has her parents lost their jobs and are fighting for having enough food to feed their family and can therefore not pay any more the 80$ yearly tuition fees…80$ this is most less than what many of us are spending on a simple pair of jeans but means a year of school here in Africa… Therefore feel free to participate to my fundraising, every amount is highly welcome, even the smallest one will help! Thanks a lot and If needed, the link is still here
Stage 53: Chitimba to Mzuzu
KM: 134.7 km
HM: 1765 m
Time: 6h47 minutes
Flat tires: 2
Liter of water: 4 + 1 fanta
Strava link
Stage 54: Mzuzu to Luviri school
KM: 123.56 km
HM: 1963 m
Time: 5h59 minutes
Flat tires: 1
Liter of water: 5
Strava link
The very relaxing day of rest in Chitimba beach was unfortunately for me followed by a very bad night of sleep due to the extremely high temperature and humidity during the night. Therefore I was quite tired as I started the first day of this new section.
And to add to my tiredness, after 3 km I got once again a flat and as I did nor replace my inner tube well enough, I got a second one 4 kilometres late…After replacing my second inner tube under the rain I could finally start the first challenge of the day, a 600m climb over 11km. It was the first time that we got some rain during a ride and it came at a perfect moment as it kept the temperature on a very nice level. This climb was really nice with some beautiful view over Lake Malawi and many monkeys along the way. We spent the second part of the day climbing the Rumphi valley, a very mild climb along the south rukuru river in a very green and lush environment.
Our lunch took place after 71 km and after it, the rest of the day went rather quickly, riding through the valley further until we reached Mzuzu where we enjoyed the presence of a Shoprite (for the one not knowing it, it is a big supermarket chain..) where I (like most of the riders) enjoyed a big bucket of Ice cream ;-). A treat that we haven’t had since a very long time…
Our night in Mzuzu was most probably the most humid night I ever experienced, the humidity was so high that despite the fact that we had no rain, it was raining inside my tent as the condensation and dew was dripping on me from the top of my fly ;-). We therefore had no other choice than to pack our tent completely wet and after doing that I took my bike and guess what? I had a flat during the night ;-(, I therefore went through the usual change of inner tube (after 14 punctures I’m really good at it believe me) and could finally start the day being the last rider leaving camp. On that second stage we were not expecting one big climb but an accumulation of rolling hills with steep climbs. And the Malawi highlands did not disappointed us, what for a morning, we biked through a stunning scenery, climbing one hill after the other and feeling the legs getting heavier and heavier. I reached lunch at km 71 with being extremely hungry and quite tired as we already climbed 1300m over these 71 km. The second part of the day was quite similar but slightly easier as we “only” had 700 meters to climb till our camp. And on that second part, we reached our next milestone, 6000 km are done! Finally, after 6 hours, 123 km and almost 2000m of climb we reached our camp in Luviri where we slept again on the premises of a school and could have a look at how the Malawian kids are studying. (I will come back to this topic on a following post.) And obviously everybody was really tired by these two tough days as we were all in bed by 6:45 on that evening ;-).
Stage 55: Luviri to Kasungu
KM: 107.59 km
HM: 555 m
Time: 4h02 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 4 + 1 coffee
Strava link
Stage 56: Kasungu to Lilongwe
KM: 129.02 km
HM: 883 m
Time: 5:03 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 4 + 2 shots 😉
Strava link
After a long and and good night of sleep I was more than ready for the relatively easy third stage of this section: 108 km and 550 hm, almost a rest day for us ;-). And this time, the ride was really smooth and easy. I spent the first half chatting with Laundon (our media guru) and our main focus was to find a coffee in one of the little town we passed by. Unfortunately, the Malawian are, as the Tanzanian, die hard tea drinker and despite asking at least 20 persons we could not find one restaurant offering a good warm coffee. Therefore, as we were really in need of a good cup of coffee, we bought our own coffee and to asked a restaurant for some cups and warm water ;-). And step by step some other riders stopped at the same restaurant and we finally finished with more than 10 riders enjoying coffe, tea and pastries in the Rise N Shine restaurant. Most probably the best working day of the very friendly owner for this week. 10 km after this stop we reached our lunch break where I let Laundon as he was sweeping that afternoon and I finished the last part of the ride mostly on my own, enjoying the fact that I could simply let my leg go without having to push at all for once.
For the last day of this section there was a small surprise for most of the riders. A ski shot stop! A ski shot stop on a bike tour in Africa? How is that possible?. Well, the explanation is simple: Jerome, one of the Canadian rider, decided to come on the tour d’Afrique with a ski transformed in skis shot that’s it ;-). (Seems that Jerome had too much space in his bags.) And as we had a TDA party in Chitimba beach and used the now famous ski-shot, Baldr had the idea to organize a bike ski-shot stop during one of our next ride. And the guys organized that perfectly. Some spray to write on the road and give some hints to the riders, a table at the top of the climb of the day and in the role of the ski-shot master, our friend Wolfgang as he could unfortunately not ride due to his knee problems on that day.
But before reaching the ski-shot stop, we had to bike 86 km. And I started this morning among the first riders and spent the first 30 km with Romy, biking, discussing and enjoying the beauty of the Malawian sunrise. After around 36 km a peloton of bikers took us over at a high speed. Finding the idea of biking in peloton quite charming (we almost never bike in group) I decided to catch them and join this joint effort. This was a good idea as we started to face some headwind and being in a group make a significant difference in this kind of situation. And it is with this group that we reached our lunch after 76km. After lunch the first sign of the ski-shot started to be visible on the road
And after around 10 km, our friends Wolfgang and Jerome were waiting for us with a ski and a few shots ;-). As I was riding alone at that time, I waited for the next riders as I don’t like to drink alone. And after two shots (no worries the gin was mixed with some juice, safety first) I sat back on my bike filled with energy and ready to reach Lilongwe.
And after 129 km and 5 hours of biking, I reached Lilongwe where we will spend our next rest day.
And here we are, after 6216.8 km, 35337 hm and 248 hours and 16 minutes on the bike, the thirteenth section is over.
I’m still not having any injury or illness but the accumulation of efforts of the last months are definitely having an impact as I do feel more and more tired.
And now, it will be time to start the fourteenth section, a quite tough one, starting with 500 km in 3 days of riding… And our seventh country as we will cross the Zambian border on the first day of that section! Next stop Lusaka.
And the new gallery can be found here
Fred
Mapa
1 Apr 2019Vivement les chutes Victoria pour un repos bien mérité! Nous te tenons les pouces pour les prochaines étapes 😘