Fundraising status: 3959,23€ or 35% reached, a massive thanks to the ones contributing ! Unfortunately the pace is really slowing down over the last weeks even if I’m not and the gap between the fundraising and the number of kilometres done is getting bigger and bigger. Therefore if you like this blog and did not participate in the fundraising so far, feel free to make a small contribution, any amount is welcome! Thanks a lot and If needed, the link is still here
Stage 51: Mbeya to Karonga
KM: 162.21 km
HM: 1147 m
Time: 6h05 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 4.5 + 1 sprite + 1 Tea
Strava link
Stage 52: Karonga to Chitimba
KM: 92.57 km
HM: 335 m
Time: 3h42 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 4 + 2 Strange very sweet local drinks
Strava link
After a nice day of rest focused on taking care of our bikes in the lovely town of Mbeya it was time to ride again.
Looking at the profile of the day, it was clear to all of us that it will be a long day, 162 km, 1150 hm, 2400 m of downhill and a border crossing were at today’s menu.
As often while leaving cities of a certain size, the first kilometres were not really pleasant as our main target was to stay alive between the tuk-tuks, buses and others unidentified vehicle driving through the city. Luckily, to the exception of a pedestrian almost jumping under my wheels, everything went smooth and after 15 km we could start our climb of the day to reach the highest point of this stage at 2250 m.
Thanks to the friendly greetings of the local kids as well as the beauty of the scenery, this climb went quickly. As we reached the top, we had to put on our jackets as it was quite cold on this early morning, moreover we looked for a coffee to have a quick stop, but as often in Tanzania only tea was available. We therefore decided to start the downhill towards the border without coffee ,-( and were almost immediately amazed by the beauty of this downhill. A land full of banana and tea plantations, green hills all around the place… A biker dream! I know that I already said that a few times but this was, for me, the most amazing ride of the tour so far. I would have loved having at least 2 additional pair of eyes to truly enjoy all the beauty of that downhill.
And after 115km, we reached the border and after the usual African border crossing non-sense, we reached our country n°6 Malawi. Arriving on the shore of Lake Malawi gave us the feeling that we reached a completely different world. We do feel here like in a real sub-tropical area, palm tree along the road, humidity level at 100% (that’s my feeling ;-)), a significant change from the Tanzanian highland.
And the day ended up in our first camp on the shore of Lake Malawi where some of the riders tried to get refreshed into the lake but with a temperature of +/-30° the refreshing effect of this water is rather limited ;-).
For our first full day in Malawi, we were not too concern about the ride of the day, 92 km and 350 hm is like a walk in the park after more than 5000 km isn’t it? Therefore, we started very easy, taking some time in the morning to organize our SIM cards, change some money and buy some snacks for our rest day in Chitimbita before starting to ride.
But after 1 hour of ride, it was getting clear that the day would not be as easy as we taught. The tiredness of the last days and sections, the heat and humidity transformed this easy ride into a quite exhausting one. Except one coke stop where we finished surrounded by hundreds of kids, there was not much interesting on that day and we were all happy but very tired to reach the location of our next rest day in Chitimba beach.
And now we do have one full day to really rest on the shore of lake Malawi.
And here we are, after 5721.9 km, 30171 hm and 226 hours and 26 minutes on the bike, the twelfth section is over. We are still extremely lucky with the weather as we had so far no real rain. And on an health point of view, even if I’m currently feeling extremely tired, my body is still doing good without any injury or illness.
And now, after a very short and easy two days section, it will be way tougher as we are starting the thirteenth section with two tough days of climbing. Next stop Lilongwe!
Thomas K
27 Mar 2019Plus de 5700 km à vélo et tu as même eu la force de monter sur un volcan. Impressionnant! On est content de lire que tu es toujours de bonne santé. Bonne continuation et coucou de Leverkusen où la nouvelle organisation occupe les esprits de tes collègues.
Fred
28 Mar 2019Ouais ben disons que le volcan n’était peut être pas la meilleure des idées vue l’état des jambes après l’ascension 😂😂. Meilleures salutations aux collègues de Lev et malheureusement la nouvelle organisation m’a aussi occupé l’esprit…par chance pas trop longtemps, le vélo me prenant assez d’énergie. Fred