Chilimbla - Manchinji 15 Days 625km

Chimbula, Chipata, Monkey Bay, Cape Maclear, Salima, Lilongwe, Manchinji

I arrived in Malawi pretty tired. I had put in some big days getting across Tanzania and the last week had been hills the entire time with some rain thrown in for fun!

I was looking forward to getting some time off and a few days on the beach. I crossed into Malawi late Saturday afternoon stayed in the only hotel on the Malawi side of the border. It was a Saturday night so there was lots of loud music until very late. I was also up late looking at the lonely planet (because of the music and humidity)  to see what Malawi had to offer. In there I found there was a ferry that went from the Chipata in the North to Monkey bay in the South which was where I wanted to end up. The ferry left on Monday at 1am so I had a day and 130km to make it to Chipata if I wanted to catch the ferry.

Its always difficult making the decision to get off the bike and use another form of transport. I really don't like taking a bus but I do like a ferry ride. I hadn't planned on the ferry but it just worked out that I would be able to get on it. It also meant I would get to the beach faster and a bit of time away from the bike would be a good thing.

I took the first class deck ticket. This allowed me to put the tent up, relax and have a beer at the bar while watching Malawi go by.

It really was an amazing voyage. The boat would stop at small fishing villages to unload people and cargo and then load up with fish.

 The raised platforms on the beach are used to dry the fish out before its packed into very large boxes and put on the ferry.

Some of the villages were only accessible by foot or by boat so the weekly arrival of the ferry was an event.

The ferry goes up and down Lake Malawi every 3 days and is an essential service for the people living on the lake, I talked with captain (fixed his blackberry), had beers with the people who got on and off, hung out at the bar a lot, and looked at the amazing scenery going by. It was a really good way to see Malawi and rest at the same time. On the final night i was woken by thunder and lightning in the South. I watched for an hour before going back to sleep. I later found out it was one of the storms that had caused severe flooding in the South of Malawi, and that many of the roads to the South and through Mozambique were impassable. I had originally planned (not that there ever was much of a plan) on going South through Mozambique to go directly South Africa and then along the coast from there but this was no longer an option. Anyway after talking with people along the way i wanted to go via Namibia to get to cape town.

The ferry was a bit late arriving in Monkey Bay and I had a flat tyre so it was well after dark before I got to the hostel. I had planned on staying the night then heading to Cape Maclear but the ATM was not working so it was a day trip to a nearby town (60k each way) to get some Malawi money.

 The hostel was nice and on the beach but totally deserted. The Christmas season was over and there were no other tourists around so there was just me to enjoy the beach.

I made the short journey to Cape Maclear and setup again next to the lake, this time it was in the tent but it was a pretty good spot to spend a few days.
I had been thinking for a while about the route I would take to get to Cape Town and when I would be there. I thought that after Cape Maclear I needed to have a plan.

I had set a date on when I wanted to be in Cape Town and it was pretty much always in the back of my mind. I will need to do this today, I will need to go faster, I can't have a break. I had always thought it would take 9 months to get from London to Cape Town and at the end of February it would be 9 months. 

 At Cape Mac I did some snorkeling with the help of Captain Simon. We rowed the boat out to the island, I swam and watched the eagle fish feeding. The fish were all kinds of colours, it was like swimming in a tropical fish tank. The eagle fish was very large and fast and it was amazing to see a bird catch the fish from the water

Then it was back to land and some Chumba fish cooked up by the Captain.

Beers at the local bar in Cape Maclear

I spent some time with Kaneli from the Venice Beach Hostel and Lucy who lives at Cape Maclear. It was a good time but it was difficult to not worry about things. I had spent a month pretty much alone and I was so used to being on the move, watching my stuff, thinking if situations are dangerous that it was not easy to relax.
I guess that its just one of those things about cycling alone. You get used to your own company and its not so easy to flick a switch and be around people again.

At Cape Mac I gave Chbuku or shake shake a go. Its a drink very popular with the locals and is described as "international beer". Its fermented maize and its not really like beer at all. It tastes like sour milk with chunky bits. It ferments further in the cardboard box so you have 3 days from manufacture to drink it or it goes off. The locals prefer it at 3 days old mostly I think because it has more alcohol but I really have no idea. I gave this a taste and it really is not for me. Its probably the worst alcoholic drink i have tasted and I like to think that I have given most of them a fair go but its very unlikely that I will drink it again.

I left Cape Mac and made the journey north to get on a road that would take me to Lilongwe. 
I had 10 days on the boat and sitting on the beach and I was ready for what I thought would be the big push to Cape Town.

Because of the floods the road was gone in several places. There was too much water for the pipe under the road there was a 2m gap where the road had been, This was a bit of an inconvenience on the bike but made it impossible for cars. The digger was lifting goods across the gap as well as fixing the road at the same time.

I meet some local kid while checking directions. They were next to me asking for money until i got the camera out then they all took off.

I wasn't expecting to drums and shields in rural Malawi. it was at a small town where the road went North which I was talking or Southwest to Mozambique.

I didn't usually attract a crowd in Malawi which was nice but these kids were interested in what i was doing (drinking water). The strange thing here was that were asking for baseballs. I guess that was the only English word that they knew.

The roadblock to the girls watching me all happened in a single day. It was a long 160k leg from Cape Mac to Salima with the last 30k in the dark. It was a a clear night, little traffic, many stars shining brightly and there were firefly's everywhere. They were like small LED's that lit up for a second then disappeared and they were everywhere. It was a pretty special 30k but by the end I was exhausted.

After my big effort the day before I had a 100k mountain section to get to Lilongwe. This brought up the 10000k mark. It was something that I should have been celebrating but I too busy thinking about what was to come.


So Malawi is a great country to visit and is really setup for the budget traveller. There is lots to see, really friendly locals, its cheap and many great beaches to sit on. 

I would like to have spent some more time relaxing there but I thought that I needed to get moving, to keep moving and get to Cape Town on time. Little did I know that a few day later this kind of thinking would lead it all falling apart.