thru africa

Wednesday, 4 April 2007

More images in Malawi

A very hairy caterpillar ... and no relation to Splat, Squish or Squash

The Royal Wave after a hard day in the saddle ... and Remy trying to hide ... sorry mate, the wheel is see-through

Along the road

Siggy ... we normally wear our bib shorts under our t-shirts ...? You are a funny, crazy guy Siggy ... and I'm glad you're staying on till Vic Falls!

Allan ... at 71 years old ... my hat (helmet) goes off to you!! Welcome and enjoy ... both the rest and the cycling.

Andrew's chain broke 5km from the end ... and poor Patrick and Remy had to push him all the way ;-) ... Actually Andy really didn't want the help ... forget it mate, we gonna help if you want it or not.

Party Time

Adidas Boy ... aka Patrick

The winner ... The Snows of Kilimanjaro (aka Marcus)

Remy, Patrick and Crazy Siggy after a couple ...

Hi there all from Lilongwe - Malawi. Staying at a real nice Camp/Overland Hostel ... we're all real buggered - tired, sore and stiff from the cycling.

The pics above are from our Mustache Party in Chitimba Bay ... therefore the stupid goatee I have been carrying around for a while ... and more than happy to have gotten rid of again!!!

Tuesday, 3 April 2007

Patrick has been admitted ...

We are sorry to announce we cannot guarantee when the next update will be posted by Patrick Thomas.

He was last seen in public behaving well beyond the realm of any mentally healthy human being ... from the picture provided we believe most of you will agree he was not in major pain - he simply seems to have lost his mind somewhere in Africa ...

Rest in Peace ... Splat

Dear Splat

It was real nice to get to know you with my mates from Canada and England. It was a brief encounter and I hope we were a decent passing view before you left us for the chameleon heavens above.

You were one of the cutest little creatures ... eyeballing us and dancing across the road in your slow, animated and unique way. Unfortunately our language barrier (such a common thing in Africa) hindered your progress in life as you failed to listen to our cries of encouragement to reach the other side of the road ... but you did do well to dodge the first few vehicles - better than I could ever have done!

Lastly also apologies for our laughter afterwards ... maybe it was just our way of coping with the loss ... but you must admit in the greater picture of things around it was a sweet, traumatic, but also a real funny encounter.

RIP and we'll remember you for a long time!

Malawi ... "The Warm Heart of Africa"

My cottage on Chitimba Beach

Lake Malawi ... at Chitimba Beach

Howdee all!

I'm still well and really enjoying Malawi ... Malawi is real beautiful, unbelievably friendly and very hilly. It is not as lush and green as Tanzania, but still awesome views and landscape structures. Malawi is correctly classified as "The Warm Heart of Africa" ... the people are unbelievable friendly and polite. Lotsa children - who also beg and scream a little when you pass, but really not too much.

It is actually quite funny ... they always exclaim: "Give me my money" and "What is my name?" ... the odd thing is that they say these incorrect sentences thru out the country and not just in one area.

We spent a rest day on Lake Malawi ... absolutely beautiful and all I ever imagined it to be. I have wanted to come here for such a long time already ... and it was worth the wait. For anyone coming up to Malawi ... I can definitely recommend the camp we stayed at ... Chitimba Beach. Andre (my brother) joined us there on our rest day ... bringing lots of goodies and bike spares.

Thanks a lot boet ... much appreciated. Thanks to my fossils also for the chocolates, Richard for the Lindt Chocs and Lise and the gang for dropping Andre off.

It was real nice to see him again ... and he did well to cycle the next morning with us. Andre borrowed Dean's bike (thanks mate) ... and climbed the morning with us ... and was it a climb!!! For someone who has not cycled for a good year it was a real tough route. At least we had awesome views of the lake and surroundings while climbing, climbing and climbing some more.

The weather has been a lot cooler and threatening with rain continually ... yesterday went thru the real dark clouds and missed the rain by very little ... other riders got more than totally drenched!!! The nights are a little cooler as well and lotsa dew drenches anything left out at night.

We are off to Lilongwe tomorrow ... sitting in Kasungu today, 138km North of the capital. We have a rest day in Lilongwe ... before we attack the real long killer days in Zambia over the week that follows.

The traffic hear is quite minimal ... even along the well tarred national roads ... but the people do race along at high speeds and don't care much about the locals, kids, cattle and obstructions on the roads. We do seem to get some respect ... but the speed of the vehicles is still real scary!