Malawi

Malawi has been great, except for a few problems. I'll talk about the good things first. The weather was fantastic, people were welcoming (no hit the funny tourists with rocks contest), and the cycling was amazing....while it lasted. We spent a total of 8 days enjoying solid riding through the wilds of Malawi. The tour was meant to last 18 days but was cut short by more problems with my bike. Rear rack, rear tire rim and broken hub......does anybody want to buy a bike??

Just over a week into our trip we cycled 20kms through deep bush on a very narrow, bumpy road. The reward for this treacherous haul was two nights in a wilderness camp where we were able to pitch our tent among the animals - crazy!! During the day we hired a boat to take us down the Shire river to watch all the wildlife roaming around. At night we went to sleep listening to the hippos stuffing their faces right outside our tent.

Unfortunately the trip into the camp was very hard on the bikes and that is where my rear tire-rim cracked....again. To make a long story short we couldn't find the right replacement and our tour has been cut short by 500kms. Not fun... and to be completely honest I'd rather have a donkey from Ethiopia kick me square in the goods than come all the way to Malawi and have the tour of a lifetime cut short.

Anyways, let's talk about something different. Julia, what a woman!! A few days into our trip we hit 60kms of dirt road - hard times. About 40k's in, a dog ran out in front of our bikes and we had to slam on our brakes. Julia was a bit behind me and went down hard. Immediately we were swarmed by well-to-do adolescent males weilding forearm-sized machetes. Julia keeping her cool, calmly climbed back onto her bike and kept on pedalling. Once we were away from the swarm we were able to check her over, clean up her wounds and continue on our way.

Another incident was in our hotel room at two in the morning when she woke up to use the rest room. As she was putting on her shoes she stopped and in a very relaxed and normal voice she said "Steve there is a scorpian in my shoe". WHAT!!??? I jumped out of bed and would have done the freaked-out scary dance, but because Julia kept her cool, I figured I had to as well. On top of these two incidents she has been consistantly strong and determined even during our toughest days.

We're now back in Lilongwe with a few days left before we catch our flight to Chengdu, China. With our days off we hope to find a local gym so we can keep in shape for our upcoming tour: The Himalayas....Awesome!! We'll be spending over 3 weeks cycling from Tibet to Nepal with a side trip to Everest Base Camp. We're sitting at a 50/50 with our "special" Tibetan Visa permit and hope to know for sure whether or not we can cross by the time we get to Lhasa. So I'll be holding my breath and crossing my fingers until then!

Ethiopia

Finally, a computer that works. We're in Malawi now, after spending 10 days in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia....where do I start. It was interesting, the people were friendly, countryside beautiful and the food was excellent. The kids though, were a nightmare. We planned to cycle for 8 days but were cut short to only 3 after getting constantly harassed by the village kids. Every village we went through the kids would come out screaming. Some throwing rocks, others yelling insults and some would even push our bikes or whip them with sticks. After Julia's watch and water bladder were stolen, we decided to call it quits and take a bus back to Addis.
We couldn't be too upset with the kids and do feel bad for their situation. I would be bored and upset too if I had to spend my entire childhood tending cattle 365 days a year.

On the plus side we did meet very nice people. On the bus back to Addis, we met a very nice pastor who invited us back to his house to meet his family and have a traditionally cooked meal. His wife prepared a delicous feast and his oldest daughter made us fresh coffee by actually roasting the beans right on the living room floor, it was fantastic!! In the countryside we also met another nice family who invited us into their farm for fresh milk.

With the 3 days riding we were able to break our 5000km mark and are now excited that we have a full 18 days through the wilds of Malawi, where we hope to see elephants, hippos, crocs and possibly lions. We hope everyone is having a great summer and always look forward to hearing from you. Until September....