Day 7 : Take 2
All seems good with the new back bearing and I pass the spot where I broke down the day before, HAPPINESS !! Its new years eve tonight and I want to be skinny dipping in Lake Malawi at about 3 in the morn. A few k’s later the front end goes wobbly and I have a puncture, but no stress, I pull out a tyreweld and inflate the tube as some locals watch in anticipation, but alas, the tube is flat again in a minute so I haul out my tools and a sad looking puncture repair kit from my cycling days with only a self adhesive patch, 1 small patch and some super glue that I put in the night before I left because the special glue was finished. Myself and some locals fix the puncture, I organize someone to get a bicycle pump because I don’t have a pump ( I tried to buy one but all where sold out and no stock a few days before xmas ) and the puncture is fixed and I’m on the road again.
Road to Lundazi take 2
Fixing my 1st puncture
30k’s later I have another puncture, take out the tube and the 1st patch has come off, luckily everyone rides a bicycle in Zambia so I buy some patches and proper glue from a little shop and with a puncture repair team of note helping me I’m off in no time. I meet up with the truck driver in Lundazi, where there is no fuel, get my fuel, refuel and strap about 13 l’s to my bike for Malawi. Things are looking up, I cross the border to Malawi and start riding on a really cool little dirt road, this is special !!
Fixing my 2nd puncture
Refueling in Lundazi as well as strapping 2 x 5l's of petrol onto my bike for Malawi
My truck driver friend, he really helped me out
As you get into Malawi
Some puddles
I then get a 3rd puncture, same patch off again, fix it, ride on dirt roads which become little rivers in torrential rain, eventually hit the tar road, sun is out and not to far to Kande Beach … Then a 4th puncture, patches always come off, fix it but cant inflate tyre fully with truck compresser, so try and ride slowly the 15k’s to a petrol station at Mzuzu but tyre is flat again after 5k’s … Its now pretty much dark on new years eve in the middle of Malawi, not ideal … I now ride on a flat wheel to a permanent police roadblock about 2k’s down the road, unload my bike, ask the cops to watch it over night and catch a ride with a local family to Mzuzu from where I want to catch a minibus to Nkatha Bay for New years. In the car I start thinking that going to Nkatha Bay is not a great idea, im going to wake up with a babalaas and only find my way back to my bike pretty late the next morn, so I ask the family if I can pitch my tent in their garden, they agree and actually insist that I sleep in the kids bed and make a lekker meal of fish, pap and gravy. What a special, kind hearted family, I buy some beers and we have a chilled night, not what I planned for new years, but definitely a new years eve I’ll never forget !!
3rd Puncture
Roads becoming rivers
Slipped off the road
Happy to see tar and sunshine
4th puncture
Malawian family's house
