wildside
Pack Dog
Our day wouldn't be complete without one of these off moments.
Shortly before we reached Metangula there was a turn off to the left that led us onto a narrow road which cuts through the bush to the tar road that would take us to Lichinga. At this point I was keen to go via Metangula but the other two wanted to get a move on and get to Lichinga via this shorter route.
On taking this route we realised it was a road less traveled. But despite this we actually enjoyed it...there was nothing tricky about it and eventually found a nice shady spot for a break and a snack. We saw no vehicles, villages or people along this track and it was nice and quiet.
After about 4 hrs we popped out onto the much desired tar road. We couldn’t resist opening up the throttle and accelerating towards the distance. The freedom of speed felt good....It was like a horse smelling home. From here it was another 165 kms to Lichinga. This was going to be a breeze...all on tar and a quick ride despite the occasional potholes.
We made such good time during the first 100 km or so. Then the heavens opened, dumping buckets of rain over us. Water gushed down the roads and visibility was poor, slowing us down considerably.
The rest of the rainy ride to Lichinga took forever. As we had not originally planned on stopping in this town we had no idea of accommodation availability. We sort shelter at a fuel station and Roxy found the Lichinga Hotel on Google. We punched it into the GPS and carefully following Kingsley we negotiated the traffic, pouring rain and huge puddles. When the security guard saw us approach the front door he was rather hesitant in opening up for us. Two extremely cold and saturated girls squelched their way through the clean tiled foyer leaving huge puddles of water prints marking our pathway to reception. I don’t think they were too impressed with these messy, dirty, wet and unattractive travelers. Roxy kindly sponsored our nights accommodation. We had planned to do so much more camping but due to circumstances it wasn’t always possible. While Roxy finished up at reception we took the bikes around to the back of the hotel. Leaving our luggage strapped to the bikes and lugging only our sopping backpacks we found our way up to our very spacious and comfortable room.
We hung up clothes in the empty cupboard, draped some over the windows, spread them out over the furniture and hoped that by some miracle they would be dry in the morning. Our room or place of rest always looked like a bomb had hit it....there was always stuff all over.
It was hot showers, dry clothes with toasted sarmies and chips in bed.
Shortly before we reached Metangula there was a turn off to the left that led us onto a narrow road which cuts through the bush to the tar road that would take us to Lichinga. At this point I was keen to go via Metangula but the other two wanted to get a move on and get to Lichinga via this shorter route.
On taking this route we realised it was a road less traveled. But despite this we actually enjoyed it...there was nothing tricky about it and eventually found a nice shady spot for a break and a snack. We saw no vehicles, villages or people along this track and it was nice and quiet.
After about 4 hrs we popped out onto the much desired tar road. We couldn’t resist opening up the throttle and accelerating towards the distance. The freedom of speed felt good....It was like a horse smelling home. From here it was another 165 kms to Lichinga. This was going to be a breeze...all on tar and a quick ride despite the occasional potholes.
We made such good time during the first 100 km or so. Then the heavens opened, dumping buckets of rain over us. Water gushed down the roads and visibility was poor, slowing us down considerably.
The rest of the rainy ride to Lichinga took forever. As we had not originally planned on stopping in this town we had no idea of accommodation availability. We sort shelter at a fuel station and Roxy found the Lichinga Hotel on Google. We punched it into the GPS and carefully following Kingsley we negotiated the traffic, pouring rain and huge puddles. When the security guard saw us approach the front door he was rather hesitant in opening up for us. Two extremely cold and saturated girls squelched their way through the clean tiled foyer leaving huge puddles of water prints marking our pathway to reception. I don’t think they were too impressed with these messy, dirty, wet and unattractive travelers. Roxy kindly sponsored our nights accommodation. We had planned to do so much more camping but due to circumstances it wasn’t always possible. While Roxy finished up at reception we took the bikes around to the back of the hotel. Leaving our luggage strapped to the bikes and lugging only our sopping backpacks we found our way up to our very spacious and comfortable room.
We hung up clothes in the empty cupboard, draped some over the windows, spread them out over the furniture and hoped that by some miracle they would be dry in the morning. Our room or place of rest always looked like a bomb had hit it....there was always stuff all over.
It was hot showers, dry clothes with toasted sarmies and chips in bed.
Well done!
