The Flaming Nyanja Tour - Malawi 2010 - Ride report complete !!!

[kuruman68]

A few amazing pics from my photo shooter.

 

[bmad]

Nice one guys, don't be shy, how us some more please  :biggrin: :biggrin:

 

[Misty]

Bmad... we need Day 9 till ... the end first

 

[kevin]

Africa is a colourful place...

 

[bmad]

Eish, that is a bright yellow  > >

Someone really loves his bike  :biggrin:

 

[Misty]

Now we know why he needed those big Don Johnson Shades!  O0 

 

[wooly bugger]

Eish, that is a bright yellow  > >

Someone really loves his bike  :biggrin:

almost like fokkofpolisiekar-geel!

 

[bmad]

Day 10

After an eventful evening and a surprisingly good nights rest for some of us  :biggrin: we awoke very early and the kids came by quickly to watch us pack up and get ready for the day.

The main road where we camped
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0481.JPG">

The border post
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0485.JPG">

African sky handing out breakfast while we waited for the border official to open up
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0479.JPG">

A group photo with our host - Bashir. He is a huge Chelsea supporter and his house asw ell as his brothers house are painted accordingly  :biggrin:

We had lots of company while we waited at the border post to open.
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6830.JPG">

African Sky took a fancy to photographing bicycles on this trip - so here is a collection of them from the trip. It is actually amazing what some of these guys carry on the bikes and how many of them actually walk the bike...
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6831.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6832.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6542_1715.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6708.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6716.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6717.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6718.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6719.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6720.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6721.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6722.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6723.JPG">

This guy was classic  :biggrin:
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6724.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6728.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6726.JPG">

Bike Workshop
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6836.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6837.JPG">

and of course the mad hatters cycling from the cape
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6750.JPG">

Eventually we made it through the border - which was a rather pleasant experience and set off towards Mozambique. The border was a mere 4km away.
It was quite amazing how the landscape, people and signage changes as you move into a new country. What struck me immediately was the signage, everything was in Portuguese and i felt a bit out of place and foreign to this environment!

When we got there, we were presented with this building
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6834.JPG">

This must have been a really nice border post many many years ago, but clearly long forgotten  :-[
It has now been replaced with this
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6833.JPG">

It was a bit of a mission trying to find out where to go and what to do as the border offices seemed to be the officials private houses that just had a separate dorr somewhere. And what an unfriendly bunch they were!

African Sky, supposedly "the quite one" had yet another altercation with the local policemen at the border. It was actually rather funny as we where taking pictures of the dilapidated border building when a young soldier came a long wielding his AK47 over hos shoulder and told us to stop.
African Sky was taking his time when the officer arrived at his bike and tapped his pannier with the butt of his rifle and demanded to look inside, AS aksed if he did not perhaps have something better do to do with his day and asked him to leave.
Eventually the guy got to go through his pannier and when he asked to see the other one, the response from AS was no!

We got on our bikes and left!

Eventually we got to Muturara and that famous bridge of 3.7 KM over the Zambezi.
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0506.JPG">

Once again we were faced with some young officer with a gun who wanted money to let us cross the bridge. Fortunately eSKaPe and Kuruman had a met a guy in town on his quad and he told the cop off - this was not good enough and he went in search of his superior officer to sort us out. When the superior got there, he confirmed there was no fee and accompanied us across.

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0509.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0511.JPG">

Once on the other side, our friendly superior officer promptly requested a lift to the next town 60km away on a dirt road. We said we had no space for him, but he pointed towards the KTM and said there was space there!  :biggrin:
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0512.JPG">

Once we hit the tar, the roads were great and we kept to good speeds strictly obeying the speed limit, which was a bit of an inconvenience as at the end of the day the average speed was only about 60 due to all the villages.

Once we got to Inchope, we needed to decide whereto from here as it was getting late. Beira was 140km away and appeared to be the best option at 5 in the afternoon.
The road to Beira was crap! simply crap with major potholes, tons of trucks and rather unpleasant.
We hit Beira in the smei dark and it was busy - my first impression was not a good one and i started to dislike Mozambique immediately. We eventually found a campsite near the beach and put up our tents in the wind on the beach.
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6842.JPG">

Fortunately the campsite had an awesome pub / restaurant and we had some nice beer and a good dinner.

to be continued...
   

 

[corcorlia]

Wow!! Very very nice! Well done guys!  :thumleft:

 

[g1_]

Awesome stuff!

I have to do more touring over the next couple of years!

 

[Just Blip It!]

Fantastic! :thumleft:
Subscribed. Keep it coming please!

 

[bmad]

Day 11

In my eyes, Beira was a bit of a disappointment - somehow i cannot see myself coming back here.
I was looking forward to getting to Vilancoulos as i had heard so much about it...

Sunrise in Beira
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0517.JPG">

Early morning coffee
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0519.JPG">

We hit the road and headed off to Inchope so we could get back on the EN1 and head down to Vilancoulos. Along that dreadful road we past this homemade trike
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0521.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0524.JPG">

We stopped in Inchope for fuel
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0531.JPG">

That Beira road was really bad and i recall hitting a couple of the potholes on that road. I checked my spokes to find that i had a couple loose  :
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0534.JPG">

and bought some bananas and bread on the road for breakfast
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0532.JPG">

Banana sarmies for breakfast   :biggrin:
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6851.JPG">

We paased through some small villages and across plenty of rivers. Judging by the size of the bridges and the width of the dry river beds, i would imagine that they must have a lot off water here in the wet season.
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6853.JPG">

Lots of firewood available on the side of the road
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6854.JPG">

The rest of the road was rather uneventful until we got to Vilancoulos. There was a point when dman and myself stopped and waited a while for the others as they did not seemed to be following us. When they finally arrived eSKaPe informed us that he had dropped his sunglasses and could not find them.
No worries we will get a cheap pair in town  :biggrin:

We found our camp site -  Boabab Beach resort which is a favorite of Leo and crew.
I promptly dropped my bike in the driveway on the beach sand
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0538.JPG">

and not 2 m further did it again  :biggrin: :biggrin:

We setup camp and hit the bar
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6855.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0543.JPG">

Everyone always raves about the prawns in Mozambique, so that night we all ordered prawns and chips for dinner at the resort. The chef assured us that they where big and delicious. Needless to say we were extremely disappointed when these tiny shrimps arrived, cold, with a couple of chips. After dinner we were still staving.
The barman told about a spot on the other side of town that was a popular spot and we will be sure to see some some fine young traveling ladies.

Well off we wnet and all we saw were some drunk south africans!!
We did however have some good beer and an awesome Peri Peri Chicken each. Two dinners in one night  :mwink:

On our way back to the camp, we got slightly lost. In beach sand, wearing shorts and t-shirts, it is not so easy keeping these big bikes upright all the time in narrow spaces. After lots of laughter, waking up of the neighbor hood and picking the bikes up a bit, we finally made it back to camp.

To be continued...

 

[bmad]

Day 12

We had another rest day due, but somehow Vilancoulos did not seem to be the place to spend it, so we decided to move on to Xai Xai and have a rest day there.

The beach at Vilancoulos
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0547.JPG">

Dman getting friendly with the local pup
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0544.JPG">

eSKaPe was still without sunglasses and most of the shops in town where closed when we left. So we headed up to the main road as there were some stall there and he hoped to get lucky.
After asking one of the locals if they had sunglasses, the disappeared into a nearby house and came out with some serious second hand stuff, noting seemed to please eSKaPe  >. The next minute this guys runs into the road and stops the next bakkie coming down the road. He whips the guys sunglasses off his face and hands them over to eSKaPe. They fit  :biggrin: :biggrin:
And so Don Johnson joined our group, man he looked so smooth  :mwink:

 


On our way down we passed the Tropic of Capricorn
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0557.JPG">
I wanted this picture as myself, eSKaPe and African sky did Namibia together and we have the same pic on the other side of the continent! I realised when i got home and went through our pictures, that we did not take a group photo here  :

The road down to Xai Xai was not exactly in good condition and we had heard rumors of cars stuck in the mud and rain coming down like never before, so we were a bit worried about the road conditions.
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0554.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6876.JPG">

When we got to Xai Xai, we turned off and headed down to the coast to look for a spot. Prior to the trip and sent out a couple of pictures of the idyllic Xai Xai and that is what we were looking for. The camping facilities all along the coast line were in terrible condition and we were not impressed at all. Mozambique was turning out to be a dump and by far the most unpleasant part of the trip.
The beach road we were on was great entertainmnet though as well ended up dropping out bikes, except for Dman on his KLR  O0
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0566.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0565.JPG">

It was getting late, so we had to make a decision on what to do. We decided to head down to Beline.
According to the GPS it was 65km as the crow flies, by road it was just over 145km away   Off we went and finally arrived in Beline after dark once again.
The spot we had selected on the GPS to go and camp at did not look too kosher, so we stopped at some other place, advised us they were full but said we should try Complexo Palmeries down the road. What a gem of a place.

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0569.JPG">

Camping was cheap and we had the whole place to ourselves  :biggrin:
After pitching our tents and a pleasant warm shower. we headed off to dinner and a good nights rest.

To be continued...
 
 

 

[popipants]

I agree with your sentiments on Moz. I was very disappointed as well. The place is really run down and neglected.
It is a real dump if you compare it to Malawi!

Great report report!

 

[bmad]

Day 13

This day was going to be our off day before our final day to head on home. We had been in the saddle now for a number of days and we needed a rest. Beline was the perfect place to take that rest day. My feelings towards Mozambique were changing and i think i had now found the paradise that is Mozambique  :biggrin:

The beach by our camp
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6879.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6886.JPG">

We took a drive through town and looked for a spot to have breakfast, along the way we stopped to do some shopping..
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0571.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6897.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0576.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0590.JPG">

After breakfast we went to the local market to get some prawns and fish for dinner that night.
We ordered a pot of rice, bought a big fish and placed an order for 3kg of prawns for our dinner. I then hit the market to buy some fresh veg and other stuff so i could make a hearty paella for dinner.

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0584.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0587.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0588.JPG">

While we were in the market, one of the locals overheard eSKaPe saying that he wanted to go and ski on the lagoon. Quickly the guy told us he had a boat and would meet us at the resort to pick us up and take us out  :biggrin:

We negotiated price, bought some beer and waited for the speedboat to arrive to take us out...

Lo and behold, the speedboat did not arrive, but he took us out in this other thing  :
No steering wheel, but it did have two motors, but only one worked  :biggrin:
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6901.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6903.JPG">

Steering was manual and after a very long haul we got to the mouth of the estuary. Here we took a long walk up the beach to Turtle Bay. At turtle bay they have about 8 leatherback turtles.
The view down was amazing and unfortunately the pictures do it no justice. The entire coastline is protected and there is no building allowed which results in a beautiful unspoilt coastline as far as the eye can see.
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0595.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/_MG_6919.JPG">

That evening we had an awesome dinner to end off the trip and ht the sack early for a long last day in the saddle.
<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0604.JPG">

<img src="https://usera.ImageCave.com/bmad001/IMG_0602.JPG">


:ricky:
............................


Day 14

We headed home...  :'(

 

[Pistol]

Looks like I missed out on a lovely last supper there!!!!

 

[bmad]

I did not keep any records of distance, fuel costs, etc, but i know that the others guys did.

If i am not mistaken we did around 5 800km in total.
In general the cost of camping was cheap and in line with what we had budgeted. Fuel was expensive in Zambia!
I budgeted R10 000 for the trip and i got home with $30 to spare.  :biggrin:


All in all this was definitely an experience of a lifetime and a trip very worthwhile doing.
Lake Malawi and Vic Falls will definitely see me again, hopefully soon.

Thanks to the crew that joined, it was great and a pleasure to have shared this experience with you.

Looking forward to the next one...                        ... namaste, main wahan kaiseh jaun Himalayas? 

:ricky:

 

[kevin]

Last few from me…

Trusty Garmin, it never failed us!

Stunning

And more beer

Last eve of the trip… mixed feelings, not ready to go home, but cant wait to get there either

Bearing gifts

Back in SA, I detoured to the Limpopo Bash the Friday to meet up with Misty

 

[KAT-WP]

eSKape, that smile at the end says it all ;D

lekka trip & RR guys!!!!

 

[corcorlia]

Excellent!  ;D :thumleft: